- 2013 Micro Census Results
- Shop Small Business For the Holidays
- Save the Date for the MicroLenders Fourm on January 15, 2015 in San Francisco
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes .
2013 Micro Census Results
It’s time again to release the results of our member impact survey that we conduct in conjunction with Aspen’s microTracker. We have crunched the numbers for 2013 and the landscape of the micro sector is a mixed bag. Lending increased in 2013 by 30% over 2012. Our members made 2,049 loans, for a total volume of $26 million, exceeding pre-recession lending for the first time. But as a group, we have served fewer clients and businesses each year since 2010 and have supported fewer employees each year.
We believe that funding is a big part of our sector’s ability to serve businesses. Member revenue declined for the fifth year in a row, with the median organization operating on 60% of their 2009 funding. When microlenders and business assistance providers are broken out, the argument for more funding to serve more businesses makes itself apparent. The programs being hardest hit are the business technical assistance providers, with revenues falling 24%, they served about 17% fewer clients. Funding for lenders increased by 37% and businesses served increased by about 28%.
CAMEO continues to work hard to increase funding to our sector. We are exploring several avenues in Sacramento, and plan to reach out to new Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. regarding budget appropriations. Our excellent relationships with government agencies help us make the case for strengthening programs to under-served entrepreneurs. We saved SBA programs (PRIME, WBCs, etc.) during sequestration; now we intend to work with SBA to reduce income inequality through entrepreneurship. We welcome insights from our members and stakeholders as we plan our advocacy and design future strategies that will build your bottom line.
Shop Small Business For the Holidays
November 29th, 2014 was Small Business Saturday. Consumers reported spending $14.3 billion with independent retailers and restaurants on the day, an increase of 2.1% from a strong $14 billion in 2013. For a fourth year in a row President Obama shopped at a local bookstore and elected officials in all 50 states also championed Small Business Saturday. This holiday, consider spending most of your money on locally-owned independent businesses, especially those that CAMEO members help. To get you started:
- La Cocina sells gift boxes of yummy treats from $35-100.
- Legal Services for Entrepreneurs (LSE), a project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, published a comprehensive holiday guide filled with caterers, gifts and other holiday needs.
- Opportunity Fund has their Opportunity Funded Business Directory. This year they featured “You Smell” soaps and Coolhaus pint of the month club.
- Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) has put their gift guide on their Facebook page.
Send me your gift guides and I’ll publish them!
Marsha Bailey of WEV took the local gift giving one step further and challenged her community.
…make a 10% shift in your buying habits from big chains to locally-owned businesses. There are benefits to keeping your money local and costs you probably don’t calculate when you do all your shopping at national chains.
Check out these studies to make the case on why locally-owned businesses are the way to go for the holidays:
- Do Local Business Ownership and Size Matter for Local Economic Well-being? ;
- Costs and benefits to cities of locally-owned businesses versus larger chain stores from Civic Economics; and
- Shop Local studies.
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!
Teleconference: The National Women’s Business Council next public meeting is on Monday, December 8, 2014 at 11:00am PT. The Council will share important updates on their most recent activity and research projects and host an exciting panel discussion to grapple with a question we know many women entrepreneurs face – how do we successfully grow and scale our businesses? Register for the call to receive the call-in information.
Webinar: Our friends at Social Enterprise Alliance are hosting Understanding Privilege: A Catalyst for Change on Wednesday, December 10th at 11:00am PT. The cost is $10. Chris Rabb, Social Impact Fellow at Fox School of Business, and Kevin Lynch, CEO of SEA will be discussing the “privilege economy” and the role of invisible capital in creating it. They promise a frank and candid dialogue about how social enterprise can serve as the catalyst for economic justice.
Free Webinar: Our friends at WIPP are hosting Give Me 5: Managing and Incentivizing Employees – Sharing in the Upside While Protecting the Company’s Downside on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at 11:00am PT. Please join Dean Nordlinger and Nichole Atallah of PilieroMazza PLLC as they cover various ways government contracting firms can compensate employees as well as steps firms can implement to avoid common labor and employment pitfalls.
For Your Clients: If you know of any business or entrepreneurial nonprofit that might be interested in raising money using a Direct Public Offering (this allows you to legally raise capital from both wealthy and non-wealthy investors and do public advertising), please let them know about Cutting Edge Capital’s DPO boot camp. The boot camp is virtual and can be done at your own pace at any location where you have access to a computer! It launches in late January.
Healthcare Webinars: The Small Business Administration and Small Business Majority are helping businesses navigate health care through the webinar series What the Healthcare Law Means For Your California Small Business . It’s every two weeks in English. The next one is on December 17, 2014 at 10:00am.