California’s Micro-Businesses Create Jobs, Build Neighborhoods and Transform Lives
In 2011, CAMEO members served 21,000 very small businesses with training, technical assistance and loans. These firms – largely start-ups with less than five employees – supported/created 37,000 jobs for California’s economy.
When very small businesses succeed, they create jobs, they build their neighborhoods and communities so that California can thrive.
California’s Micro-business Success Stories
- Tina Ferguson-Riffe, Smoke Berkeley Thanks to Opportunity Fund for this story. Born and raised in Texas, Chef Tina Ferguson-Riffe tapped a unique source of “start-up” funding to get her BBQ restaurant—Smoke Berkeley—off the ground. “I got a call out of the blue. It turned out my father had owned some water rights in Texas, and twenty years after he passed away ...
- Verity Somers, Raw Workouts This Success Story comes from Women’s Economic Ventures. You can find out more about Verity Somers and Raw Workouts here. What prompted you to start your business? When I graduated from UCSB, I was determined to find a job that allowed me to help people keep and/or restore their most valuable possession: their health. I was hired at ...
- Skincare by Feleciai Feleciai Favroth Skincare by Feleciai – The Art of Bathing (Scroll to the bottom for a video of Feleciai displaying her products!) Feleciai Favroth was always destined to be an entrepreneur. Many members of her family including her mother Pearl and sisters, Daphne and Cheryl have followed a path to owning their own businesses. Her mother always loved ...
- Gulsum Rustemoglu, GEPermit Gulsum Rustemoglu, Global Environmental Permitting Thanks to Accion San Diego for this success story. After losing her job as an environmental consultant for a large environmental planning firm, Gulsum Rustemoglu decided to become her own boss and founded Global Environmental Permitting (GEPermit) in July 2009. GEPermit is a woman-owned micro business specializing in environmental permitting and compliance throughout the ...
- John Falcon, Falcon Builders Micro-business Owner Falcon Builders and Developers, Inc Fresno, CA John Falcon spent 20 years and 6 months in the Air Force. While stationed in Las Vegas in the mid-1990’s, John and his wife Marina fixed up old houses. They took on three rehab projects on low income, section 8 housing. Providing safe homes to code to less fortunate ...
- Jessica Nowlan, Hope Solutions Thanks to Women’s Initiative for this story. Jessica Nowlan Founder of Hope Solutions Jessica Nowlan really knows how to bootstrap. Starting when she was just 13, Jessica was on her own. She has lived through periods of homelessness, group homes, and struggled to raise two kids as a single mother. But when Jessica was 16, she was given ...
- Mariposa Valley Farm Vonita Murray had a normal early adult life. She went to college, received a BA in photography with a minor in business, served in the 1st Gulf War and went to work. She spent over ten years in some form of Administrative/Office Management before becoming a CAD Technician. She was working at ...
- Jessicurl The story of how Jessicurl was born is best told by its owner, Jessica McGuinty. Until the time I was 14 I had thick yet fairly straight hair. When puberty struck, my hair grew more and more coarse and eventually started to curl. I was mortified and at a total loss for how to deal with ...
- William Ortiz Success story from Mission Economic Development Agency in San Francisco. William Ortiz, owner of Gentle Parking produced by medasf on Vimeo.
- Semper Fi Security Jason T. grew up in a small town in Northern California. He did well in high school, after which, he decided to join the U.S. Marine Corp. He served from 1991-97 through multiple tours in Desert Hope, Desert Shield and Desert Storm and received an Honorable Discharge and earned more than a dozen medals. Jason ...
- Taqueria Lidia Taqueria Lidia prides itself in making fresh tortillas by hand as well as regional treats such as Oaxacan mole negro (black sauce) with dried chilies, seeds, fruits and nuts and tlayudas, a round corn masa made from corn native to Oaxaca, topped with beans, cabbage Oaxacan cheese, tomatoes, tasajo (a jerky-like meat), and avocado. Lidia ...
