Click here to watch EDA Senior Vice President of Finance & Development Tim Lizura’s interview with ABC-7 about EDA’s available financing to small businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

By Ed Beeson/Star-Ledger
November 4, 2011

It may take a small bank to lend to a small business.

A study of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data finds that many of New Jersey’s smallest banks devote the largest portion of their deposits to making small-business loans.

The study by Pennsylvania-based lending advisory firm MultiFunding examined data for 78 banks based in New Jersey with deposits greater than $100 million. Using quarterly reports filed with the FDIC at the end of June, the study compared deposits to outstanding small-business and small-farm loans of $1 million or less.

At the top of the list was Heritage Community Bank in Randolph. Its small-business loans accounted for nearly 60 percent, $77.8 million, of its $130.8 million in deposits. Cornerstone Bank in Moorestown was second, with $176.1 million in small-business loans for its $321.2 million in deposits, a nearly 55 percent ratio.

Rounding out the top-five were BankAsiana of Palisades Park, with about 50 percent of its $140.2 million in deposits in small-business loans; Indus American Bank of Iselin, at 41 percent of its $160.3 million; and Highlands State Bank in Vernon, with 40 percent of its $141.5 million in deposits.

Savings banks dominated the bottom of the list, as they tend to offer less in the way of business banking.

Also low-ranked were some of New Jersey’s largest commercial banks. The Provident Bank of Jersey City made $368 million in small-business loans for its $5 billion on deposit, or 7.3 percent. Amboy Bank of Old Bridge lent $75.9 million for its $1.7 billion on deposit, or 4.4 percent. Investors Bank in Short Hills, a savings bank that is transitioning to a commercial bank, made $170.7 million in loans for its $6.9 billion in deposits, or 2.5 percent.

Only three of the top-20 ranked banks had more than $500 million in deposits.

Show of commitment

Ami Kassar, chief executive of MultiFunding, said the study provides a snapshot of “who’s committed to small-business lending” in the state. Small businesses have trouble securing loans often because they lack collateral or have poor bookkeeping, Kassar said, but smaller banks tend to more willing, or less constrained, than big banks to work with these businesses.

“We find from our experience much more flexibility and creativity at the smaller banks,” he said.

John McWeeney, president of the New Jersey Bankers Association, said it was not suprising to see small community banks dominating the list of small-business lenders. But he disagreed with the notion that the ranking is somehow a measure of a bank’s overall commitment to small-business lending.

“With larger institutions, they have to be cautious. There has to be some diversification for risk purposes,” he said.

Some large community banks are significant lenders to the smallest business, McWeeney noted. Valley National Bank of Wayne, which reported $9.8 billion in deposits, also reported just over $1 billion in small-business loans. “As a percentage of overall deposits, that may be not be as high. But they also play a very vital role in small-business lending,” he said.

Federal data also shows that big banks extend a great number of loans backed by the Small Business Administration to New Jersey companies. JPMorgan Chase issued 153 such loans during fiscal 2011, amounting to nearly $23 million. TD Bank came in second at 107 loans totalling more than $24 million, according to the SBA. The loans account for a fraction of small-business lending.

McWeeney also said lending volumes are down not because banks are unwilling to lend, but because demand is low since small-business owners lack confidence in the economy, he said.

Key to economy

Boosting small-business lending is seen as a central part for reigniting the economy, but efforts so far have faltered. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Small Business Lending Fund was criticized after it disbursed only $4 billion of the $30 billion appropriated to community banks, many of which used the funds to pay back their Troubled Asset Recovery Program loans.

Peter Kenny, president and CEO of Heritage Community Bank, said he was surprised to top the list of small-business lenders, although the sector is his bank’s bread and butter. “What we have found in the small-business arena is that we compete very well against the Wells Fargos,” he said.

Jasbir Chopra, president of the Indus American Bank, said his bank’s focus on the South Asian community makes it primarily a lender to small businesses, from gas stations to doctor’s offices. “Because we are targeting a certain niche, we can be more appreciative of their needs,” he said.

