Self-Employed Entrepreneurs: The New Era Workforce
This week’s symposium was a huge success. Many people focus on the disruption that the technology platforms have brought to markets. We focused on the needs of the entrepreneurs who are doing independent work, whether supplement their income to start a business or as a career path and a way to find clients.
We heard about the latest data on the demographics and characteristics of the independent workers. Then we heard from four entrepreneurs on their experiences and learned what they need to be successful. Marco Zappacosta, the CEO of Thumbtack, spoke about the future of work as being non-tradeable and non-routine (you’ll have to read the article to see what he means). Finally, in the afternoon we heard from eight different practitioners who are creating solutions to help independent workers succeed. We ended the day with a rich discussion on other creative solutions.
CAMEO is committed to helping entrepreneurs and will use what we learned from the symposium to guide us in our future endeavors. There was real buzz from the varied stakeholders. There was real buzz from the varied stakeholders. Derek Ozkal from Kauffman Foundation had this to say:
I thought the CAMEO conference on self-employed entrepreneurs was fantastic. I appreciated the opportunity to learn from others on this topic. I look forward to following your work in this space.
We’ll be posting the resources and a more in-depth recap of what we learned and where we’re going over the next few weeks, but for now enjoy this piece that was in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Entrepreneurs thrash out future of flexible work https://t.co/whwIIt9gT4
— Carolyn Said (@CSaid) January 19, 2017
A big thanks to our colleagues at Intuit who co-hosted the event.
Along the same lines, Stanford Social Innovation Review will host a webinar – The Gig Economy – on Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 11:00am-12:00pm PST // 2:00-3:00 pm EST. The webinar will explore the following: the current and emerging landscape of independent work; the most promising and troubling elements of independent work; generate ideas on what could make independent work more stable and sustainable for workers, especially vulnerable and/or lower skilled workers; and more.
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!
Inauguration Day: Small Business Majority has these recommendations for the new administration’s first 100 days in office to help small businesses succeed: 1) affordable and quality health coverage, 2) tax policies that benefit small businesses rather than large corporations, 3) real infrastructure investments, 4) access to responsible capital, and 5) comprehensive immigration reform.
Member in the News: The University of San Francisco’s newsletter featured Emily Gasner of Working Solutions for the work she’s done helping small businesses.
For Your Clients: The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the health insurance marketplaces is an unknown. In California, a lot of confusion and misinformation about what this means for the state’s health insurance marketplace, Covered California, and enrollment options for 2017 is floating around. Small Business Majority sets the record straight on healthcare in California with a few key points to keep in mind. In a nutshell, if you signed up for 2017, you’re covered for 2017.
For Your Clients: Go-Biz’s California Competes Tax Credit online application is now open until January 23, 2017. Yes, very small businesses can apply for the available $100 million in credits.
Women’s Business Center Comments: The US SBA is seeking comments on this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the Women’s Business Center (WBC) Program. The deadline for comments is January 23, 2017.
Professional Development Opportunity: CEDA is offering scholarships to attend the CALED Conference (March 21-23 in San Diego.) If you show both financial need and dedication to economic development and want to attend the conference, then please submit the application form to Helen Schaubmayer by 5:00 pm on January 24. Scholarship winners will be contacted by January 31st.
For Your Clients, Webinars: Small Business Majority and the U.S. SBA host California Workplace Benefits Webinar: Healthy Employees, Healthy Bottom Line. This webinar series during open enrollment discusses workforce and healthcare laws. They’ll also discuss programs that offer a competitive advantage for small businesses and help them retain and attract talented employees. Register for the last webinar at 11:00am on January 24, 2017.
CDFI Application Webinar: Join Friedman and Associates on January 24, 2017 at 11:00am PST // 2:00 pm EST to walk through the proposed revised Financial Assistance (FA) and Technical Assistance (TA) applications. They will outline the proposed changes and how you should respond. Also, they will preview their myFund Workbook 2.0, an easy-to-use, collaborative workbook and project plan that guides you through the application and submission process!
Funding Opportunity: The SBA’s Aspire Challenge is a $1.2 million prize competition that will award up to 16 awards of $75,000 to organizations across the nation who can deliver entrepreneurial training to individuals who have been formerly incarcerated. The application deadline is February 12, 2017 with winners be announced no later than March 14. Informational webinars will be held on Tuesday, January 24 at 11:00am PT // 2:00pm ET and Tuesday, January 31 at 11:00am PT // 2:00pm ET.
CDFI Conference: The CDFI Coalition will hold its 2017 Institute on February 28 and March 1 at the Capital Hilton Hotel, 1001 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. The agenda will include speakers and topics of interest and importance to the CDFI Industry. Panelists will include federal agency leaders and industry experts with topics ranging from the 115th Congress and Trump Administration priorities, to the CDFI Fund and other federal resources, as well as private sector sources of capital for CDFIs. The early bird rate deadline is January 27, 2017.
Funding Opportunity: The Local Crowd pleased to announce an opportunity for up to 10 U.S. rural communities to become Demonstration Sites that use crowdfunding as an economic development tool. This will be the fourth and final RFP to become a demonstration site. Local economic development organizations are invited to respond to the Request For Proposals. These responders may be local or regional economic development groups, SBDCs, chambers of commerce, Main Street programs or other organizations. Deadline to respond is February 1, 2017.
For Your Clients: Join a global community of impactful entrepreneurs with Stanford Ignite, a transformative program where innovators with military backgrounds learn core business skills such as prototyping, marketing, accounting, leadership and much more. Applications are due March 2, 2017.
For Your Clients: The U.S. SBA opened the third year of the InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Challenge (the Challenge), pursuant to the America Competes Act, for entrepreneurs to create a product or service that has a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, the potential for commercialization, and fills a need in the marketplace. Organizations that wish to host a local competition as part of the initial round of this Challenge must send a request to the SBA no later than March 10, 2017. (Click on first link in sentence and scroll half way down the page.)
Funding Opportunity: Opportunity Fund recently launched its Community Partner Program. The program can supplement the missions and programs of other non-profits by serving as a microloan program for those who do not have one and complementing the services of those who do. Partners receive several benefits, including an in-depth look at the credit and underwriting criteria and a 5% commission on every qualified referral booked for loans between $5,000 and $50,000. If you have questions or are interested, please contact Robert Zapata by email or phone 323.506.3529.
microTracker Relaunches: FIELD at the Aspen Institute is thrilled to announce the new microTracker.org, their nationwide database on US microenterprise development organizations. MicroTracker gives you the ability to explore, analyze, and compare data on microenterprise programs across the country. The new site is updated to give flexibility, better navigation, and more ability for downloading analysis.
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