- Chai Lee Escaping the harsh realities of life in a refugee camp was a victory for Chai and his family, but he had to re-build his life. Chai liked the idea of owning a business. He had no credit history and very little collateral, but wanted to buy a janitorial franchise. Enter Fresno CDFI.
- Rewind Audio The story of Rewind Audio mirrors the story of Jen and Oscar Carpinteyro’s family. Jen met Oscar in January 2000, when they both worked at the ACLU. They were married in April 2001. Jen says “With a good foundation to start, only positive things can happen.” Her parents lived in Temecula, where a ...
- Cortland Avenue Corridor San Francisco – An unprecedented number of small businesses in the Cortland Avenue Corridor are utilizing an important asset in the San Francisco small business community. Working Solutions, a local nonprofit microlender is providing much-needed capital to businesses that need small loans that traditional banks won’t touch. And creating jobs in the process – ...
- Town Cutler San Francisco – Galen saw beautiful sushi-grade fish lose their clean line, vegetables chopped in non-uniform sizes, and butchers turn red because of rough cuts. Finally fed up with this problem, he put down his chef’s hat and replaced it with a whetstone.
- Mission Cheese San Francisco – Sarah Dvorak knows cheese. Whether it be the sweet and nutty Estero Gold, the smooth and earthly Boho Bel, or the notoriously fragrant bleu cheeses from Northern Califiornia, this cheesehead breaks it down for you.
- Sweet Treats San Diego – One day at a friend’s party, Chris, Jennifer and some others were reminiscing about the ice cream truck when they were kids – the excitement they had when they heard the music, the breathlessness from running in the house, scrounging for change and hoping you didn’t miss the truck, eating the peanuts ...
- Kara McGibben, Perception Kara and her husband came to CAMEO member Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) in Santa Barbara after a long period of unemployment. The two decided take their economic future into their own hands and launch a business. With a background in project management for construction companies, Kara completed the ...
- Ted Sheets Ted Sheets has been making signs in Eureka since 1984. In 2006, he began to look at the possibility of moving out of his garage, which was full to the rafters. Ted wanted to expand his sign business and started looking at sign franchise opportunities. But he didn’t know ...
- Lucy Ludwig Lucy Ludwig began her law career in 2006 as a public defender in San Diego, working long hours at volumes of impersonal work. But she yearned for the satisfaction that comes from helping individuals with financial needs. She took a position with a tax firm in San Diego ...
- JJ Lee & Chris Lord JJ Lee and Chris enrolled in the Individual Development Account program with CAMEO member Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCC) in Los Angeles with the goal of launching a music production company. Upon completion of their required savings and education trainings, they were able to secure capital for ...
- Gloria Tired of selling timeshares, in 2005 Gloria began to look for a new career path. She found a listing for the sale of Parkside Postal, a San Francisco neighborhood mailing and postal business. When Gloria met with the owner, who had decided to retire, she was confident she could ...
- Ginger Elizabeth Fascinated with chocolate and its beautiful and complex characteristics, Ginger Elizabeth Hahn had always dreamed of opening her own chocolaterie. A formally trained American chocolatier, Ginger Elizabeth began learning her craft at age 16 at a truffle class in Sacramento at the Learning Exchange. From there, she ...
- Elizabeth Pond Elizabeth Pond moved from Waimea, on the Big Island of Hawaii, to Santa Barbara in 2007 to pursue better educational opportunities for herself and her two children. Upon completing the Professional Financial Planning program at UCSB, a CAMEO member, she was hired by a local financial planning ...
- Johneric Concordia After being laid off from a major airline in 2009, Johneric Concordia took the opportunity to put his barbecue skills to work by opening a his own food service business in Los Angeles. Concordia developed his cooking skills while growing up in Echo Park’s historic Fillipinotown. His commitment to food ...
Add the story of your small business to AEO ‘s website (our national partner.) They are collecting stories to demonstrate the power of Micro. If just one in three Micro Enterprises hired a single employee, the U.S. would be at full employment.