Other banks said they make more small-business loans than numbers would indicate. The Provident Bank classifies commercial loans under $3 million as small-business loans, of which it has roughly $525 million on its books, said Steve Guidette, senior vice president of business banking and lending. Rich Spengler, chief lending officer at Investors Bank, noted that the bank still is relatively new to commercial banking and lending, so it has fewer legacy assets on its balance sheet, although it is attempting to grow the business.

Trenton, NJ (November 1, 2011) – Sustainable Jersey announced today its 2011/2012 Board of Trustees led by Chairperson, Pam Mount, who is a Lawrence Township Councilwoman and the former Chair of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities’ Mayors’ Committee for a Green Future.  The newly formed Board includes New Jersey’s most accomplished leaders in municipal governance and sustainability, including mayors, sustainability experts, accomplished scholars, corporate leaders and innovators.   

“We are extremely fortunate to have such talented people join Sustainable Jersey,” said Donna Drewes, Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance at the Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey and Sustainable Jersey founding partner.  “Each Trustee brings extensive experience and his/her leadership is something that will be an invaluable asset as Sustainable Jersey strives to expand its reach across New Jersey to support every town that pursues a comprehensive sustainability program through our municipal certification program.” 

In just over two years, Sustainable Jersey’s 350 participating communities now represent over half of the state’s municipalities and nearly 75 percent of its population.  Due to its rapid success, representatives of Sustainable Jersey are strengthening the organization with the addition of the Board of Trustees as it evolves from a partnership into a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.   

The 2011/2012 Sustainable Jersey Board of Trustees includes:

• Clint Andrews, Professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University

• Roland Anglin, Ph.D., Executive Director, Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT), Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University

• Ana Baptista, Director of Environmental and Planning Programs, Ironbound Community Corp.

• Chris Bollwage, Mayor, City of Elizabeth (Union County)

• Richard Dovey, President, Atlantic County Utilities Authority

• Caroline Ehrlich, Chief of Staff, Woodbridge Township

• Richard Fair, Director, Master of Government Accountancy Program, Rutgers University

• James Florio, Former Governor; Senior Partner at Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Fader

• Maureen Hassett, Senior Vice President, Govt. and Communications, Economic Development Authority

• Mary Anna Holden, Mayor, Madison Borough (Morris County)

• Anne Hoskins, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Sustainability, PSEG Service Corp.

• Jane Kenny, Managing Partner, The Whitman Strategy Group

• Pam Mount, Councilwoman and former mayor, Lawrence Township (Mercer County)

• Anne-Marie Peracchio, Director, Conservation and Clean Energy Policy, New Jersey Natural Gas

• Ellen Pompper, Mayor, Lower Alloways Creek (Salem County)

• Ex-Officio: William Dressel, Executive Director, New Jersey State League of Municipalities

• Ex-Officio: Michele Siekerka, Assistant Commissioner, Economic Growth and Green Energy New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

• Ex-Officio: Gary Finger, Ombudsperson, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities 

The Board of Trustees will be recognized at the annual Sustainable Jersey awards luncheon on Tuesday, November 15 at the New Jersey League of Municipalities’ conference in Atlantic City. The key note speakers will include James Florio, the former New Jersey Governor and Trustee of the Sustainable Jersey Board of Trustees and project partners Joseph Fiordaliso, Commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and Michele Siekerka, Assistant Commissioner, Economic Growth and Green Energy, at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 

About Sustainable Jersey

Sustainable Jersey is a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey.  Launched in 2009, Sustainable Jersey is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports community efforts to reduce waste, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve environmental equity. Sustainable Jersey is empowering New Jersey towns to build a better world for future generations.  It provides tools, training and financial incentives to support and reward communities as they pursue sustainability programs.  New Jersey is the first state in the nation to have a comprehensive sustainability program for communities that links certification with strong state and private financial incentives, and a fully resourced program of technical support and training.  Sustainable Jersey is 100% voluntary and each town can choose whether it wants to get certified and the actions it wants to do in order to achieve enough points to get certified.  

