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Give the Gift of CAMEO Membership; Take Action on Tax Reform

In this Must Know…

  • Give Your Org the Gift of Membership!
  • Tax Reform – Time for Action REALLY Is Now
  • Read our op-ed published in The Hill – “Tax reform for the growing gig economy“ – for a good summary of the proposals we would like to see.
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight is a new SBA Office of Advocacy report on the impact of microbusiness on the national economy. Microbusinesses are the most common type of small business and exhibit an oversized role in employment.

Give Your Org the Gift of Membership!

CAMEO is a dynamic network of organizations and individuals that support businesses that create local jobs, build wealth, and grow California’s economy through microbusiness development.

Gift your organization a year of training, advocacy and connections – renew your membership or join us!

CAMEO has become an innovation lab. We’ve launched experiments such as MMS, WOVEN, and the Centro Business Plan App pilot project. We build capacity through programs such as the Microlending Essentials and tools such as the Loan Policy Manual and the Carrot Fund. We bring you new ways of thinking with programs such as the New Era Workforce, Self-employed Entrepreneurs Symposium.

Next year will usher in a new era for CAMEO as we welcome a new CEO, whom you’ll meet in January of 2018. We’ll continue with our member meetings and successful programs such as the MicroLenders Forum in February. And of course we will persist in our tireless advocacy for government and corporate support of microbusinesses and our members. We’re at a pivotal time both for the sector and for the country and the focused, strategic, and collaborative advocacy CAMEO provides has never been more important.

Take advantage of everything we offer. In addition to high quality programs, your membership dues pay for themselves with free group and individual training opportunities, member meetings, and the priceless benefits of collaboration and support.

Tax Reform – Time for Action REALLY Is Now

I know I wrote about this last week, but this is it. This is an important moment in our federal advocacy, not only as individuals, but as nonprofits and as organizations who serve the smallest of the smallest businesses.

The Senate is voting on the tax reform bill this week. Now is the time to contact Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Kamala Harris. Call their their district office if you can’t get through to DC. Despite advocacy efforts on our part, so far our priorities are not being included in the tax reform conversation and what’s being included can actively hurt us and our clients.

According to the Independent Sector, the tax reform bill.

  • It increases the burden on vulnerable and middle-class people: Analyses by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office show that the Senate bill will increase taxes on households earning less than $75,000 in 10 years and jeopardize their healthcare coverage.
  • It damages charities’ capacity to serve their communities: The Senate bill eliminates tax incentives to give to charity for all but a few high-income taxpayers, causing charitable giving to decrease by at least $13 billion, while simultaneously increasing taxes on charities.
  • It eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs: A recent analysis by George Washington University found that tax reform’s negative impact on giving will result in a loss of at least 220,000 jobs in the charitable community alone.

If you want fair tax reform that unleashes the job-creating potential and entrepreneurial spirit of the self-employed and small businesses, then call today. It will only take two minutes. Thanks to AEO for pulling together a sample script.

Hello. My name is ____________ and I am a constituent located in ____________. I am urging Senator ____________ to support tax reform that ensures that our nation’s small and microbusinesses can continue to grow and create jobs, specifically:

  • Inclusion of the provisions in H.R. 3717, the “Small Business Owners’ Tax Simplification Act of 2017”
  • Expansion of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) to include low-revenue entrepreneurs and small businesses
  • Retention of the New Markets Tax Credit and of S. 293, the “Investing in Opportunity Act”
  • Oppose provisions that at would cripple charities’ and nonprofits’ abilities to serve their communities

Again, I urge Senator _____________ to include these priorities in the Senate’s tax reform bill, and the final version of this legislation.

Thank you for your support of our nation’s small business community.

Several of our colleagues are holding webinars to parse what the tax and budget debates mean for different constituencies.

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 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. Some takeaways:

  • Microbusinesses accounted for 11% of the 13.7 million new jobs between 2010 – 2016.
  • In 2014, 64% of microbusinesses were over 5 years old and accounted for 67% of microbusiness employment.
  • America’s 3.8 million microbusiness employers made up 74.8% of all private-sector employers in 2016, and they provided 10.3% of the private-sector jobs.

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.

Secure Choice Public Workshops: We have been working with the staff of Secure Choice, the state’s new retirement program for private sector workers, to help develop the regulations so the program works efficiently for employers and employees. Secure Choice will be holding two regulation workshops to preview the draft proposal and get comments from interested parties on December 5 in Sacramento (801 Capitol Mall, Room 150) and December 7 in Los Angeles (Ronald Reagan State Building, Auditorium, 300 South Spring Street) from 10:00am-12:00pm. You may also participate by phone: (888) 278-0296; Participant Code: 6531748.

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: The California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Majority Access are presenting an access to capital webinar in Spanish on December 14 at 10:00am PT // 1:00pm ET. Click the links for registration and information in Spanish.

For Your Client – Healthcare: Covered California open enrollment for 2018 began November 1 and is open through January 31, 2018. Covered California is the only insurance marketplace in California where eligible consumers can receive financial assistance to help pay for their health insurance. 8 in 10 Californians enrolled in Covered California receive financial assistance with most people being able to find premiums less than $100 per month. Although open enrollment lasts until January 31, 2018, you must enroll by December 15, 2017, in order to have your coverage begin on January 1, 2018.

Funding Opportunity (Loan Guarantee): Funds are available now through USDA Rural Development’s B&I Loan Guarantee Program to help you support rural businesses with a variety of projects including start-up, expansion, refinancing, and disaster recovery.

For Your Client: 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 Client: The Specialty Food Association is offering your CAMEO members’ 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 for CAMEO partners. Contact us to get the code for your clients.

New Report: A study examining disparities in small business lending conducted by the Woodstock Institute found that Fresno minority businesses are losing out in capital and turning to merchant cash advances. (Yikes!) Access Capital, a CAMEO member, is trying to refinance some of those loans.

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