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

Participate in Small Business Saturday

  • Participate in Small Business Saturday
  • Veterans Small Business Week at WOVEN
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight is a timely media opportunity for your clients. A Washington Post reporter is doing a story on small business owners’ thoughts on issues going into Tuesday’s election. His deadline is October 31, 2014, at 9:00am PT. Scroll down for details.

Participate in Small Business Saturday

If you’re a devoted reader of the Must Know (as all of you are), then you’ve heard of Small Business Saturday – the day to celebrate shopping small on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. In California businesses and neighborhoods have joined together to make Saturday, November 29th, 2014 a banner day for small businesses.


CAMEO encourages you to become a coalition member. There is no cost to participate. When you sign up to be part of the Small Business Saturday Coalition, you’ll receive the the Small Business Saturday toolkit: digital banners, copy point, logos, social posts, press release. These materials are designed to help you spread the word to your clients.

Your clients can sign up their businesses at ShopSmall. They will receive individual store Small Business Saturday marketing materials including: printable signage and free online ads for Small Business Saturday from American Express, Yelp and Microsoft Bing. Email templates, sample social media posts, and more are also available. For qualifying American Express Card accepting small merchants, their stores may be participate in the American Express Card member offer for Small Business Saturday and appear on the Shop Small Map.

Also, you can directly support small businesses by shopping and dining on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year. American Express Cardholders should watch out for information on how to register their cards to get $10 back three times when shopping at three different small businesses on November 29th (a total of $30 in statement credits.)

Celebrate Veterans Small Business Week at WOVEN

Our first WOVEN: Women Veteran Entrepreneurs Network event is on November 6 in Los Angeles. Co-hosted by the SBA, this event will kick off their Veteran Small Business Week. It’s going to be a fantastic day. Some of the highlights include:

  • Juggle with fire
  • Think like a negotiator
  • Develop your business plan – from your PHONE!
  • Brand your product with advice from the designers of the Apple mouse
  • And a special opportunity drawing.

For a full agenda and more information about the event, visit bit.ly/cameowoven.

WOVEN-ButtonNovember 6, 2014
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Bob Hope Patriotic Hall
1816 Figueroa St, Los Angeles

Due to the generosity of our supporters,
registration is free and includes a full day of training, continental breakfast, and lunch. We’ve only got a few spots left, but will open up a waiting list.

Take out your tissues: Next week the Must Know will not appear in your inbox as the staff will be in LA!

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, Timely media opportunity: Our colleagues at ASBC are helping a writer at the Washington Post with an article on small business owners’ concerns as they head to the voting booth next week. He is interested in what issues in Washington factor most significantly into the decisions made by entrepreneurs and small business owners when they cast their midterm ballots next week. Have your clients contact Bob Keener at ASBC, bkeener@asbcouncil.org with the following by Friday, October 31, 2014 at 9:00am PT:

  • Name
  • Title (Owner, President, CEO, etc)
  • Company’s name
  • Company’s location (city, state)
  • What the company does (concisely, one or two sentences)
  • As a small business owner, what’s the single most important issue on your mind as you decide whom to vote for in the midterms, and why / how does that issue matter for your company (one to two paragraphs)?

Election Info: California NonProfits has a special election issue newsletter. Remember to ‘vote your mission’ on November 4, 2014.

Micro Conference: Lend for America will hold its 6th annual conference at UC Berkeley on November 15-16. The conference is a hands-on training opportunity for students to learn from experts in the field and network with each other, and includes presenters from several CAMEO Bay Area members, including La Cocina, OBDC, and MEDA. Sessions are trainings on microenterprise topics including underwriting, client outreach, collections, business development, data collection, and more. The sessions would be useful for any entry-level staff out there or students/interns in your network. The promo code ‘microlend30’ will let you sign up for the early bird rate of $65.

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 November 5, 2014 at 10:00am and November 19, 2014 at 1:00pm respectively.

Professional Development: The Aspen Institute’s leadership development initiative for emerging leaders in the U.S. microbusiness field – Emerging Leaders in Microbusiness (ELM^2)– offers a powerful and productive learning opportunity for high potential staff. Thanks to the continued support of Capital One, FIELD announces that the Request for Applications for its third class of fellows is now available online. Applications are due November 14, 2014.

New Report: As part of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) commitment to strengthening rural economies, Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new state-by-state “Made in Rural America” report illustrating the impact of USDA investments in rural communities. Download the California factsheet that highlights specific USDA investments in rural businesses, manufacturing, energy, water and other infrastructure development. They also outline how USDA is helping rural communities attract businesses and families by investing in housing and broadband.