Currently, 62 percent of New Jersey’s towns and cities (350 towns across all 21 counties) have registered to become Sustainable Jersey certified.  The program has distributed over half a million dollars to New Jersey communities to support an estimated 1,500 actions taken “on the ground” to make communities more livable, environmentally friendly and prosperous.  Nearly 75 percent of New Jersey’s population lives in registered/ certified Sustainable Jersey communities. 

Sustainable Jersey’s partners include the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, the Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).  The policies and other substantive contents of the program are developed though a transparent participatory process involving NGOs, academics, government, and the business community.  Program sponsors include the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, BPU, PSEG, New Jersey Natural Gas, Church and Dwight, Covanta Energy, EcoMatters, New Jersey American Water, Real Goods Solar, South Jersey Gas, Terhune Orchards, Waste Management of New Jersey, Atlantic City Electric, Citizens Campaign, Concord Engineering and the New Jersey Food Council.

By Richard Newman/The Record
October 30, 2011

When Michelle Y. Lee, Wells Fargo’s re­gional president for retail and business banking in New Jersey, New York and Con­necticut, was growing up in Newark, she wanted to be an opera singer. She went to the Boston Conservatory of Music and grad­uated in the early 1980s with a degree in Music and Applied Voice.

Then Lee got what was supposed to be a temporary job as a teller at First National State Bank in Newark. She never left bank­ing, where she rose quickly through the ranks, survived more than half a dozen mergers and oversees 460 branches, nine business banking teams and 4,800 employ­ees.

“I needed a job but I had no intention of being here 28 years later,” said Lee, one of 32 Wells Fargo executives on a Top Women in Banking team recognized recently by the trade publication American Banker.

Lee and her executive women teammates — including Lucia DiNapoli Gibbons, north­ern New Jersey regional president, and Brenda Ross-Dulan, regional president for southern New Jersey — are proof that bank management is not as much of a man’s world as it was a few decades ago.

Yet for many reasons, women remain un­derrepresented at the very top in banking. Even at Wells Fargo, with an acclaimed di­versity program, only four women serve on a 14-member board of directors. Only one of the company’s highest-paid managers — Carrie Tolstedt, senior executive vice presi­dent of community banking — is a woman.

“There is a long way to go, but diversity is something our company is focused on,” Lee said.

According to research published in June by Catalyst Inc., a New York City-based non-profit think tank focused on expanding business opportunities for women, more than 55 percent of the workforce at U.S. fi­nancial companies in the Fortune 500 are women. But fewer than 17 percent of the board members and executive officers are women. And fewer than 3 percent of the chief executive officers at those companies are women.

Rutgers University’s Institute for Women’s Leadership did research this year on 118 banks that belong to the New Jersey Bankers Association and found only five had female CEOs and only seven had women as chief operating offi­cers. In an analysis that included 79 of those banks, Rutgers found 71 women and 650 men serving on the boards and nearly a quar­ter of the banks had all-male boards.

‘Progress so very slow’

Similarly, an analysis by The Record of proxy filings from the 10 publicly traded regional and community banks based in North Jersey found only about 11 percent of the board members and 6 percent of the top earners were women.

Lisa Hetfield, associate director and director of development for the Institute for Women’s Leader­ship, said women have made great strides toward workplace equality and now comprise a majority of middle managers across all indus­tries.

“There is progress broadly,” she said. “But the question is: Why is the progress so very slow for women to get to the top lev­els of executive leadership and decision-making?”

The usual answer, that they’d rather stay home with the kids than command a conference room, is insufficient.

“Women continue to have a disproportionate responsibility for family life, whether it’s elder care or child care, but the re­search points to more than that,” Hetfield said.

Hetfield said studies of the fi­nance sector show women lack access to informal networks where men make connections leading to promotion and women role models in the exec­utive suites are still in short sup­ply. Also, she said research has shown that women are often evaluated based on their per­formance while men are graded on potential. “So we are more likely to give a rising male leader the benefit of the doubt than we are a rising woman leader with the same experience,” she said. “Unconsciously we are thinking about leadership in a way that fa­vors men.”

