New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Sponsor Women’s Small Business Ownership Act

  • Needed: Sponsors for Women’s Small Business Ownership Act
  • Webinar: How to Get Products on Retail Shelves
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlights includes testimony by Claudia Viek at the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on Wednesday September 17 at 11:30am PT//2:30pm. Watch online as Ms. CAMEO tells it like it is!
  • Save the date for WOVEN – Women Veteran Entrepreneurs Network Event, a day-long training for women veterans co-hosted by the LA District Office of the U.S. SBA on November 6 at Patriotic Hall in Los Angeles. Download a WOVEN Save The Date flyer and help spread the word.

Needed: Sponsors for Women’s Small Business Ownership Act

Late July, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Chair, introduced the Women’s Small Business Ownership Act of 2014, S. 2693. Now it’s time to mobilize support for the bill.

Our friends at WIPP have made it really easy for you to urge Senators Boxer and Feinstein to support S.2693 by signing on as a cosponsor of the bill. Please visit WIPP’s Action Center to write a quick letter. (For those of you not in California, you can write your Senators from the Action Center, too.) And of course, we’d be grateful if you emailed me to let me know you contacted the Senators.

This bill would address these three major issues plaguing women business owners: access to the federal market via contract opportunities, access to capital, and access to business counseling and training. Read more on the bill and July’s hearing on women’s business ownership by Ann Sullivan, our policy maven in DC.

Webinar: How to Get Products on Retail Shelves

You and your clients are invited to a free webinar on Wednesday, September 24, 2014 at 2:00pm PT! Karen Waksman, Founder and CEO of Retail MBA, will reveal how to get products on the shelves of major chain store retailers. No sales experience or existing buyer relationships required. Karen will reveal:

  • How the buying process works at major retailers
  • What chain stores buyers expect
  • How to find a buyer’s contact information
  • What makes a buyer more inclined to buy
  • Tips and strategies on how to place your products on retail shelves today

Who should attend?

  • Business trainers who have clients selling a product; and
  • Anyone who is hoping to turn their products into profits through retail outlets.

To access the webinar and the slides, register for How to Get Products on Retail Shelves. For audio, dial (626) 677-3000 with access code 4284853.

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!

Highlight – Claudia Testifies: Ms. CAMEO goes to DC to testify at a U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on Wednesday September 17 at 11:30am PT//2:30pm. Watch online as Claudia testifies about how micro businesses and entrepreneurship are the key to closing the wealth gap.

Take Action: Net neutrality protects your clients’ businesses by ensuring that the companies that operate the internet can’t play favorites, and must treat all content equally. It prevents the internet from being divided into fast lanes and slow lanes. It lets the market work as is intended. The FCC is accepting comments on the proposed rules, but time is running out – the comment period closes September 15th. Now is the time to speak out and tell the FCC what businesses really want.

Free webinar: CBA and Experian host Analysis of CBA Members: Confirms Value of Credit Building on September 16, 2014 at 11:00am PST // 2:00 pm EST. This first-ever national study by Experian of CBA’s membership that confirms that when people pay regularly on their credit obligations and these payments are reported to a credit bureau, individuals will benefit through building stronger credit reports and scores.

CAMEO Participates: Claudia Viek will be one of the judges for CFED’s Small Business “Shark Tank” Challenge on Wednesday September 17, 10:15-11:30am at the Asset Learning Conference. Innovative organizations and companies, like CAMEO member Opportunity Fund, will compete by presenting solutions for improving the financial capability of low-to-moderate income microbusiness owners.

Healthcare Webinars: The Small Business Administration and Small Business Majority are helping businesses navigate health care through the webinar series What the Healthcare Law Means For Your California Small Business . It’s every two weeks in English and monthly in Spanish. The next ones are on September 24, 2014 at 10:00am and September 17, 2014 at 1:00pm respectively. Note the Small Business Health Option Program’s online enrollment function is on hold and will be back online in the fall. Businesses can still purchase insurance through the traditional paper process, working with your Certified agent or the SHOP Service Center. Also Small Business California helped create a new Spanish-language website to help Latino business owners and employees learn how to comply with the health care law.

For Your Clients: Booming interest in entrepreneurship has led many people to think that entrepreneurship is synonymous with Silicon Valley. The Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge instead highlights entrepreneurship and innovation from the heartland of Rural America. The Challenge is an opportunity to highlight and reward rural entrepreneurs and a chance to WIN $15,000. The deadline is Monday, September 15, 2014.

Free Webinar: AEO and the Assets for Independence Resource Center host Matched Savings for Entrepreneurs, Tuesday, September 23 at 11:00 am PT. Learn about matched savings programs and how they benefit low-income entrepreneurs and microbusiness development organizations.

California Nonprofit Technology Festival: This two-day gathering of over 100 folks from California and abroad who are passionate about leveraging technology and creative media for social justice will take place in Richmond, California on September 25 and 26. The CA Tech Fest will include topics ranging from social media strategy, constituent engagement, privacy and security, media advocacy, and self-care for organizers. The conference is $50 for organizations with budgets under $5 million.

Economic Forecast Conference: Beacon Economics hosts the 2014 Riverside/San Bernardino Economic Forecast Conference on October 23, 2014 from 7:00-11:00am at The Riverside Convention Center, 3637 Fifth Street, Riverside, CA 92501. CAMEO members receive a discount price of $100 by entering “cameo14” when registering.

Policy Briefing: Mission Asset Fund will hold a policy briefing on Monday September 29, 2014 10:00-11:00 am PST on SB 896to answer questions and discuss implications of the new law to the asset building field. on Monday September 29, 2014 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST. Sign up here. The passage of SB 896 makes California the first state to regulate and recognize credit-building as a vehicle for good.

New Report: FIELD, in partnership with the Citi Foundation, is pleased to announce the release of the newest findings from the Asset Building through Credit Pilot. The demonstration project worked with five microenterprise programs to test the delivery of secured card, combined with credit coaching, as a tool to help aspiring entrepreneurs to build their credit and move toward their business goals.

CAMEO White Paper: Read the CAMEO White Paper: Do-It-Yourself Economic Growth: How Communities Can Cultivate Their Talent and Thrive.