Intro to QuickBooksSE (think Simple Sched C)
Annual Meeting Early Bird Ends May 15
And…Action! – FY 2017 Budget is Passed
The Goodies – This week’s highlight is AEO’s webinar on Friday, May 5 from 10:00-11:00am PT // 1:00-2:00pm ET, to explain what is in the FY 2017 omnibus funding bill.
Intro to QuickBooksSE (think Simple Sched C)
Many of you work with self-employed independent contractors and freelancers. Many (if not all!) of you know Quick Books. Do you know that Intuit has a product tailor made for the independent freelancers?
Join us
May 10 at 11:00am-12noon PT for a webinar —
Intro to QuickBooks Self-Employed (think Simple Schedule C).
Mariette Martinez, Certified Quickbooks ProAdvisor and IRS Enrolled Agent, will answer the following:
- Who is QuickBooks Self-Employed for and who is it not for? What type of Self-Employed is the BEST fit for this product?
- What does QuickBooks Self-Employed do and what doesn’t it do?
- How do you get clients/your freelancers to start using it?
- What are some tools/features to help you work with your clients?
- When might it make sense to transition to a new platform/upgrade and how easy is that?
Join us for this
‘train the trainer’ webinar on May 10 to learn more.
Mariette F. Martinez is a Small Business Financial Advisor and Retirement Income Strategist with a deep passion to help entrepreneurs succeed. She loves contributing to her Solopreneur community, especially MommyPreneurs like herself, and is well known for delivering helpful small business insights in fun and engaging ways. She has been an advocate for the QuickBooks Self-Employed solution since its first launch in October 2014 and has been a QuickBooks ProAdvisor for over 10 years.
Annual Meeting Early Bird Ends May 15
Register for our
Annual Member Meeting and Advocacy Day in Sacramento and take advantage of the early bird price of $125 until May 15.
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, technology is changing many elements of coaching including branding, business planning, and of course financial education. In our morning session, members who are addressing these changes in innovative ways will explain their solutions. We’ll look at their evolution over time, how their attitudes have changed, the outcomes of their program, how they use technology, and how they are leveraging platforms to help their clients. Business assistance providers will learn about new tool and 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 (to be announced next week) 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!
And…Action! – Federal Budget
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.
FY 2017 Federal Budget
Congress reached a deal on an omnibus spending bill, the
consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, that will fund the government through the end of fiscal 2017. With all the hand-wringing over the last few weeks, we can mostly breath a sigh of relief. CAMEO’s and your hard work in Washington, advocating for increases in the programs that we care about, paid off. We are pleased to report that funding levels for a bunch of programs have increased, while others were not zeroed out as President Trump had proposed. Funding Levels included in package (changes from FY2016 where readily available):
| Program |
Amount |
| Treasury CDFI Fund |
$248M (6% increase from FY2016) |
| SBA Microloan – Lending |
$44M (26% increase from FY2016) |
| SBA Microloan – Technical Assistance |
$31M (24% increase from FY2016) |
| SBA PRIME |
$5M (same as FY15, FY2016) |
| SBA WBC |
$18M (6% increase from FY2016) |
| SBA SBDCs |
$125M (7% increase from FY2016) |
| Office of Advocacy |
$9.2M |
| 7(a) and 504 Loan Program |
$157M |
| Veteran Loan Program |
$12.3M |
| HUBZone Program |
$3M |
| Rural Business Development Grant Program |
$24M (same as FY15, FY2016) |
| Intermediary Relending Program |
$9.4M (50% decrease from FY2016) |
| Value Added Producer Grants |
|
Please take the time to thank your legislators for their support! Find your
representative by typing your zip code in the box in the top right-hand corner of the House’s website. Email Senators
Diane Feinstein and
Kamala Harris.
How a couple of other related programs fared:
- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant program at $15 million, level funding from the previous year.
- The Assets for Independence (AFI) program is not funded. AFI’s $18.95 million in funding that fueled Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) across so many programs and states was eliminated as part of a broader $900 million cut to the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Education.
AEO will hold a webinar on
Friday, May 5 from 10:00-11:00am PT // 1:00-2:00pm ET, to explain the budget process, review what has happened during FY 2017 and
explain what is in the FY 2017 omnibus funding bill passed this week.
WIPP President Jane Campbell wrote an op-ed for
Forbes about
how damaging a government shutdown can be for women entrepreneurs and how relying on Continuing Resolutions is not a whole lot better.
Melanie Rae of The Guided Business Plan wrote her thoughts about the
Ted Lieu Town Hall that she attended and why we need to stay engaged with our legislators.
State Efforts: Update on Bills and other Policy
SB 562 (Lara and Atkins): The Medicare for All bill, a single payer health care system for California passed out of the Senate Health Committee and heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 551 (Hueso): The bill, with specific exceptions, would prohibit the authority from recapturing its contribution from a loss reserve account unless the balance remaining in that loss reserve account following recapture is greater than 20% of the total amount in the account. The bill passed out of Senate Appropriations and now heads to full Senate for a vote today (Thursday).
AB 778 (Caballero): Will re-instate the COIN program to allow tax credits for investments in CDFIs. The bill passed out of committees and is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Last year, when Governor Brown vetoed AB 2728, the bill that would have extended the COIN tax credit for 2017, he indicated that the extension should be handled in the budget process. Since then, AB 778 has been introduced in an attempt extend the COIN Program until January 1, 2022, and the budget process is underway.
AB 784 (Dababneh): This bill is a compromise bill along with AB 1109 that will put an interest rate cap on loans $2,500 – $5,000, essentially expanding a pilot program that was supposed to sunset. The politics are a little complicated, so if you have questions contact
Liana at CRC, who is working on the bill.
CAMEO weighed in to oppose HCD’s recommendation to reduce CDBG Economic Development funds as an effort spearheaded by CALED. The ‘rumor’ is that budget sub-committee members clearly heard our concerns and held the item open. Thanks to Loree Byzick from Superior California Economic Development for the heads up.
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!
CAMEO News: Read a letter from Oscar Dominguez, CAMEO’s board chair – “
Celebrating Claudia Viek as Her Tenure Comes to a Close.”
CAMEO Blog: Read our blog post “
Central Valley Goes to Market, a Recap” about our April 22 event in Reedley, CA.
Member Kudos: Pacific Community Ventures was one of six organizations from around the country to receive up to $200,000 each to participate in
Reimagine Retail, a project by The Aspen Institute and Walmart Foundation.
New Polls/Reports: Small Business Majority has several polls out: Small Businesses
Support ACA Over Replacement Plan; Small Businesses
Support Paid Family Leave Programs;
Colorado Small Business Owners Support State Retirement Savings Program; and
Freelancers Need Flexible Retirement Options.
National Small Business Week: The SBA Administrator, Linda McMahon, will tour a boxing ring in downtown Fresno that was financed by Frenso CDFI! To celebrate AEO President Connie Evans wrote “
Black Entrepreneurs are the Key to Reducing Wealth Inequality” in the
HuffPost. AEO also released a fact sheet that provides data on the
economic impact of small businesses and the need to support them.
Professional Development:
Nominations for the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) Board of Directors are officially open for the 2017 election. As part of CalNonprofits’ commitment to democracy in our society and in our membership, two thirds of board members are elected by members. Nominations will be accepted through
May 15, 2017.
Professional Conference: Registration is now open 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.
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.
Nonprofit Tip:
Volunteer time = $24.14.]]>