“Certain assumptions make women seem good for some po­sitions and not others,” she said. “It’s important to break down those assumptions and look more objectively at how we eval­uate potential,” she said.

Women in high places

Two of the 10 banks examined by The Record, 100-year-old Oritani Financial Corp. and Kearny Financial Corp., had no women on their boards and none among their top five earn­ers.

Oritani CEO Kevin Lynch is quick to point out that the com­pany does have women senior vice presidents in charge of the bank’s human resources and reg­ulatory compliance departments and “quite a few” in middle man­agement.

“We certainly don’t discrimi­nate. We have a very small, six­member board and we have nev­er been presented with an oppor­tunity to have a lady on the board,” he said.

Eight of the 10 banks The Record looked at had no women among their top five earners. Clifton Savings Bancorp had one among its top five earners. Mid­land Park-based Stewardship Fi­nancial Corp., holding company for Atlantic Stewardship Bank, had two.

Paul Van Ostenbridge, CEO at Stewardship Financial, said that of the bank’s 155 full-time employees 101, or 65 percent, and about half of the managers are women.

“It’s critical from our perspec­tive to have senior-level repre­sentation that reflects the make­up of the bank,” Van Osten­bridge said. The bank did not set out to hire women for those senior ex­ecutive spots.

An example for others

“We were looking for the most qualified individuals,” he said.

Lakeland Bancorp, based in Oak Ridge, recently elevated Mary Ann Deacon, secretary and treasurer of Deacon Homes in Sparta, to chairwoman from vice chairwoman after 16 years on the board.

Being elected chairwoman was “probably one of the great­est honors of my life,” she said.

Two of the bank’s founding fathers had recruited her in 1995 to replace a retiring board mem­ber, and were seeking “a woman’s perspective,” Deacon said. “They are smart business­men and they knew they needed smart businesswomen as well,” she said.

“In banking, the support staff, your tellers, your platform peo­ple, your vice presidents have been women for many, many years. The bank’s founders knew they had good staff and they wanted to bring that type of in­fluence onto the board,” she said.

Deacon said she has led five monthly board meetings so far.

“I see a new enthusiasm among the bank’s women staff members. They see that it can happen and they think, ‘I can make it to the top as well.’ ”

TRENTON, N.J. (Oct. 27, 2011) – As part of the Christie Administration’s ongoing effort to support small business growth and community investment, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) has strengthened the Loan to Lenders component of its Fund for Community Economic Development (FCED) to benefit microlenders, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZs) that have a successful lending track record in their local communities.  The program enhancements increase the amount of available funding, improve loan terms and expand the use of funds to include lines of credit. 

The FCED was created in 1997 through a partnership between the EDA, the State, and public utility companies PSEG and FirstEnergy to provide a source of flexible financing to support urban community development, revitalize local economies, and provide employment for urban residents. 

“The Christie Administration has made supporting small business development and community investment a top priority through regulatory reforms, critical tax policy changes and funding assistance,” said EDA Chief Executive Officer Caren S. Franzini.  “By strengthening the lending capacity of microlenders and other financial intermediary organizations through the Fund for Community Economic Development, we will be able to assist even more small, women and minority-owned enterprises across the state and reach deeper into New Jersey’s underserved communities.”

The Loan to Lenders component of the FCED makes capital available to microlenders and other financial intermediary organizations that can effectively reach small businesses in local markets.  Under the enhanced parameters of the program, organizations with a successful EDA history will now be able to qualify for up to $750,000, an increase of $250,000 from what was previously available; new borrowers may qualify for up to $500,000. The loan term has been extended to 15 years, with interest-only payments for up to five years. Previously, terms were available for up to ten years, with interest-only payments for up to three years. Based on current marketplace needs, the use of funds has also been expanded to include lines of credit.  In order to provide meaningful funding to the microlenders, CDFIs and UEZs, the EDA has also recapitalized the funding available under the Loan to Lenders component of the program.  The $5 million commitment includes $2 million from the current FCED and $3 million from the recent State Small Business Credit Initiative allocation.  

