Nominate your successful clients for the Seventh Annual CAMEO Faces of Entrepreneurship Award by April 28, 2017.
Early Bird Registration for CAMEO’s Annual Member Meeting
Central Valley Goes to Market
And…Action! (new section)
The Goodies – This week’s highlight is
Early Bird Registration for CAMEO’s Annual Member Meeting
Register for our
Annual Member Meeting and Advocacy Day in Sacramento and take advantage of the early bird price of $125 until May 15.
To celebrate National Financial Capability Month, we’re excited to announce the topic of our annual meeting – The Changing Face of Financial Education.
June 7, 2017
8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Sheraton Grand Sacramento
1230 J Street, Sacramento
We’ve heard over and over again that one of the biggest needs of your clients is a lack of understanding of their businesses’ financials. And like everything else, financial education is changing because of technology, but also because of attitudes. Our sector needs to roll with the times and change the way we think and talk about financial education. In our morning session, members who are addressing financial education in innovative ways will explain their solutions. We’ll look at their evolution over time, the outcomes of their program, how they use technology, and how they are leveraging platforms to help their clients. Business assistance providers will learn new methods of teaching and lenders will learn some new strategies to ensure their clients are successful borrowers.
After our morning session, we will celebrate our Faces of Entrepreneurship Award winners (
nominate your successful clients for the award by April 28, 2017) and then send you off to your legislators to educate them on why the state should do more to support small and microbusinesses. Please make your own appointments for 2:15-4:00pm. Find contact information for your
assembly member(s) and your senator. If you need help, contact Andrew Cole.
Rural members- plan to attend our annual Rural Dinner the night before, starting at 6:00pm (location tbd). Enjoy our special time to connect and enjoy great food and drink.
Register for our
Annual Member Meeting and Advocacy Day in Sacramento today!
Central Valley Goes to Market
Central Valley Goes To Market will take place on April 22nd at Reedley High School. Register or spread the word with your colleagues and clients in the Central Valley about
Central Valley Goes To Market! (Photo: Shufina English, CAMEO’s program director, and Eduardo Gonzalez director of CSU Fresno’s SBDC in front of the school.)
CAMEO, along with Fresno SBDC, have teamed up with the National Specialty Foods Association, with support from a grant from Fresno CDFI through USDA Rural Development. We will offer up a full day of learning about the specialty food industry: business and marketing opportunities, how to stay viable and competitive, and how to access appropriate financing. We are excited to bring this top-notch training to the Central Valley. Through this training, we and our members aim to reach home-based cottage kitchens, stimulating new jobs through specialty food entrepreneurship.
And…Action!
The new section of the
Must Know — And…Action! — is in response to the current political reality that demands that we participate more fully in the state and the federal legislative processes. We urge you to assign a staff person to be responsible for taking action.
We hope you’re well on your way to visiting with your federal representatives while they are on recess this week and next. If you met with them let me know how it went. If you need resources and more information, please review the “
April Break for Congress = District Visits” section of last week’s
Must Know. And check out WIPP’s Policy Brief:
How the Federal Budget Works. This week, we’re turning our attention to state efforts.
State Efforts: AB 1230, AB 1109, and others
As you know, CAMEO has worked to secure state funds for entrepreneurship activities for many years. This year, Assemblymember Burke has authored
AB 1230 that would provide the California SBDCs $2 million in state funding. Rest assured that CAMEO will continue to work on securing state funds for all of our programs. For now, please join us in supporting this bill. If successful, we will have proved that a strong, vocal constituency for small business assistance exists. This is especially important now that so many federal programs that support our work are on the chopping block. Download the
sample support letter for AB 1230 (Burke) and
fax to 916-319-2162 and 916-319-2190 by 5:00pm on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. No cover sheet is necessary.
California SBDCs released a report of their impacts by district.
As we mentioned last week, our colleagues at National Council of La Raza, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and the Asian Law Alliance are sponsoring
AB 1109 (Kalra) that would
cap the interest rates on consumer loans between $2,500 – 10,000 at 24% APR. This bill is tentatively scheduled to be heard by the Assembly banking committee on Monday, April 24, 2017 (yes, it was postponed and is in danger of being held.) Please help to move it forward.
Email Liana at CRC or call her (415.864.3980) to add your organization’s support (and who to list as the contact for your org) by Tuesday, April 18, 2017 (just need to email your support).
Please see this
Must Know for letters of support templates for state actions on AB 75 (counting 1099 income eligible for EITC), SB 551 (changes to CalCAP), and AB 778 (COIN).https://app.verticalresponse.com/app/emails/builder/index/1477724511?page=build#
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!
Professional Development Opportunity: BALLE has opened the application process for their 2018
BALLE Local Economy Fellowship program. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis (so apply early!) from February 2017 until the cohort is filled. Applicants can expect to be notified of their first round status (finalist, declined, or still under review) within 4-6 weeks of receipt of your application.
Professional Development Opportunity: ASBC is offering a three-part series of training webinars to help you meet with your representatives and speak to the media successfully. Join ASBC’s experts and equip yourself with an arsenal of tools to build relationships with the elected officials and the media and make your business voice heard on the issues and policies that matter!
Join ASBC’s experts and equip yourself with an arsenal of tools to build relationships with the elected officials and the media and make your business voice heard on the issues and policies that matter!
For Your Clients: Pass along this handy infographic – “
A Small-Business Guide to Facebook Advertising”
For Your Clients: Small Business Majority is hosting free a webinar –
Access to Capital 101: Funding Options to Start and Grow Your Business on April 19, 2017, and May 3, 2017 at 11:00am PDT // 2:00pm EDT. These free national webinars will help businesses navigate the funding landscape and connect with resources to help obtain the capital needed to start and grow your client’s business.
Professional Conference: Save the Date for OFN’s 2017 Small Business Finance Forum, June 15 and 16 at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park.
Professional Conference: Register for Credit Builders Alliance’s
2017 Credit Building Symposium, June 26-27 in Washington, DC.
Funding Opportunity: OFN announced their
NEXT Fund for Innovation, a pilot that will provide flexible capital in amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2 million to CDFIs with innovative ideas. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis now through
June 30, 2017. The fund is open to all qualifying CDFIs, including non-OFN Members and past NEXT Awards recipients.
New Report: AEO recently released “
The Tapestry of Black Business Ownership in America: Untapped Opportunities for Success.” The report assesses the economic strength and potential of Black-owned businesses, identifies myths, challenges and opportunities across a mosaic of segments, and suggests a plan for how investors and policymakers can increase the effectiveness of programs designed to support Black entrepreneurship.
New Poll: Small Business Majority and Center for American Progress released a new poll on
small business owners’ views regarding the creation of publicly-administered family and medical leave insurance programs.]]>
