- Be Counted – Microenterprise Census
- National Pollinators Week
- Note: The California Budget for FY2015-2016 is out – we will be analyzing it and reporting on it next week.
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes a call to action from our friends at WIPP to submit an onine support comment for sole source authority for women-owned businesses on the rule by June 30, 2015. Scroll down for sample comment.
Be Counted – Microenterprise Census
Every year, CAMEO partners with FIELD at the Aspen Institute to conduct a census of microenterprise programs using the microTracker platform.
The microTracker Census opened this week.
It’s time to stand up and be counted. CAMEO members that fill out the Census by July 17, 2015 will receive $100 toward lunch for staff members, like Fresno CDFI (see photo of staff at Umi Sushi) and others did last year.
Every year, CAMEO partners with FIELD at the Aspen Institute to conduct a census of microenterprise programs using the microTracker platform. We rely on this data to fuel our advocacy and support our members at the state and national level. The better data we have, the stronger our case is, and the easier it is to express the vital role MDOs play in the small business sector.
The Census is a valuable tool for individual organizations, too.
- Want to raise your microenterprise program’s profile with funders, media, or others interested in the U.S. microbusiness field? The microTracker site helps get your organization in front of site visitors every day.
- Have a lot of data, but aren’t quite sure how to organize it to present to your Board, funders, and supporters? MicroTracker uses standardized data definitions to answer microbusiness program’s most common questions.
- Need to compare how you’re doing to other MDOs in California and across the country? MicroTracker can tell you.
Tamra Thetford of FIELD presented this user-friendly guide to completing and understanding the microTracker Census.
National Pollinators Week
The White House made a big deal about this being National Pollinators Week. Did you know ‘the “buzz” associated with honeybees is the sound of their four wings beating more than 11,000 times per minute? With wing-speeds that high, honeybees can fly faster than most people can run: about 15 miles per hour.’ Besides being super important to our natural ecosystem, pollinators are important to local economies.
Michael Shuman spoke at our recent annual meeting about the five ‘P’s or business pollinators – planning, purchasing, people, partnerships, and purse – and how they can shift investment away from costly and generally unproductive business attraction to investment in local small businesses where the real and sustainable job creation happens.
– for-profit businesses that work to develop a local ecosystem for other small businesses as part of their own growth
Download his presentation on business pollinators and how to foster sustainable local economies.
The pollinators are for-profit businesses that work to develop a local ecosystem for other small businesses as part of their own growth. To add another reason to support micro and small businesses, the SBA Office of Advocacy released a new report that found small businesses added 1.4 million net new jobs in the first three quarters of 2014. “Firms with 1-49 employees have
contributed the most to job growth.” This is no surprise to us. A couple of weeks ago, we reported in the Must Know that from 2003-2012 micro firms:
- created jobs every year;
- created a net of 7 million jobs in the U.S.;
- created a net of 920,000 jobs in California;
- mostly created more jobs than any other firm size; and
- were the only firms that created jobs during the downturn years of 2009 and 2010.
This while large businesses (those >500 employees) lost 750,000 jobs nationwide. In California, big businesses lost about 200,000 jobs – underlining just how important the micro sector is to our state.
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!
Take Action: The SBA has issued a proposed rule that calls for implementation on sole source authority for the WOSB procurement program. This is the regulatory action required to give contracting officers the ability to sole source contracts to women owned companies. Our colleagues at AEO and WIPP fought hard to win this change to the WOSB program, giving women greater access to federal markets. Please take a couple of minutes to submit an onine support comment for sole source authority on the rule by June 30, 2015. Sample comment:
I support the proposed rule granting sole source authority to the WOSB procurement program. Sole source authority brings parity to the women’s procurement program and would greatly assist women in their access to federal contracts. I urge SBA to expedite the process to put this rule into place as soon as possible since the government is heading into the fourth quarter of its fiscal year. It is important to my business and my ability to access the federal market.
Funding Opportunity: The U.S. SBA’s PRIME grant announcement is out. Applications are due on June 29, 2015. The official one-liner: “The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued Program Announcement No. PRIME-2015-01 to provide training and capacity building grant programs to microenterprise development organizations (MDOs).”
Funding Opportunity: The third-annual PG&E Economic Vitality Grant Program launched this week (June 1). This shareholder-funded program will support local job creation, workforce training, business development and other innovative programs that support local economic vitality and growth. It’s geared toward local government organizations, educational institutions and 501(c)(3) nonprofits throughout their service area. The online application is due July 31, 2015.