Through the FCED, the EDA also provides predevelopment assistance and permanent financing to support urban community development.  Up to $50,000 is available to local groups to finance feasibility studies and other predevelopment costs to determine the viability of a real estate project.  Additionally, loans of up to $1.25 million are available to fill financing gaps in the development of community facilities and other real estate-based economic development projects.  Since its inception, the FCED has provided over $20 million to microlenders and community development projects.  PSEG has committed $5 million to support the program, and FirstEnergy has committed $1 million. 

For additional information on changes to the FCED, visit https://www.njeda.gov/fced.  To learn more about opportunities for business growth throughout New Jersey, visit the state’s business portal at www.NewJerseyBusiness.gov.

By Phil Gregory/WHYY Newsworks
October 27, 2011

Business owners in New Jersey say they are more optimistic about the future.

Seventy percent of the business executives surveyed by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce expect their companies’ business will improve over the next 12 months.

Almost all of the executives said they plan to maintain or add to their workforce, said Tom Bracken, chamber president.

“They feel that their companies are going to improve and they feel revenues are going to increase because what drives staff increases is usually improvement in revenues,” he said Thursday.

Bracken said the pro-business agenda of the Gov. Chris Christie administration is helping to improve companies’ confidence about future gains.

The executives polled said their biggest challenges are attracting new customers and dealing with the cost of their employees’ health insurance and benefits.

By Melinda Caliendo/NJBIZ
October 25, 2011

The mood was decidedly optimistic at the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook Breakfast this morning.

“People in the state of New Jersey are hoping things get better — the people here want this state to improve,” said Tom Bracken, president and CEO. “Hearing other people talk about what we heard today, which is optimistic, I think that will spur them on to look at expanding their companies, hiring some new people and I think that’s very positive. People feed on good news.”


The business owners and managers at the event, held at Edison’s Pines Manor, took part in an informal survey sponsored by the chamber and Sovereign Bank to take the economic pulse of the state, compared to national sentiment. Participants said they expected both the national and state economies will be in better shape 12 months from now, and 65 percent of chamber members who voted said New Jersey’s economy is moderately or greatly improved since Gov. Chris Christie took office.


When asked about their individual businesses, 70 percent of respondents in the room said they anticipate seeing improvement in their business over the next 12 months, while 55 percent indicated they are planning to increase hiring during the same period.


The crowd ranked property taxes as the top challenge facing the state, while survey administrator Lawrence Delp, market director for corporate banking with Sovereign Bank, noted that the crowd’s concern with crime and corruption in the state was decidedly less than other markets participating in similar surveys.


After the survey, a panel discussion and question and answer forum was held, which turned into a debate on the effectiveness of government incentives for business. Emil Solimine, president and CEO of Spiniello Cos., and Kevin Welsh, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis, went back and forth over the virtues of incentives like the Urban Transit Hub tax credit program.


Welsh said incentives drove Panasonic Corp. to relocate its headquarters to Newark, rather than leaving the state altogether, but Solimine countered that the deal interfered with private enterprise “on the backs of the taxpayers and the government.”


“That’s what people want — to hear people talk about things with passion and commitment — and we got that from them,” Bracken said.


Other topics covered on the panel included actions Christie could take to further the state’s image as a business-friendly location. John Macrae, principal with J.H. Cohn’s consulting group, advised the governor “really stimulate confidence in everything he does.”


“If we’re talking magic wand, I think forced municipal mergers would be fabulous, and I think it would be great if our state’s regulatory agencies adopted federal standards as opposed to our own unique, and usually more strict, rules,” said Jeffrey Scheininger, president of Flexline/U.S. Brass & Copper Corp. and chamber chairman

By Bob Makin/myCentralJersey.com
October 25, 2011

CENTRAL JERSEY — New Brunswick increasingly is a tale of two cities: development and opportunity for some, employment challenges and other economic hurdles for others.

