In this week’s Must Know
- Reach and Serve Women Veterans – at CAMEO’s Women’s Symposium Nov 7th; the afternoon is a must attend for anyone supporting food businesses and their clients
- Introductory Financial Workshop for Business Counselors
- The Goodies: This week’s highlight is a big congrats to El Pajaro! Its Commercial Kitchen Incubator Program is 1 of 11 finalists out of nearly 400 entries and the only one from the United States in the Ashoka Changemakers Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies international competition! Please vote for El Pajaro today! Voting ends Friday.
Reach and Serve Women Veterans, Nov 7
The unemployment rate for veterans went down from 8.1% in September 2011 to 6.7% in September 2012, but dig deeper and the numbers for women veterans don’t look so good. Unemployment for women veterans went from 9.7% in September 2011 to 13.2% in September 2012. And it’s even worse for recent female veterans (19.9%.)
Some say the reason is that the government and education sectors have cut back, two sectors that traditionally employ women veterans. We say don’t wait until those sectors bounce back. Start your own business.
That’s why we’ve brought together a bunch of amazing women veterans who will show you how to reach and effectively serve their sector with entrepreneurship at our Think Big! A Women’s Symposium. Register Now. Join CAMEO at the L.A. Federal Reserve on November 7, 2012. Visit the Think Big page on our website for the full agenda and speakers list (including a great afternoon for all your clients in the food business.
One resource for veterans is Joining Forces Mentoring Plus, that provides resources, including mentors, subject matter experts, and online connections to women veterans and military and veteran spouses to assist them in obtaining meaningful employment and a successful career of interest to them. CAMEO members can sign up online as mentors and subject matter experts on self employment and entrepreneurship. Please like Joining Forces on Facebook.
Introductory Financial Workshop for Business Counselors
Register now for the Introductory Financial Workshop for Business Counselors on November 14th at the Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles.
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, and
- 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.
Learn more about the workshop or register.
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!
Take Action: El Pajaro’s Commercial Kitchen Incubator Program is 1 of 11 finalists out of nearly 400 entries and the only one from the United States in the Ashoka Changemakers Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies international competition. Please vote for El Pajaro today! Voting ends Friday.
Take Action: Please 1) sign the Be Your Own Boss petition to help the unemployed start their own businesses, 2) recruit five colleagues/Facebook friends to sign and 3) if you can, really spread the word by downloading the toolkit.
New Report: Public Policy Institute of California released a new report on unemployment in California. The findings are mixed: unemployment remains high but continues its downward trend; California’s unemployment rate has been falling faster than the national rate; the California labor market is adding jobs faster than the U.S. overall; unemployment rates differ widely and persistently across California counties; labor force participation continues to fall while the employment-to-population ratio is stagnant.
AEO and FIELD Membership Discount: You save $100 on AEO membership and $100 on a one-year MicroTracker Premium Plan subscription – that’s a total value of $500 for only $300! Learn more about the AEO/FIELD Membership Bundle. This is a must-buy, if you are not already an AEO member!
Bay Area Business Event: Inner City Advisors hosts ALL OUT 2012 event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. ALL OUT 2012’s mission is to solve the challenges that help Bay Area small businesses scale up. On November 8, 2012 at 6:00pm, 1000 of the Bay Area’s brightest entrepreneurial, philanthropic and community-driven minds will collaborate to deliver results – not rhetoric – to create 25,000 good, local jobs. Come ready to contribute your solutions and celebrate. Learn more and buy tickets.
Leadership Training: FIELD is partnering with Capital One to create a new leadership institute for emerging leaders (under the age of 45) in the microbusiness development field. Called ELM² – Emerging Leaders in Microbusiness – with the squared symbol representing the multiplier effect that the program will have in developing new leaders,, its target participants are: high-potential staff in mature microenterprise organizations, and young executive directors of new organizations. Applications are due November 9, 2012. CAMEO can provide $400 towards a scholarship.
Free Webinar: ASBC hosts How Would Developing a Climate Action Plan Benefit Small Business? on November 13, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. PT // 2:00 p.m. ET. Learn more and register.
For Your Clients: Fedex is the latest corporate sponsor to host a small business grant competition. The deadline is November 24.
Online Business Prep class: The Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center starts is next Online Business Prep class on November 28 at 6:30 p.m. for 12 weeks. This live, interactive class is designed to assess the viability of clients’ businesses and ideas for business. There is homework and a presentation at the end, which supports in participants being prepared to write a business plan by learning the fundamentals of marketing, operations, and finance in twelve 3 hour webinars. Download the brochure.
Conference: The Federal Reserve Hosts Paving the Way for Financial Success in California – A statewide symposium to support asset building programs and policies in California. December 4, 2012, Holiday Inn Fresno Downtown, Fresno. Access the agenda and register.
Conference: Beacon Economics host the 2012 Riverside/San Bernardino Economic Forecast Conference on December 6, 2012 in Ontario, California. Learn more and register today!
Take Action: Everybody eats. This means all of us have a stake in how our food is grown and produced. And if we want local, sustainable, healthy food everywhere – from our grocery stores to our schools, delivered from thriving family farms nationwide – we have to ask for it. A few CAMEO members are partners in a a national petition led by nearly 50 food and farm organizations from around the country that wants Congress to pass a better farm bill.
For Your Clients: CARAT offers free online trainings for small businesses through December. Check out their calendar.