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May is National Small Business Month! Faces Nominations Closing.

National Small Business Week

Each year since 1963, the President has issued a proclamation designating National Small Business Week. This year’s celebration will take place May 1-7 around the nation, with the theme “Dream Big, Start Small.”

Events throughout the week will be live-streamed on SBA’s website. There will also be the opportunity during events for live social media engagement using the hashtag #DreamSmallBiz. Some of the event topics include:

  • Cybersecurity for small businesses
  • Small business trends
  • Networking for millennials
  • Veteran entrepreneurship

Promote NSBW on social media. The SBA has a toolkit or retweet @CAMEOMicro.

May is also Small Business Month in California. To celebrate, GO-Biz’s Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) is hosting a series of free webinars. To learn more and register click on the webinar title.

Annual Meeting

Register for CAMEO’s Annual Member Meeting and Advocacy Day – June 7, 2016 at the Sacramento Sheraton.

The meeting will be a full day! We will hold our CAMEO member meeting, have a rich discussion with Dan Beam who will define the Zeitgeist, the challenges and opportunity in current environment and lead us in exploring how our sector needs to respond, celebrate our Faces of Entrepreneurship Award winners, and then send you off to your legislators to educate them on responsible small business lending practices. Check out the Annual Meeting webpage for more information.

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!

Survey on Accelerators and Incubators: The National Women’s Business Council is researching women’s participation in business incubation and acceleration programs. They have three surveys: women entrepreneurs, Women incubator/accelerator graduates, Incubator and accelerator managers. Take the appropriate one and pass on to others.

New Paper: Pacific Community Ventures has a new discussion paper – Moving Beyond Job Creation: Defining and Measuring the Creation of Quality Jobs. They define ‘quality job’ as one that provides at least three (3) of the following five (5) key elements: a living wage, basic benefits, career-building opportunities, wealth-building opportunities, and a fair and engaging workplace. Your work helps microbusinesses succeed and provide quality jobs.

Cutting Edge Professional Development: CFED is hosting a five-part virtual Listening & Learning Series Exploring Financial Capability & Access for Entrepreneurs (register for all five at once). The next one is May 10 – ‘Mastering the Know-How: Financial Management Expertise & Advice for Entrepreneurs.’ You can learn more about the series on our website.

Funding Opportunity: JPMorgan Chase is launching Partnerships for Raising Opportunity in Neighborhoods (PRO Neighborhoods). This is a $125 million, five-year initiative to identify and support custom solutions for the unique challenges facing disadvantaged neighborhoods in U.S. cities. CDFI’s are eligible to apply to help small businesses develop. Learn more and download the PRO Neighborhoods RFP. The deadline is May 16, 2016.

PRIME Grant Opportunity: SBA has announced that it is taking applications for PRIME: Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs Act. The deadline to apply for funding is May 18, 2016.

AEO Conference in DC: EconoCon25 gathers actors in the small business space who impact America’s smallest businesses and under-served entrepreneurs – lenders, nonprofit and for-profit service providers, advocates and policy makers, entrepreneurs, funders and investors – for meaningful dialogue about how to innovate faster, partner smarter, and execute better. Register today for the conference on May 18-20 in DC! Contact Shufina English for more information.

OFN Western Regional Meeting: Save June 29, 2016. The meeting will take place in Los Angeles, CA at Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Los Angeles Branch (950 S Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90015).

Take Action: We’re asking all of our members to hold district meetings with their California state representatives to inform California’s small business leaders and elected officials on what good capital looks like. We’ll follow up with meetings in Sacramento at our annual meeting. This is an issue they need to know about!