While reporters for Rutgers University’s Daily Targum, Rohan Mathew and Joe Shure witnessed this disparity first-hand and decided that their experience and family background in small business might help.

Three years ago, while still students, the noble pair launched the Intersect Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides business mentorship, micro-loans, tax services and vending opportunities to low-income entrepreneurs. Clients from throughout Central Jersey include the working poor and the unemployed, many of whom recently were downsized from corporate jobs.

Among 250 clients is Amatullah Jabriel-Lewis, owner of Sweet Spice & Honey, an artisan bakery that operates a wholesale and vendor operation out of South Bound Brook. A Highland Park resident, Jabriel-Lewis turned to Intersect Fund last year after being downsized in 2009 from a pharmaceutical conglomerate.

“I was having a pity party about not being in work,” she said. “I said forgive me for feeling that the only way that I can get paid is to sit in somebody’s office and have them write me a check as opposed to creating my own sustainability.

“The first time I sold my bread, I made $48. That was the best $48 of my life. I felt so rich. I never want to be in a position again where I can give that kind of power over to another person to pay my bills and then let me go at will.”

Jabriel-Lewis doesn’t have a retail space yet, but she recently expanded her wholesale accounts to include the Whole Foods organic supermarket chain and Dean’s Natural Markets.

She also paved the way for several of her fellow Intersect Fund graduates — including Jams By Kim, Go Granola and SkinArise — establish a business relationship with Whole Foods.

“She’s the deal maker,” said Kim Osterhoudt, owner of the Hillsborough-based Jams By Kim.

Osterhoudt said that because their jams and bread go so well together, she and Jabriel-Lewis often vend their wares together or for each other. They will sell side by side at the Intersect Fund’s Gourmet Food & Art Expo. Featuring 20 of Central Jersey’s top emerging gourmet food and pastry entrepreneurs and restaurants, the expo will take place on Nov. 10 at Lotus Studios in Highland Park.

Last week, the Intersect Fund conducted its second annual Entrepreneur Showcase at Lotus Studios, where Osterhoudt was named Intersect Fund’s Entrepreneur of the Year because of her inspiring story, Shure said.

“After the company for which Osterhoudt worked forced her into early retirement, she gave up a fruitless job search to make her own line of artisan jams,” he said. “She’d been making them since childhood from a recipe she received from her grandmother.

“Since starting her business in 2009, Osterhoudt has set up shop at dozens of farmers markets and church fairs. She’s even sold jam from a table at the Whole Foods Market in Princeton. Her sales figures are impressive, especially for a first-time entrepreneur. Her story shows wary would-be entrepreneurs that talent, drive and tenacity can build a successful business, even in bleak economic times.”

Seven other graduates of the Intersect Fund’s Entrepreneur University pedaled their wares at the showcase:

• Frank’s Pickled Peppers, an award-winning preserver of relish, salsa and peppers in the Dayton section of South Brunswick;

• GoGranola, a Central Jersey-based company that sells bags of healthy snacks;

• SkinArise, a Metuchen-based retailer of natural body-scrub oils;

• Karmic Stone, inspirational stones custom designed by a former architect from Hopewell;

• The Lounge Society, a New Brunswick vendor of soaps, perfume oils, jewelry and incense;

• d.Saks, a Bridgewater distributor of 100 percent cotton bags handcrafted by impoverished women in Paraguay

Founder Delicia D. Alarcon launched d.Saks in 2009 while a junior at Bridgewater-Raritan High School. Now studying psychology and Spanish in her sophomore year at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., Alarcon wants to expand the social impact of her company beyond the Paraguayan crafts she distributes. For every d.Sak that is purchased, she plans to donate one filled with school supplies to their Paraguayan crafters’ children.

For her efforts, Alarcon won Intersect Fund’s Social Impact Award.

“We get these great, colorful bags,” Shure said, “and the women who make them get a good source of income, can educate their kids and live better lives, all because Delicia had a great idea for a business.”

