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DIY Economies = Economic Growth

Save the Dates: 1) December 3, 2013 is the Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium in Los Angeles – Food, Glorious Food Biz. 2) Microlending Summit will be on January 9, 2014 in San Francisco.

Clarification from last week: SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership and Office of Small Business Development Centers in DC are closed (not local WBC’s and SBDC’s – they’re open!).

  • Local Businesses=Strong Local Economy
  • Success Stories
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes CFED’s ‘Asset-Building Integration Learning Cluster.’ Deadline is October 21, 2013. Learn more and download the RFP.

Local Businesses=Strong Local Economy

Another study about small, locally-owned businesses – this one from the Atlanta Federal Reserve – that asks Do Local Business Ownership and Size Matter for Local Economic Well-being?

Much to our delight the author, Anil Rupasingha of the Fed, found that “local entrepreneurship matters for local economic performance and smaller local businesses are more important than larger local businesses for local economic performance.” This is more evidence in favor of our Do-It-Yourself Economies approach to local economic development. Mr. Rupasingha concludes:

While more research is needed to identify the primary needs of local entrepreneurs, local policy makers and economic development practitioners may want to consider strategic interventions to help local small business owners by addressing barriers such as access to technology and capital by building and investing in entrepreneurship-friendly ecosystems.

For other studies on locally-owned businesses check out our previous posts:

Helpful Hints

Two miscellaneous tidbits that you may find useful…

1) Market your entrepreneurial training programs to journalists. “Most journalism professors lack significant entrepreneurial experience of any kind. This presents a challenge for teaching entrepreneurship. Many of the professors Ferrier interviewed reached out to their local entrepreneurial community either by team-teaching the course with an entrepreneur or bringing speakers into the classroom.”

2) A reminder to keep your success stories fresh (and send them to us!). It’s best practice. You should have at least one posted that dates from 2013. We have the following story telling resources available:

And if you need assistance with your stories, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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!

CAMEO Kudos! Claudia is in DC this week to accept the 2013 Public Policy Award from Women Impacting Public Policy. (Read the press release.) She also was named a Top 100 Champion in the 2013 Small Business Influencer Awards in the leader category. Thanks to everyone who voted for her and helped get the attention of the judges. (Read the press release.)

Member Kudos: And Congrats to Angela McKee from La Cocina who CAMEO sponsored for the WIPP Leadership Conference.

Healthcare Webinar: CAMEO co-sponsors and Small Business Majority and Small Business Administration are hosting a webinar series that will discuss the new healthcare law – the Affordable Care Act – and what it means for California small businesses. The webinar take place at 10:00am PDT on October 15. Feel free to forward to your clients.

Funding Opportunity: Our friends at CFED announce their ‘Asset-Building Integration Learning Cluster.’ Learn more and download the RFP. Deadline is October 21, 2013.

White House Business Summit: Our friends at The American Sustainable Business Counci, hosts The Business Summit for a Sustainable Economy in Washington, D.C. from October 22-24. CAMEO members are eligible for a discounted ticket to the summit with the code summit2013partner. Small meetings with Cabinet agencies, e.g. SBA, USDA, etc., will be held and policies to support our sector will be promoted. This group has growing influence in D.C. and influenced DOL to support entrepreneurship. Learn more and register for the business summit.

White House Small Business Call: Small Business Majority hosts a monthly discussion series with representatives from the White House on the most important policies impacting small businesses.
These free calls, taking place on the final Wednesdays of each month, will feature the White House’s Ari Matusiak, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Private Sector Engagement. The next one is on October 30, 2013 at 11:00am PT. Register for the Chamber Chatter call.

For Your Clients: Mission Main Street Grants is a grant program by Chase to award twelve (12) small businesses with grants of $250,000. Application deadline is October 31, 2013.

Fellowship Opportunity: The ELM (squared) Fellowship — offered by FIELD in partnership with the Capital One Foundation — supports the development of emerging leaders in the microbusiness development field. FIELD announces that the Requests for Application for its second class of Fellows, is now available online. Applications are due November 15, 2013.

Fellowship Opportunity: The BALLE Fellowship is North America’s only fellowship dedicated solely to advancing the local economy movement, and where other programs focus on individual social entrepreneurs trying to scale single enterprises, we focus on local economy connectors – people who each represent, convene, and influence communities of hundreds of community entrepreneurs. Deadline is December 15, 2013.

New Report: FIELD’s newest publication “Sustaining the Delivery of Business Development Services” offers strategies and practices for mobilizing funding for microenterprise training services. It shares insights on how large-scale training organizations pursue resource mobilization and cost recovery to sustain delivery of services over the long term. Read the report or listen to the webinar.

New Report: FIELD has a new case study, Scaling Business Development Services through Distance Learning, profiles the experiences and lessons WESST has learned in developing distance-learning services to assist entrepreneurs across New Mexico. You can also listen to a recorded webinar on WESST’s distance learning experience.