We have two reasons to have heavy hearts today: the passing of San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and the fires in Southern California. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the mayor’s family and to everyone who is affected by the wildfires.
In this Must Know…
- Annual Micro Census Results
- AEO Annual Meeting is on April 30-May 2 in Detroit
- Take Action: Tax Reform, Appropriations (see last week’s Must Know for direction. The late breaking news on net neutrality is that it’s no more.)
- Give Your Org the Gift of Membership: Gift your organization a year of training, advocacy and connections – renew your membership or join us!!
- Register for the Microlenders Forum on February 13, 2018 in San Francisco.
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight is a new website from board member Boku Kodama that he hopes will be useful to other CAMEO members – Entrepreneurs Education Initiative.
Annual Micro Census Results
Since 2007, CAMEO members have served over 175,000 businesses supporting 320,000 employees, and helped create or retain 146,000 jobs. Our members have made more than 20,000 loans worth more than $260 million. For 2016 (yes, there’s a time lag), microlending continues to be the bright spot for our sector. The number of loans increased by 15% from 2015 to 2016 with our members making 3,681 loans, for a total volume of $49.6 million. That’s up from 2015 with 3,184 loans that totaled $48.9 million. Lending is up by 134% over 2012.
Other highlights include:
- 18,887 clients and 15,545 business served
- 31,840 jobs supported
- 26,560 individuals received 159,486 hours of technical assistance or training
- 73% of clients served were low-to-moderate income
Download the 2016 Annual Micro Census.
AEO Annual Meeting is on April 30-May 2 in Detroit
Moving Main Street Forward is the premier microbusiness and microfinance conference in the U.S., and a must-attend event for professionals providing capital, technical assistance and other forms of trusted guidance to Main Street and microbusiness owners. The agenda will be packed with inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking plenaries and compelling breakout sessions designed to engage attendees in bold and provocative conversations on using inclusion, innovation and investment to move Main Streets across the country forward.
For a limited time, you can register at the Early Bird rate of $350!
You have one week left to apply for a Moving Main Street Forward scholarship! Applications are due December 20, 2017.
The Goodies
New opportunities for training, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!
New Resource: Board member Boku Kodama has a new website that he hopes will be useful to other CAMEO members – Entrepreneurs Education Initiative.
Member in the News: AEO President Connie Evans talks taxes in Forbes: “Small Businesses Have Evolved Since 1986 but the Tax Code Has Not — Congress Needs to Fix That, Now”.
New Tool: Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost to Support a Family in California?
LivePlan Discount: We featured LivePlan’s online business management tool at our annual meeting this year. They are offering a special End of Year LivePlan promotion for new LivePlan implementations. Email Justin Hardersen for more on the discount and setting up the product. The offer expires December 31, 2017.
New Resource: CAMEO member CAPBuilders released “Peer Learning Community Programs: Cost-Effective Capacity Building for Nonprofits AND Your Clients.” For more information, contact Catherine Marshall.
For Your Clients: Curious about the process to start a legal cannabis business in California? Learn about capital raising, entity formation and compliance for the California cannabis industry with Cutting Edge Capital’s latest webinar.
For Your Clients: Do you know a small business owner with an amazing success story to tell? If so, submit your nomination today for the 2018 National Small Business Week Awards. All nominations must be mailed or hand delivered to the nearest SBA Office no later than 3:00 pm ET on January 9, 2018. Consult the Awards Guidelines for details.
For Your Clients: The Specialty Food Association is offering your clients a 25% discount to attend its educational workshop, The Basics, being held at the Mission Bay Conference Center prior to the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco on January 20, 2018, 8:00am-5:00pm. The Basics offers actionable insights on the specialty food industry through sharing valuable business advice from successful industry veterans. It’s a must-attend event for anyone who is learning about the specialty food business, new to Fancy Food Shows, or looking for some fresh insights to enhance their success in the industry. With this offer, the price for The Basics is reduced from $199 to just $149. Offer good for CAMEO members and their clients only. Contact us to get the code for your clients.
AEO 2018 National Microbusiness Conference: Register for Moving Main Street Forward, where hundreds of microbusiness and microfinance professionals will gather from across the nation in Detroit, Michigan, April 30 to May 2, to share, network and collaborate on ways we can move Main Street forward through inclusion, innovation and investment.
New Report: The SBA Office of Advocacy released a report on the impact of microbusiness on the national economy. Microbusinesses, defined in the fact sheet as firms with 1-9 employees, are the smallest of the smalls but they are the most common type of small business and exhibit an oversized role in employment.
New Report: The fourth annual Freelancing in America study shows what many freelancers know intuitively: The freelance workforce is growing rapidly and adapting quickly in a fast-changing economy. The Freelancers Union projects that independent workers will be a majority of the U.S. workforce in just a decade.
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