In this Must Know…
- We Want to Connect!
- BBOR Policy Webinar
- Federal Updates
- Renew your membership or join to help us continue our successful advocacy work! The governor’s budget is proof!
- Register for the Microlenders Forum on February 13, 2018 in San Francisco. (Space is limited.)
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight is a new SBA report: “Latino Business Ownership: Contributions and Barriers for U.S. Born and Immigrant Latino Entrepreneurs.”
We Want to Connect!
Over the next year, CAMEO will revamp our digital and social media channels to better serve our members and connect you to resources. For us to understand your online needs, we’ll ask you to weigh in on questions like: how do you use our website, what tools you like best, and how do you communicate and share digitally with your peers. We’re starting small with two efforts: a new Facebook cover photo contest and asking a simple two question survey on which social media channels you use professionally.
First the Facebook cover. Nicole Pelayo, an Accion client (left), has graced our page for quite a while. She is lovely and the photo is fantastic, but the time has come to find a new face of Micro for CAMEO’s Facebook page.
Help us choose a new cover for our page by posting photos that you think best represent the micro sector. Comment on the other photos. The expert panel (CAMEO staff) will consider photo originality/uniqueness, composition, quality, content, relevance to micro, and comments by your peers. Deadline is February 14, 2018 at 5pm. The winner(s) will be featured in the following Must Know and have the satisfaction that their photo graces the CAMEO Facebook page and represents the sector. While you’re at there, ‘like’ MicroBizCA on Facebook.
And second, take this simple survey; you can submit your answers below. If the survey does not load, you can participate by answering the two questions on the google form.
BBOR Policy Webinar
Learn what you can do to make sure that your clients get the best loans and aren’t victims of predatory lenders. Please join the Responsible Business Lending Coalition (RBLC) for a presentation of their federal and state policy agendas on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 from 11:00am-12:00pm PST // 2:00-3:00pm EST.
RBLC founding members will present policy recommendations intended to promote access to fair and responsible capital for small businesses. They will discuss in detail the following recommendations:
- Create a Truth in Lending Act for small businesses
- Support small business data collection
- Support modernization of the IRS technology used to share tax returns with lender
- Pass a resolution in support of the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights
- Require registration and duty of care of brokers
Then the coalition will explain opportunities for signatories and endorsers to engage with advocacy, followed by Q & A. Submit questions or feedback in advance of the webinar, either on the RBLC’s policy platform or the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights.
Federal Updates
If you’ve been reading the Must Know and/or following any bit of national news, you know that whether or not the government would be in business was fodder for an ABC weeknight drama. The government IS back in business, at least through February 8, 2018 as Congress passed another continuing appropriations resolution (CR). The three-week CR includes:
- Extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years
- Authorizes the SBA to shift funding to administer increased 7(a) loan demand
- Delays the re-implementation of the Obamacare medical device tax through 2019
- Delays the re-implementation of the tax on “Cadillac” health plans through 2022
- Suspends the Obamacare tax on insurance providers for 2019
- Provides back-pay to workers who were briefly furloughed
Read the entire CR and all its other provisions.
Here’s a timeline of events:
- The House passed a continuing appropriations resolution (CR) on January 18 to fund the government through February 16.
- After a few days of a government shutdown, the Senate amended the CR by changing the expiration date from February 16 to February 8, and including the back-pay provision.
- The Senate then passed the amended bill on Monday afternoon in no minor part due to a commitment by Majority Leader McConnell to bring legislation to the Senate floor by February 8th containing a path for DREAMers to remain in the U.S.
- The House passed the CR Monday evening.
- President Trump signed the bill into law also on Monday.
- Following passage of the CR, the House adjourned for the remainder of the week pursuant to its previously announced schedule. The Senate remains in session this week.
Because of the shutdown, Carolina postponed her DC trip until this spring.
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!
Funding Opportunity: The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced the availability of two new grant opportunities for established and aspiring Women’s Business Center host organizations to provide outcome-oriented business services for women entrepreneurs.
For Your Clients: California State Treasurer John Chiang officially rolled out CBIG.ca.gov, the California Business Incentives Gateway. The online gateway connects business owners and entrepreneurs to incentives to help them grow and create jobs. The CBIG site makes it easy for businesses expanding or locating in California to find and apply for incentives as part of a strategic business plan.
For Your Clients: BART is hosting a FREE informational meeting to learn about upcoming construction & professional services opportunities for small businesses on Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 4:00–5:00pm at Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, 275 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
New Tool: As has been noted in past Must Knows, the FCC voted to gut net neutrality protections. If you are worried that companies like Comcast and Verizon will experiment with new ways to fiddle with your Internet connections, then you can download OONI’s (the Open Observatory of Network Interference) open source, non-profit app for tracking Internet censorship.
New Resource: The SBA’s SF District Office has launched a slack channel – The Business Support Network – that you are invited to join. Feel free to announce events and voice questions about where to send clients, how to handle specific types of businesses, find funding (for clients or yourselves), shape programming to serve business owners, and more. (Note: they had some technical difficulties, so if you signed up, you’ll need to sign up again.)
New Report: The SBA Office of Advocacy released, “Latino Business Ownership: Contributions and Barriers for U.S. Born and Immigrant Latino Entrepreneurs,” that evaluates the differences in Latino self-employment rates and business income, comparing immigrant and U.S.-born Latino men and women with non-minorities. Roughly 600,000 business owners are U.S.-born Latinos, with an additional 1.2 million immigrant Latino business owners. The study shows that total Latino business owners generate $62.5 billion in business income. However, Latino business owners on average report less business income, and U.S born Latinos have a smaller self-employment rate.
Free Webinar: Join Prosperity Now for their 2018 Prosperity Now Scorecard national launch webinar at 9:00am PST // 12noon EST on Tuesday, February 6, when they will unpack the latest data, highlight emerging trends, and answer your questions about how residents in all 50 states are faring financially and what state governments can do to help. The Prosperity Now Scorecard examines over fifty measures on issues ranging from savings to debt and credit, housing costs to self-employment, microbusiness, and more. The Scorecard also assesses all 50 states and the District of Columbia on steps they can take to improve outcomes for residents, including the adoption of state EITCs, expansion of Medicaid and more.
Professional Conference: Registration for the 2018 CDFI Institute is open. The 2018 Institute will take place on February 28 and March 1 at the Renaissance Hotel, located at 999 9th Street NW in Washington, D.C. You can learn more about the conference’s agenda at the CDFI Coalition’s website.
Moving Main Street Forward: AEO’s microbusiness and microfinance conference is a must-attend event for professionals providing capital, technical assistance and other forms of trusted guidance to Main Street and microbusiness owners. The agenda will be packed with inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking plenaries and compelling breakout sessions designed to engage attendees in bold and provocative conversations on using inclusion, innovation and investment to move Main Streets across the country forward. See you in Detroit, Michigan, April 30 to May 2, 2018.
New Report: The Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey released “Report on Rural Employer Firms” while we were on holiday. Highlights include: Firms in rural areas are more stable and face less financing constraints; and small banks play a bigger role in rural areas.
New Report: The Tax Policy Center analyzed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and how it will affect households in different income brackets. In general, higher income households receive larger average tax
cuts as a percentage of after-tax income, with the largest cuts as a share of income going to taxpayers
in the 95th to 99th percentiles of the income distribution.
For Your Clients: Read a summary of how the tax reform bill will affect freelancers – then pass it on to your clients.