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Faces Winner With Love Market and Cafe; Annual Meeting Highlights

In this Must Know…

Annual Meeting Highlight

Register for our annual member meeting on June 5-6 in Sacramento.


We are so excited to have Matt Cohen, CEO of Off the Grid in San Francisco, CA, the U.S. SBA’s 2018 California Small Business Person of the Year as our keynote speaker for this year’s meeting. Founded in 2010, Off the Grid has grouped street food creators together to create an experience that allows neighbors to connect with friends, and families to reconnect with each other.

Matthew is the perfect speaker for “Thriving in Transition” as OTG began right around the end of the recession/beginning of the recovery and the very beginnings of the food truck industry. In 2015, the U.S. food truck industry was valued at $860 million. That’s a lot of money for a lot of microbusiness owners. OTG also has a food truck business program that we’ll learn more about.

Visit our webpage for Thriving in Transition to learn more about the sessions, an updated agenda and logistics.

With Love Market and Cafe, Faces of Entrepreneurship Winner


Andrew had never owned a business. However, he combined his skills and resources gained over the years with his passion for social justice, employment, health, and community to fuel his vision. “I wanted to significantly contribute to job growth, provide access to healthy food, and create safe communities,” said Andrew. “These elements are scarce in Southwest LA – a community of 120,000 – and they’re badly needed.”

Upon returning from Cancun, Andrew hired his first employee to help build a social enterprise. Over the next 18 months, they developed a business plan, secured business space, and surveyed hundreds of Southwest LA locals about their community needs and desires. Through extensive research, With Love Market & Cafe was born.

Read more about With Love Market and Cafe, as well as our other Faces winner – Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas.

Take Action: State and Federal Budget

State Budget:


Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (our legislative champion) has written a letter to the budget subcommittee in charged of the Go-Biz budget requesting $3 million budget augmentation to the GO-Biz budget for the purpose of administering a grant program for Women’s Business Centers, Veteran Business Outreach Centers, Minority Business Development Agency Business Centers, and Procurement Technical Assistance Programs.

Please download this letter of support and email asap to Toni Symonds with a cc to me and your state legislators (click link to find them.)

Federal Budget:

Despite a long history of bipartisan support for the CDFI Fund, the Trump Administration is moving to rescind funding. The President has requested Congress approve a rescission of the already allocated $22,787,358 for Bank Enterprise Awards (BEA), and $151,281,335 from Capital Magnet Fund (CMF). Upon the President’s request the funds were frozen for 45 days, giving Congress time to act. If the Congress does not approve, the funding will remain in place.

Call your Members of Congress and tell them to deny the Administration’s rescission proposal cutting CDFI funds. Find your representative here. Find your Senator here.

What You Can Say When You Call

“Hello. My name is XXX and I am a constituent of Representative/Senator XXX. I am calling to urge Representative/Senator XXX to support full funding for the CDFI programs. These programs are important to our organization because (give personal example). I urge Representative/Senator XXX to support maintaining $22 million for Bank Enterprise Awards (BEA), and $151 million from Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) through the CDFI program. Thank you for your support for these critical CDFI Fund programs.”

Update on Net Neutrality

  • Good news: The Senate passed S.J. Res. 52, a resolution to overturn the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules, by a margin of 52-47, with Republicans Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AR), and John Kennedy (LA) joining the Democrats in voting “yes” to the overturn.
  • Bad News:The FCC’s repeal is scheduled to become effective June 11. The resolution now goes to the House, though it is unlikely they will vote on it.

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!

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! California was home to more Asian-owned businesses than any other state in 2012 with 604,870. May is also California Small Business Month! 3.8 million small businesses that call our state home. Shop local!

For Your Clients: Join Small Business California for their 2018 Education Day on May 22, 2018 in Sacramento. Small business owners from around the state will hear from leading experts on relevant issues such as: Workers Compensation, Medical Marijuana in the Workplace, State Contracting Opportunities, CalSavers Retirement Savings Program, PAGA Lawsuits, Universal Healthcare or Single Payer Plans, Employment Development Department, and more.

Funding Opportunity: The application is now available for Community Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Matching Grant Program. The deadline is May 31, 2018.

Funding Opportunity: The US SBA has released the Request for Proposal for the PRIME Grant. The deadline is June 1, 2018.

Professional Development:The Federal Reserve Board is accepting applications from individuals who wish to serve on the Community Advisory Council (CAC). The CAC advises the Board on issues affecting consumers and communities and complements two of the Board’s other advisory councils—the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council and the Federal Advisory Council—whose members represent depository institutions. Applications are due June 15, 2018.

Professional Conference: Join Opportunity Finance Network for the Small Business Finance Forum on June 26-27, 2018 at the JW Marriott in Chicago, IL.

Professional Conference: Save the date for OFN’s 2018 Western Regional Meeting July 18 in Denver at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Denver Branch.

New Report: PPIC published “Immigrants in California.” Our state is home to more than 10 million immigrants-about a quarter of the nation’s foreign-born population. The state economy increasingly depends on immigrants to meet demand for highly educated workers, but it also continues to rely on immigrants with little formal education.

New Report: Businesses for Responsible Tax Reform released “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Implications for Small Businesses” that argues that the new tax laws put small businesses at a disadvantage to large businesses.

New Report: Amazon released its first-ever Small Business Impact Report which found more than 1 million U.S.-based small and medium-sized businesses are selling on Amazon. That report needs to be digested along with the loss of local tax revenue and what happens to Main Street that was reported in Amazon and Empty Storefronts: The Fiscal and Land Use Impacts of Online Retail.

New Report: Accion in the U.S. and Opportunity Fund recently released a groundbreaking report that examines the impact of mission-based small business lending services on borrowers’ businesses, their household financial security, and their overall quality of life.

New Report: The SBA released their state small business profiles, download California’s.

New Report: The Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco, New York, Dallas, and Richmond issued the 2017 Small Business Credit Survey: Report on Disaster-Affected Firms. This is the first in a series of reports this year examining the results of an annual survey of small business owners. 61 percent of affected firms had revenue losses ranging from $1-$25,000, and 35 percent had revenue losses over $25,000.

Yelp for Funders: Foundations need feedback loops, and nonprofit need tips on grantseeking. In other words, we all need GrantAdvisor.org to succeed. And you can help with 7 minutes of your time.