Extra Extra: Claudia writes about self-employment as a job creation strategy in The Huffington Post.
In this week’s Must Know
- Federal Update: SOTU, SBA and Budget
- Member Spotlights
- The Goodies: This week’s highlight is the Small Business Survey by Small Business California. This survey takes ‘the pulse’ of our small businesses. These vital results are shared with policy makers and elected officials from Sacramento to Washington DC. Please distribute this to your network of small business owners.
Federal Update: SOTU, SBA and Budget
With the President’s State of the Union speech and leadership announcements at the SBA, I figured it was time for a federal update.
Working backwards with the SOTU on Tuesday: President Obama says he wants to grow the economy from the middle class and not from the top down. We definitely agree, but we didn’t hear the words we needed to hear as proponents of micro-business. He neglected to emphasize the role of start-up and small businesses. Also lacking was recognition that self-employment and very small businesses equal job creation. You can read our full statement on the 2013 SOTU.
In case you haven’t heard… on Monday, Karen Mills, the administrator for the SBA turned in her resignation. That comes on the heels of an announcement by Marie Johns that she’ll be leaving in May. We hope that new leadership will champion the needs of the 88% of businesses that are micro. CAMEO also weighed in on the SBA resignations.
The full year FY2013 budget will be the main topic of conversation for the rest of the month. Keep your fingers crossed, start praying, do whatever it is that you do to send cooperation vibes to Congress.
Valentines Day
We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day by sending our love to you for the good work you do. In doing so, we extend a warm welcome to new members for 2013. We look forward to working with you to strengthen the micro-business sector.
- Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County
- Grameen America – California Region (Oakland and LA)
- Latinas in Business Foundation (San Diego)
- Local Economy Institute (North Bay)
- Neighborhood House (Calexico)
- Orange County Community Housing Corporation
- The Prosperity Center (Orange County)
- State Assistance Fund for Enterprise, Business and Industrial Development Corporation (SAFE-BIDCO) (North Bay)
Also, congrats to Pacific Coast Regional SBDC who received the Bank America Neighborhood Builders Award. The Neighborhood Builders® Award recognizes high-performing nonprofits that have made a significant impact in the community, working in the bank’s priority funding areas of housing, jobs and hunger relief. The program pairs leadership training for executive directors and emerging leaders with a $200,000 unrestricted grant.
Your organization can win a $75,000 grant from AEO and Citi and your clients can receive up to $25,000 (Last year a CAMEO member client won!) Find out more and apply for the 2013 Citi MicroEntrepreneurship Awards. If you win, we’ll give you a shout out. AEO will give you the check.
The Goodies
New opportunities for trainings, 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 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!
Small Business Survey!: Small Business California is conducting its annual survey of all California small businesses. This survey is vital to take “THE PULSE” of small businesses in the State. The results are shared with policy makers and elected officials from Sacramento to Washington DC. Please distribute this to your network of small business owners. It will only take five minutes to complete. Survey closes at the end of February.
Archived Webinar: If you missed this week’s microTracker webinar with Jefferson Economic Development Institute (JEDI), it’s you’re lucky week. JEDI shared how it used microTracker to guide its strategic planning, advocacy and fundraising, and in marketing to prospective clients about their likely outcomes. You can also download the slides of the JEDI-microtracker webinar.
New Report: Our friends at Emergent Research sent us this “FOOD TRUCKS MOTOR INTO THE MAINSTREAM“. Food trucks are expected to be a $2.7 billion industry! It’s a quick easy read on the state of the food truck industry, a must read for all of you with food truck clients.
Healthcare Info: Thanks to Small Business Majority for healthcare resources. Small business owners and the self-employed need to know how the Affordable Care Act will bring down costs, create a greater choice of insurance options, and the opportunities it offers to expand coverage.
Business Leader Briefing Call: Small Business Majority hosts Free Business Leader Briefing Call: Media Training on Thursday, February 21, 2013 from 10:00-11:00 am (PST) // 1:00-2:00 pm (EST). Allison Abney, media relations manager for SBM will explain how she works with reporters and editors, generates press coverage and develops and distributes press releases and statements to the media.
For Your Clients: CNBC is currently accepting submissions for an upcoming reality series titled The Big Fix in which self-made millionaire and CEO of Camping World Marcus Lemonis will invest up to $2 million of his fortune by giving small businesses extreme makeovers. To apply, business owners should send an e-mail describing their background and current situation by February 22, 2013.
For Your Clients: Fishbowl and Intuit present the $35,000 Innovative Product Challenge. If your client has an innovative product, this contest is for them. It’s a vote now, vote often type of contest, so pass on the information now. The deadline is February 26, 2013.
Renaissance Online Business Prep Class: Attention service-starved areas, the webinar-based classes are scheduled from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. PST one evening a week for 12 consecutive weeks, with two optional 30-minute individual telephone consultations. Clients are expected to participate in every webinar and complete about 3 hours of homework weekly. The next one starts on February 20, 2013. Learn more and register for the Renaissance Online Business Prep Class.
Grant opportunity: The Union Bank Foundation announced two special funding initiatives for nonprofit providers of small business technical assistance and homeownership counseling. Requests for proposals on these initiatives with details on the application process can be found on the Union Bank website. The final deadline is February 28th.
AEO’s national conference, Tilt Forward, will be May 5-8, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. If you’re not an AEO member, CAMEO members receive a $75 discount with the code SMA2013. If you’re an AEO member, registration fees are 50% of the full conference price – another reason to join the national network.
Job Opportunities: Opportunity Fund, AEO, Self-Help, Accion San Diego, California Farmlink, MEDA, and CDC Small Business Finance are hiring. Please check CAMEO’s job page for more information and other listings.