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

The Sun Rose Today

  • The Sun Rose Today
  • Small Business Saturday
  • Attention communications staff: yours truly developed a tool to Find Your Frequent Email Readers Using Excel.
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight is U.S. SBA Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD)’s $300,000 funding opportunity for women and veteran-owned businesses through its Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program. The deadline to apply is December 12, 2016. Scroll down for details of the information call on November 30.

The Sun Rose Today

It is a great comfort and blessing to be able to work on behalf of the most inspiring, creative and productive people in our communities – those entrepreneurs making businesses, creating jobs for themselves and others, and generating hopefulness about what’s possible. We are helping people activate their dreams. –Claudia Viek, CEO, CAMEO

CAMEO’s vision is to create economic opportunity for all entrepreneurs, to build wealth and strong California communities. For us, “all” equals women, low wealth entrepreneurs, business owners of all stripes and colors in all of California, from San Diego to Yreka. Remembering the inclusive nature of this vision and the importance of the work that you do is crucial in these times.

Our work of helping all entrepreneurs gives hope to the single mother who was able to keep her children from foster care because she started her own business. Our work gives strength to those who needed it, to the now, successful BBQ-joint owner who had no work prospects when leaving prison. Our work gives confidence to the dance studio owner to stand financially on her own two feet.

We won’t just remember. We will work. We’ll monitor the impact of the election on the work we do as a sector and how it will affect the communities you serve. We’ll advocate for continued support of under-served and under-valued business owners – the women, minorities, veterans and immigrants that are starting businesses at far faster rates than the general population. We will continue to emphasize the key role that business ownership plays to close the wealth gap. We will continue to push for policies that support the coaching, capital and connections to markets that make your clients successful.

You cannot combat negativity with more negativity. Negativity can only be healed by positivity and goodness. We are that positive force for our clients when we help them reach their goals and dreams. This is where we focus.

In case you need a laugh, check out Stephen Colbert’s election night wrap up.

Small Business Saturday

And like that… back to the work of supporting our clients.

It’s the holidays and you know what that means – shopping for presents. Over the past six years, Small Business Saturday has helped small business owners with their most pressing need – getting more customers. We want to make this our biggest and best year yet. It’s when communities everywhere show their love for small businesses on November 26. Help to spread the word and create excitement leading up to the day by leveraging your brand reach and social media channels.

It’s really easy to participate. Your clients can customize materials on the Shop Small website or download ready made collateral, such as posters, email templates and social media posts.

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. SBA Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD) announced a $300,000 funding opportunity for women and veteran-owned businesses through its Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program. Successful applicants will be organizations with a demonstrated history of providing successful entrepreneurship training to women veterans, women service members, and women spouses of service members and veterans. Applications must be received by December 12, 2016. A Q&A conference call will be held on November 30 at 12noon PST // 3:00pm EST. To join the conference call, dial 1-888-858-2144, using access code: 5817583#. All questions must be submitted no later than November 16 to Janet Moorman.

For Your Clients: Join Go-Biz for California Competes Tax Credit Workshops throughout the state during November and December. Webinars are also available. Each 45 minute workshop/webinar includes an overview of the program, program goals and evaluation criteria, and step-by-step instructions through the application process. All businesses are encouraged to attend.

State Loan Program: Join the California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA) for a public workshop to discuss the draft regulations for the California Seismic Safety Capital Access Loan Program (CalCAP/Seismic Safety) on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 from 10:00-11:30am at the State Personnel Board Building, 801 Capitol Mall, Room 150 in Sacramento. It will also be broadcast over the Internet with remote access available by computer or phone. Register for the webinar. To register for the public workshop, please send an e-mail with the subject line “CalCAP/Seismic Safety Public Workshop” to CalCap@treasurer.ca.gov.

Free Webinar: U.S. DOL and Small Business Majority host “Workplace Benefits and High Road Employer Practices for California Small Businesses”, a webinar about high-road employer practices, including equal pay, paid leave and a host of workplace benefits programs and policies impacting California small businesses. Register for either one by clicking on the date: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 from 1:00-2:00pm (PST) or Wednesday, December 7, 2016 from 9:30-10:30am (PST).

For Your Clients: Small Business Majority hosts Access to Capital 101: Funding Options to Start and Grow Your Business every other Wednesday, the next one is November 16. They present an overview of alternative lending options including community development financial institutions, SBA’s loan guarantee program and reputable online options, key questions to consider when seeking funding, the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights and helpful tools and resources.

Take Action: The coalition that brought you the Small Business Borrowers Bill of Rights (BBoR) has come up with BBoR 2.0 that incorporates the feedback that BBoR supporters have shared over the past year. You can read a draft of the BBoR 2.0 with new language highlighted in yellow and deleted provisions indicated with the strike-through marks. Your comments on BBoR 2.0 can be submitted by email or via an online survey by November 18, 2016.

Federal Reserve Micro Study: They need your help in distributing an important national survey of small business credit to your loan applicants and business assistance clients. When you register (click on the link), The Federal Reserve System will then send you the communications tools you’ll need to invite small businesses to participate. The survey has an extended deadline and will be open now through December, so sign up, get the toolkit and communicate with your clients

microTracker Relaunches: FIELD at the Aspen Institute is thrilled to announce the new microTracker.org, their nationwide database on US microenterprise development organizations. MicroTracker gives you the ability to explore, analyze, and compare data on microenterprise programs across the country. The new site is updated to give flexibility, better navigation, and more ability for downloading analysis.

For Your Clients (and all trainers!): NerdWallet recently released a special report on the merchant cash advance industry and a new MCA educational portal.

For Your Clients: According to AB 2883, beginning January 1, 2017 all business workers’ compensation insurance policies, including in-force policies, will be required to cover, among others, certain officers and directors of private corporations and working members of partnerships and limited liability companies that may have been previously excluded from coverage. Insurance companies are required to identify and provide notice to each employer that may have employees that were previously excluded from coverage and are affected by the new law.

Take Action: Last week, the New York City Council passed The Freelance Isn’t Free Act, which extends unprecedented protections against nonpayment for millions of New York City’s freelance workers. Seven out of ten freelance workers face nonpayment and freelancers are stiffed an average of $6000 annually. YIKES. Please sign and share the petition to bring the Freelance Isn’t Free legislation to your city.