- Happy Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
- Infrastructure for the DIY Economy: myIRA
- Supporting Rural Development: Read the CAMEO op-ed in The Hill – The small business case to designate California Desert monuments
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight is that the microTracker data is now publicly available for funding proposals, board presentations, or internal analysis. CAMEO will be releasing the statewide summary next week, so stay tuned!.
Happy Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
Happy Women’s Entrepreneurship Day! The First Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) was held last year at the United Nations in NYC on November 19; additional events were held simultaneously in other countries and 144 nations recognized the day.
Perhaps coincidental, perhaps not… on Tuesday, Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced The Women’s Small Business Ownership Act (H.R. 4027) in the House. The bill is very similar to the one that the Senate Committee on Small Business passed on October 7. Both bills increase the Women’s Business Center (WBC) Program authorization to $21.75 million, increase grant awards to WBCs to $250,000, and enhance collaboration on program rules between stakeholders and the U.S. SBA.
CAMEO is actively supporting both bills and thanks Marsha Bailey, President, CEO & Founder of WEV, and Chair of Association of Women’’s Business Centers, for her leadership on this issue.
Infrastructure for the DIY Economy: myIRA
We think a lot about the gig economy and the trend to independent work (see State of Independence from Emergent). One important issue is that employers are moving more and more to hiring independents and thus employer benefits such as healthcare and retirement contributions have often become the responsibility of the employee. Microbusiness owners also have the responsibility to save for their own retirement.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced the official launch of myRA, a new retirement savings account for those who don’t have access to a retirement savings plan through work or have not found an easy way to start saving. The tool was developed to remove common barriers to saving and to give people a simple, safe, affordable saving option. Some of the reasons to start saving with myRA include the following:
- It costs nothing to open an account and there are no fees.
- Contributions can be any amount you choose ($2, $20, $200 – whatever fits the budget).
- Accounts safely earn interest.
- myRA carries no risk of losing money.
- The money contributed can be withdrawn without tax and penalty.
Please let your clients know about this program.
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!
U.S. Microenterprise Census: The microTracker data has been collected and is now publicly available. Industry-wide data for funding proposals, board presentations, or internal analysis and reporting is now at your fingertips. CAMEO will be releasing the statewide summary next week, so stay tuned!
FIELD’s EntrepreneurTracker: The tool offers a credible, affordable way to collect and understand outcomes achieved by small business and microbusiness clients. Such outcomes include: Business start and survival rates, jobs, changes in revenue, hourly wages paid to workers, and client movement out of poverty. To discuss pricing and learn more about EntrepreneurTracker, please contact Tamra Thetford.
Data Source: The Atlanta Fed has put together the Small City Economic Dynamism Index. The index ranks 244 small U.S. cities across 14 indicators of economic dynamism in four categories: demographics, economics, human capital, and infrastructure. The index answers the question: ‘How are small cities contributing to economic growth in their respective regions?. A bunch of cities where CAMEO members are located are included in the data. If you’re outside the major metro areas (SF, LA, San Diego) and in a smaller city, take a look.
CDFI Opportunity: The Wells Fargo Works for Small Business®: Diverse Community Capital program is a three-year initiative that will deliver $75 million in grants and lending capital to CDFIs. Interest Forms for Diverse Community Capital are due December 1, 2015.
Take Action: The Jonas Project is CAMEO’s WOVEN project manager. Vote for Teri Kelsall, The Jonas Project’s founder, for L’Oreal Paris’ Woman of Worth 2015. This award recognizes women that are making a beautiful difference in the world. As a recipient, Teri was given $10,000 for The Jonas Project and has an opportunity to win an additional $25,000. Vote for Teri the National Women of Worth honorees! You can vote once a day, every day until November 20 (tomorrow).
Small Business Saturday: It’s that time of year to join CAMEO and be counted among the hundreds of organizations supporting small businesses across the country on Small Business Saturday, November 28th. Join the Small Business Saturday Coalition to support the campaign. As a member of the Coalition you will have access to special communications tools and be listed on www.ShopSmall.com. And now it’s got DC’s stamp of approval. This week, the Senate unanimously agreed to a Resolution designating November 28, 2015 as Small Business Saturday.
New Book Launch: Join the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, CFED and the Citi Foundation on Tuesday, December 8, for the live webcast of the Financial Well-Being Summit to mark the release of the new book, What It’s Worth: Strengthening the Financial Future of Families, Communities and the Nation.
For Your Client: National Small Business Week has been recognizing the special impact made by outstanding entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1963. During this week, the U.S. Small Business Administration honors small business owners and entrepreneurs for their outstanding achievements through various awards. The The deadline is January 11, 2016.
AEO National Conference: Save the date May 18-20, 2016 in Washington, DC to celebrate 25 years!