Must Go! Important Events For Fall

In this week’s Must Know

  • Must Go! Important Events for Your Fall Calendar
  • Must Know! Stats, Important Poll and Know How
  • The Goodies: This week’s highlight is for CAMEO members who are attending the Opportunity Finance Network Conference in San Antonio. CAMEO invites you for a drink at “The Bar” on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 from 5:30-6:30pm hosted by Susan Brown. Email Susan if you 1) are going to OFN and 2) will be able to join her for some CAMEO spirits.

Must Go! Important Events for Your Fall Calendar

CAMEO is planning, planning, planning – for you. We’ve got inspiration, we’ve got capacity building, we’ve got advocacy. Mark your calendars and participate!

1. Register Now for Think Big! A Women’s Symposium. Join CAMEO at the L.A. Federal Reserve and become inspired! Think Big! On November 7, 2012, we celebrate female entrepreneurship and ways to advance. Anie Borjas, the executive director of the National Women’s Business Council, who advises the White House, Congress and the SBA, will kick us off with their latest research on women entrepreneurs and success issues. We will post more details next week, including the full agenda and speakers.

2. Remember to mark your calendars for the week of November 12 for the Introductory Financial Workshop for Business Counselors. Susan Brown, our trainer extraordinaire, will lead a one day introductory workshop in Los Angeles that will cover the following topics: referring clients, eligibility, underwriting criteria, understanding financial statements, creating cash flow projections, best practices for making microloan referrals.

Staff should attend this workshop to learn how to develop loan-ready microenterprise clients and help business clients successfully qualify for a microloan. We will introduce what lenders want in a borrower, common eligibility criteria and how to determine a quality loan referral. It’s not too early to identify the staff members that you’d like to send in order to build financial, underwriting, and lending capacity.

3. Virtual online ‘event’ through December – Self-employment is a labor market trend and most corporations aren’t creating jobs. Please 1) sign the Be Your Own Boss petition, 2) recruit five colleagues/Facebook friends to sign and 3) if you can, really spread the word by downloading the toolkit.

Must Know! Stats, Important Poll and Know How

In no particular order, here’s a bunch of things you should know are out there. Good news!

The Public Policy Institute of California came out with a report: The California Economy: Employment in 2012 loaded with good stats like the following: ‘Between June 2009 and August 2012, job growth was strongest in San Jose (5.6%), Bakersfield-Delano (3%), San Francisco (2.1%), and San Diego (2%).’ Another optimistic view of the strength of California’s economy comes from Mike Rossi, Governor Jerry Brown’s senior adviser for jobs and business development.

AEO, Small Business Majority and National Association for Self-Employment commissioned an opinion poll of micro-business owners about the future. The results? More good news, optimism reigns. Read the press release from AEO and CAMEO’s excited response to the micro-business optimism poll.

Do you know what the Zero Moment of Truth is? If you don’t, I bet your client businesses don’t and they should! Hint: It has something to do with when you hook a customer. Read our latest guest post from Joanne Steele who wowed us at this year’s rural summit.

We’ve posted a couple of more success stories: Falcon Builders from Central Valley Business Incubator SBDC and GEPermit from Accion San Diego. If you’ve got one, feel free to send along.

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 Event at OFN: CAMEO members who are attending the Opportunity Finance Network Conference in San Antonio. CAMEO invites you for a drink at “The Bar” on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 from 5:30-6:30pm hosted by Susan Brown. Email Susan if you 1) are going to OFN and 2) will be able to join her for a drink.

Happy National Women’s Business Month: Every Thursday in October, the SBA will hold web chats to address business topics from a woman-business-owner perspective. Web chat themes include: starting and growing your business, finding capital, government contracting, and opportunities for young women.

Member Event: AEO, Opportunity Fund, PACE and VEDC hosts Access to Capital: Money to Main Street on October 18, 2012, an all day event for small and micro-business owners seeking start up capital. Learn more and register.

Free Webinar: AEO hosts Training Entrepreneurs about Finance – Small Business Finance Institute on
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 from 10:00-11:00am PDT // 1:00-2:00pm EDT. Many microbusiness development organizations seek to offer effective business support services in this challenging business environment, but must also manage a variety of responsibilities for their growing client list. This webinar will provide an overview of Small Business Finance Instituteโ€™s (SBFI) financial management training services and its curriculum that are available to microbusiness development organizations for delivery to clients. Register and learn more.

Grant Opportunity: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is a funding source for micro-business development. And if you’re a rural member there’s grant writing assistance available from The National Catholic Rural Life Conference. The application deadline is November 1, 2012. Learn more.

For Your Clients: CARAT offers free online trainings for small businesses through December. Check out their calendar.

Free Beer For Fundraiser: Youth Business America has a big donor who has 100 plus trucks of beer that they need to offload. The donor wishes to provide it to nonprofits, at no charge, to help support their events and fundraisers. You need 1) to be able to accept an entire truckload at one specified location (can be anywhere) with a delivery dock to receive the truck and a forklift to handle these 24 palates of beer, which equates to 1,440 cases; to have a secured storage space, to ensure the beer will not get into the hands of those under 21; and 3) to sign an agreement document upon delivery saying you will not sell/barter the beer, and you will not distribute it to those under 21. If able and interested, Email Zach.

Capacity Building: Joanne Steele, who inspired those who attended our Rural Summit in June, has an online marketing ‘class’ – Take Control of Your Internet Marketing. In simple do-able steps, train your clients to manage their own Internet marketing, from online reviews to building their own website, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) for businesses, SEO, customer focused content and more. Take Control will partner with your organization to provide the training your clients need at a remarkably affordable price! Contact Joanne Steele – 530-235-4404 or email. Learn how you can use Take Control to enhance and expand your Internet marketing trainings and help your clients succeed.

For SBA program Participants: If you participate in the SBA Microloan, PRIME, or ILPP programs, make sure you read the end of fiscal year update for 2012. Hopefully it was emailed to you, if not it’s posted on our website. The message has important information on grants, reporting and training.

New Report: California Financial Opportunities Roundtable (CalFOR) Handbook to Capital Access. Read more about how micro fits into the CalFORS effort on our websites.

Interesting Stats: The Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy has produced a new Fast Facts on the California Economy.

Interesting Stats: The Small Business Frequently Asked Questions from the SBA reports that 79.5% of all small businesses are non-employer and it’s an upward trend. The SBA also hosts a number of do-it-yourself webinars on financing your business.

Member Kudos: Congratulations to Pacific Coast Regional Small Business Development Corporation (PCR) for a recent investment of $250,000 in PCR by the Private Bank of California. The investment was made to support PCR’s new efforts as a SBA-7a lender under a pilot program known as the SBA Community Advantage Loan Program. The Private Bank of California used the California Organized Investment Network (COIN), which is a state sponsored program that provides for a 20% state tax credit to community-minded investors like The Private Bank of California. In exchange for the tax credit there is no cost-of-funds to PCR.