Several other Entrepreneur University graduates were at the showcase as caterers with the Promise Culinary School, a division of Elijah’s Promise Inc., a nonprofit community kitchen and resource center in New Brunswick. Pearl Thompson, the culinary school’s director, said about 50 of her students have worked with the Intersect Fund.

After receiving training to launch her side business as a personal chef, Thompson said, she has recommended the Intersect Fund to about 200 culinary students over two years.

“The Intersect Fund is giving people the ability to chart their own future, to become a brand and a product line,” Thompson said. “I’ve been with them since the beginning. They’re passionate and dedicated. They help people navigate the whole entrepreneurial collage. They do incredible stuff. I am totally impressed by them.

“It’s hard to go out on a limb on your own and not really understand what it takes to get a business going. They give you that cushion, that support to make it happen.”

Thompson said she applauds people like Jabriel-Lewis and Osterhoudt, who parlayed economic adversity into opportunity.

In these trying economic times, the unemployed either can feel for themselves or attempt to make their dreams come true, she said.

“We’re at a new phase in life,” Thompson said. “In the times that we live in, people are getting a second wind and doing what their dreams have been. The Intersect Fund has given those people the impetus to do that.”

Micro managing

During the Intersect Fund’s first year, it processed just one micro-loan — a small, short-term loan provided to small businesses and nonprofits. Since then, it has disbursed about 80 loans, totaling $90,000, to business owners seeking to purchase things, such as a hot dog cart, a new set of tires or a truck, Shure said.

The trouble with low-income entrepreneurs is that while they possess great vision and talent, they lack money for equipment, Shure said. Bank loans are out of reach, he said, as is a sufficient understanding of bookkeeping. A lack of cash flow hinders profitability, he said.

To launch its loan-fund and business-training class as a remedy, Shure and Mathew raised money from local banks and churches, which also provided space to get the program off the ground.

“We hosted business-training classes in church basements and developed a loan-underwriting process with the help of Rutgers Business School students,” Shure said.

The city of New Brunswick also invested in the Intersect Fund, spokesman Bill Bray said. This year, the City Council approved a $60,000 grant that financed a full-time position for a Spanish program coordinator.

Formerly a volunteer with the Intersect Fund, Luis De La Hoz’s vast experience as a banker has boosted the micro-loan program, Shure said. In appreciation, De La Hoz was honored with the Intersect Fund’s Change-maker Award.

“Luis is a huge community fixture,” Shure said. “We’re really happy that he’s working with us.”

Among the 30 guests at the showcase was Harry D. Menta, a spokesman with the U.S. Small Business Association, a federal provider of micro-loans and other business loans.

Menta said he was confident that the SBA eventually was going to help the Intersect Fund expand its micro-loan program to lend to more low-income entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s phenomenal that they’re out there in the community,” Menta said. “I love their energy.”

Helping with the loan applications is student volunteer Ena Kumar, a graduate student with Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. The Intersect Fund’s small full-time staff also includes Vanessa Carter, who runs the Campus Microfinance Alliance, a group that helps college students form groups similar to the Intersect Fund.

Return on investment

Shure said that most of what he and Mathews know about business came from many family members who own one.

He said he also studied as much as he could and interviewed several successful entrepreneurs.

“A big part of my job is taking all the business information that’s out there and synthesizing it into something our clients can use,” Shure said.

Mathew often relays his business experience as the owner of a Web-design business he founded in high school. He also worked as a summer intern at a Wall Street investment bank while in college.

Bray said he was glad to see that the city’s investment in the Intersect Fund is paying off.

“The Intersect Fund thinks about things like unit cost in marketing … the less glamorous side of business but equally as important,” Bray said. “It’s a keystone to bridging success from someone in their home dreaming of opening a business and actually starting and sustaining it. A growing list of people they’ve worked with continue to succeed. A lot of those people are from New Brunswick or operating a business in New Brunswick, so there is economic activity here. The investment we made in working with them has been compounded and helps the overall city economically.”