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Small Business Financing Training and the 2016 Election

  • CAMEO is the Voice of Micro! Join/Renew Your CAMEO membership now! Membership drive extended to February 15.
  • Small Business Financing Webinar Series
  • WE Decide 2016
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight is to join Claudia at the 2016 SMALL BUSINESS EDUCATORS SYMPOSIUM, Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset on February 18-19 in Los Angeles.

Small Business Financing Webinar Series

OFN is offering a webinar series focused on growth and innovation for small business lenders. CAMEO will follow each session with dynamic peer group calls to digest and apply what was learned.

The webinars and discussions are designed to increase the understanding of the building blocks of small business lending and will introduce new tools and ideas. Both CEOs and line staff can benefit from this rich training opportunity.

Webinars take place at 11:00am-12:30pm PT // 2:00-3:30pm ET. Register for the first one, which takes place on February 11: Small Business Lending Landscape.

As part of our MicroLending Academy, CAMEO will be holding peer calls a few days after the webinar to discuss how best to apply the OFN ideas to your organization. Join us to

  • digest the OFN lender training content with your California peers;
  • share your thoughts about how these ideas apply to our lending environment;
  • help CAMEO develop programs to support implementation of these ideas in our lending network; and
  • be the best lender you can!

Join us on February 17 at 11:00am for a discussion on how your organizations can respond to the fast-growing online small business ‘lending’ environment.

Future topics include: Introduction to the Business Model Canvas; Building a Value Proposition, Customer Acquisition and Retention, Finding Existing Barriers to Loan Growth, Lending Life Cycle and Technology and Talent Management. You can find more information and registration links on our post – Small Business Financing Webinar Series.

WE Decide 2016

Women business owners number 9.9 million and contributed approximately $1.6 trillion to our economy; and women are starting businesses at a faster rate than men. Furthermore, women have voted at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980, with the gap between women and men growing slightly larger with each successive election. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important for presidential candidates to understand the issues impacting women, their families and their businesses. And we know they definitely could use some understanding!

CAMEO has joined Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for their campaign – WE Decide 2016 – to engage women in business in the 2016 election. WE Decide 2016 is a nonpartisan, no cost collaboration with a focus on education and engagement. Leveraging insight, secure poll data and participant feedback, WE Decide 2016 will publish a Women in Business Priorities report prior to the national conventions to encourage political parties and their candidates to prioritize and discuss issues of significance to women entrepreneurs.

Please take a moment to sign up your organization to become a WE Decide 2016 Supporter. As a supporter, you will be asked to highlight WE Decide 2016 to your members and network via your website, your communications and your social media channels throughout the year, encouraging women in business to participate in the polls, surveys and Tell Us! Questions to share their feedback.

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: The U.S. Small Business Administration has launched the registration for its 2016 Emerging Leaders executive-level training series for Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties. This is the fourth year the program has been held in Southern California and the second consecutive year that there will be two cohorts, one of only three SBA districts to do so. Sacramento area business owners may also participate.

Free Webinar: Are you looking for ways to help small and microbusiness owners build financial capability? Join CFED on February 10 from 11:00am-12:00noon PST // 2:00-3:00pm EST to learn about three creative approaches to teaching business financial management and the client insights that shaped the way these organizations designed their programs.

CDFI Fund Applications: The Department of Treasury announced that they are now accepting applications for the CDFI Fund. CDFI Certification Applications must be received by the CDFI Fund by February 12, 2016. Qualified Issuer Applications must be submitted by March 4, 2016. Guarantee Applications must be submitted by March 18, 2016. Friedman and Associates is accepting requests to write CDFI FA and TA applications.

Train the Trainer: Join Claudia at the 2016 SMALL BUSINESS EDUCATORS SYMPOSIUM, Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset on February 18-19, 2016 at The Westin – Los Angeles Airport, 5400 W Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045. This symposium is for anyone interested in infusing entrepreneurship into their curriculum: Hear from business experts what skills students will need as employees to help their businesses succeed and also what skills they will need to become future entrepreneurial leaders; hear from fellow educators who have already cracked the code on how to teach students the skills they will need; multiple professional intensive training opportunities will be available. Registration is $145. CAMEO does offer individual training help.

Small Business Stakeholder Roundtable: GoBiz will host a roundtable to give small business stakeholders (e.g. chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, federal, state and local technical assistance partners, small business owners and others) the opportunity to give input and feedback on small business issues and hear from special guests on economic development initiatives. Join GoBiz on Thursday, February 25, 2016, 10:00am-12:00noon at the Office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, 633 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles.

CDFI Coalition 2016 Institute: The 2016 Institute is on March 9-10, 2016 at the Washington Plaza Hotel, located at 10 Thomas Circle NW in Washington, D.C. As always, the agenda will include speakers and topics of interest and importance to the CDFI Industry, including the opening keynote by CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan.

Non-Profit Technology Conference: If you’re interested in learning about how you and your organization can stay on top of technology trends – not to mention learn best practices, and get the support you need to use technology in a way that will truly fulfill your mission – then have a staff member or two attend the2016 Nonprofit Technology Conference (16NTC). This year it’s in San Jose, California from March 23 – 25. Over 2,000 non-profit professionals will gather to share ideas, tactics, and strategies on using tech – in your communications efforts, as well as your programming. I’ll be going. If you have any questions about the conference, reach out to the organizers at NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network. Don’t forget that we offer professional development assistance.

AEO National Conference: Save the date May 18-20, 2016 in Washington, DC to celebrate 25 years! EconoCon25 gathers actors in the small business space who impact America’s smallest businesses and underserved entrepreneurs — lenders, nonprofit and for-profit service providers, advocates and policy makers, entrepreneurs, funders and investors — for meaningful dialogue about how to innovate faster, partner smarter, and execute better.