- Micro Is Still THE Job Generator
- CAMEO Annual Meeting
- Microenterprise Census: Why Data Matters
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight is the third-annual PG&E Economic Vitality Grant Program. Applications are due July 31, 2015.
Micro Is Still THE Job Generator
California’s micro firms blow large firms away when it comes to job creation. (Firm size is on the x-axis and job creation is on the y-axis.) Ain’t that a pretty picture.
A couple of years ago, we crunched U.S. Census numbers and reported that Very Small Businesses Created 5.5 Million Jobs From 2004 to 2010. Two more years of data are now available and here’s the updated numbers. Micro firms:
- created jobs every year;
- created a net of 7 million jobs in the U.S.;
- created a net of 920,000 jobs in California;
- mostly created more jobs than any other firm size;
- were the only firm size that created jobs during the downturn years of 2009 and 2010.
This while large businesses (those >500 employees) lost 750,000 jobs nationwide. In California, big businesses lost about 200,000 jobs – underlining just how important the micro sector is to our state.
Terry Bibbens from Small Business California came out with a similar report that covers the period 1989-2012. Download The Very Small Businesses Are Vital To Job Creation In The United States.
CAMEO’s Annual Meeting
The data on micro job creation is strong support for our Do-It-Yourself Economy message. CAMEO members will be using this information at the legislative visits next Tuesday during our annual meeting. The data makes your case for investments in the micro sector, which is so important because our state continues to believe that larger businesses are the job creators.
Tomorrow is the last day to register for our Annual Member Meeting.
June 9, 2015
8:30 am – 6:00 pm
Sterling Hotel
1300 H Street, Sacramento
Join us in Sacramento to advocate for microbusiness issues, learn about business pollinators, and look into the future to re-imagine business assistance services.
Microenterprise Census: Why Data Matters
Join us on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 11:00am PT to kick off the opening of the Micro Census. Register for the Microenterprise Census: Why Data Matters webinar.
Every year, CAMEO partners with FIELD at the Aspen Institute to conduct a census of microenterprise programs using the microTracker platform. We rely on this data to fuel our advocacy and support our members at the state and national level. The better data we have, the stronger our case is, and the easier it is to express the vital role MDOs play in the small business sector.
The Census is a valuable tool for individual organizations, too.
- Need to compare how you’re doing compared to other MDOs in California and across the country? microTracker can tell you.
- Need to show how you’re doing, year over year, quickly and cleanly? microTracker shows you.
- Have a lot of data, but aren’t quite sure how to organize it to present to your Board, funders, and supporters? microTracker puts everything in order for you with clear definitions and helpful examples.
Tamra Thetford of the Aspen Institute presents this user-friendly guide to completing and understanding the Census.
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!
For Your Clients: Our friends at Small Business California are co-sponsoring a free webinar that will help your clients answer the question: “Is your business ready to comply with California’s new sick pay law?” on June 8, 2015, 3:00-3:30pm PT. The new California Sick Pay law becomes effective July 1, 2015. Almost all employers, even those with just one employee, will be affected by this new law. Feel free to invite your clients and your trainers.
Industry Conference: The 13th annual BALLE Conference is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and inspiring yet. The leading lights of the local economy movement will gather June 10-12, 2015 in Phoenix to inspire, learn, and connect around What’s Working — tangible solutions that are paving the path to real prosperity for all people. CAMEO followers will receive 10% off current price when they use the discount code BETTERTOGETHER when registering for the BALLE Conference.
Funding Opportunity: The USDA has opened two funding opportunities: Rural Business Development Grants (RBDG), formerly known as RBEG and RBOG, and Value Added Producer Grants (VAPG). RBDG is a competitive grant designed to support targeted technical assistance, training and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas that have fewer than 50 employees and less than $1 million in gross revenues. VAPG program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and/or marketing of bio-based, value-added products. Deadlines are June 19, 2015.
Funding Opportunity: The U.S. SBA’s PRIME grant announcement is out. Applications are due on June 29, 2015. The official one-liner: “The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued Program Announcement No. PRIME-2015-01 to provide training and capacity building grant programs to microenterprise development organizations (MDOs).”
Funding Opportunity: The third-annual PG&E Economic Vitality Grant Program launched this week (June 1). This shareholder-funded program will support local job creation, workforce training, business development and other innovative programs that support local economic vitality and growth. It’s geared toward local government organizations, educational institutions and 501(c)(3) nonprofits throughout their service area. The online application is due July 31, 2015.