In this week’s Must Know
- Support SEA in Assembly Insurance
- AEO Conference and Awards
- The Goodies: This week’s highlight is a microTracker webinar with Jefferson Economic Development Institute (JEDI), who will share how they used microTracker to guide its strategic planning, advocacy and fundraising, and in marketing to prospective clients about their likely outcomes. Register for the webinar on Tuesday, February 12 from 10:00-11:30 am (PT) // 1:00-2:30pm (EST).
Support SEA in Assembly Insurance
The time has come! Now that AB 152 has been introduced, we need your help in passing it.
The first step is to get it out of the Assembly. We need you to write letters to your assembly members.
- Find out which California assembly member represents your district (if you don’t know already.)
- Download CAMEO’s SEA Fact Sheet
- Download the SEA Letter of Support for Assemblymembers.
- Edit the document by editing the highlighted parts, add any information you’d like them to have, try to keep it to one page.
- Copy onto on your letterhead.
- Fax and email the letter and fact sheet to your assembly member with a cc: to CAMEO (and email copy is fine for CAMEO).
If your assembly member is on the Insurance Committee, then it is crucial that you contact them. In fact if anyone has a close relationship with any of the following members, we need to know.
- Assemblymember Henry T. Perea, Chair (D-Fresno)
- Assemblymember Curt Hagman, Vice Chair (R-Chino Hills)
- Assemblymember Susan A. Bonilla (D-Martinez)
- Assemblymember Steven Bradford (D-LA)
- Assemblymember Ian C. Calderon (D-San Gabriel Valley)
- Assemblymember Ken Cooley (D-Rosemont)
- Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Fairfield)
- Assemblymember Beth Gaines (R-Roseville)
- Assemblymember Holly J. Mitchell (D-LA)
- Assemblymember Brian Nestande (R-Palm Springs)
- Assemblymember Kristin Olsen (R-Stockton)
- Assemblymember Norma J. Torres (D-Pomona)
- Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont)
You can find the Insurance Committee contact information here. If there is a staff member listed on the spreadsheet, please make sure to email that person as well.
We thank you in advance for your help!
AEO Conference and Awards
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.
Highlights of the conference:
- Daymond John of FUBU and “Shark Tank” will share his inspiring story with conference attendees on Wednesday.
- Prepare your clients to enter the 2013 Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards (CMA). Finalists will attend the CMA Luncheon on Wednesday and have the opportunity to win real cash. More information forthcoming. But Bay Area Medical (upstairs from CAMEO) won last year!
- Conference Tracks include 1) Mission, Money, Markets, Oh My!, 2) Accelerating Business Success, 3) Promoting Local Food Security for Jobs and Micro-business, and 4) The Executive View.
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.
Free Webinar: On Tuesday, February 12 from 10:00-11:30 am (PT) // 1:00-2:30pm (EST), microTracker hosts a webinar to learn more about how to benchmark business development services. Jefferson Economic Development Institute (JEDI) will share how they used microTracker to guide its strategic planning, advocacy and fundraising, and in marketing to prospective clients about their likely outcomes. Register now to join CAMEO, microTracker and JEDI.
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 distributesg 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.
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.
New Video – CAMEO Connects: Self-employment and entrepreneurship translates to jobs, local economic development and community. You’ll find it on the CAMEO YouTube Channel. Please subscribe to our channel and help spread the micro message. Other ways to connect with CAMEO online: follow CAMEO @HeidiMicro on Twitter; subscribe to our news stream of micro-business articles on scoop.it; and of course, ‘like’ MicroBizCA on Facebook.
New Report: CFED released the 2013 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, revealing that despite strong signs of economic recovery, millions of Americans are still living on the brink of financial disaster. The Scorecard rates states on financial assets, business ownership, jobs, housing. Thanks to Andrew for pulling out California’s asset profile.