Vote for Claudia for the Small Business Influencer Award – and vote everyday! (She doesn’t know I nominated her. Let’s vote her in and suprise her when she wins ;)
- Media: LTE Published and Opportunity
- Ms. CAMEO Goes to DC, Part I
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes a study by our friends at CFED. They are working to help small businesses reduce vulnerability and position themselves for growth by studying their needs and want your help in finding businesses. Scroll down for a message to send your clients.
Media, etc…
Last week we sent a Letter to the Editor to The New York Times to respond to “War on the Unemployed,” by Paul Krugman (column, July 1).
Our letter was the first of three and makes a nice story when packaged together. You can read the our letter and the others, but here’s an exerpt.
We need a wider systemic strategy to create jobs that includes self-employment. If given institutional support that matches the job market reality, the unemployed can find hope within themselves to create their own jobs.
Also, The Huffington Post wants to know what the federal budget cuts have meant to your organization. If you or someone you know has been affected by reductions to these or other programs, or has been laid off or furloughed, they’d like to hear your story. I’m going to collect them and submit them together. Email me by July 16, 2013. A few sentences is fine.
Ms. CAMEO Goes to DC, Part I
Claudia is in Washington DC this week. Today, she hosted a Congressional Briefing on small business and self-employment to discuss this new trend and how to support it. Those of you who receive PRIME grants and other SBA funding know that government funding for programs that support start-ups and self-employment is eroding. PRIME grants for 2013 are not funded.* So at the briefing, Claudia argued for funding PRIME, Women Business Centers and Small Business Development Centers in the FY2014 budget to support the good work you do. She also met with legislators and will write more next week about the findings of her trip and the funding for our field.
Modernizing the Workforce System so that it meets the needs of the 21st century is another necessary policy effort to support the increasing numbers of self-employed. The Entrepreneurial Training Improvement Act (Capps – CA) would require the U.S. Department of Labor to define measures that local Workforce Investment Boards could use to measure self-employment and business creation, and thereby support local training programs. Claudia says:
Our legislators need to ensure institutional support matches the job market realities. We can serve up hope and business ownership for the unemployed instead of a fruitless job search and thus hope four our communities with high systemic, long-term unemployment.
*Read more on our blogpost: News from the SBA Micro Team.
The Goodies
New opportunities for trainings, 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 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: Our friends at CFED are working to help small businesses reduce vulnerability and position themselves for growth by studying their needs. Please send the following message to your clients:
Please take this 5-minute survey to learn more about your business’s financial strengths and vulnerabilities. When you complete the survey, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a prize in the form of a reward card, issued by MasterCard, with a value of $100. The reward card can be used for any purchase and transactions wherever MasterCard is accepted. If you have any questions about this survey or the study, you can contact: Kasey Wiedrich or
Lauren Williams.
Webinar Available: Claudia led a webinar for BALLE –Lessons Learned: Capital, Coaching, and Connection. The webinar explored technical assistance as the first step in the capital access process. It must be accompanied with entrepreneurship support and technical assistance that can get entrepreneurs ready for an infusion of capital, and help them succeed once they have it. Download the webinar for $10.
For Your Clients: Community Financial Resource Center is offering IDA’s for Los Angeles residents. CFRC can be a great referral source for low-income individuals and families with earned income who want to start or expand their small business. The total grant they receive at the end of 12-months is $2,500. CFRC is holding orientations on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings in July and August. Learn moreand access the schedule.
Grant Opportunity: PG&E is piloting an Economic Vitality Grant Program to invest up to $200,000 in programs designed to enhance local economic vitality—ranging from business incubation and growth to workforce development. Deadline is July 31, 2013.
For Your Clients: Walmart has kicked off a new installment of Get on the Shelf, a social, crowdsourcing competition developed by @WalmartLabs that gives entrepreneurs a chance to get noticed and sell their products on Walmart.com and potentially in select Walmart stores. Entrepreneurs, business owners and inventors can enter now through July 31 by submitting a video featuring their product.
For Your Clients: On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 Whole Foods Market will be hosting its second Local Vendor Summit at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco from 8:00am- 5:00pm.
Policy Resource: PolicyMap and Citi Community Development launched of My District Data, an interactive web-based tool that offers a simple yet powerful way to examine the state of every Congressional district based on economic, employment, financial, educational and housing conditions through a series of on-demand reports. Developed for legislators and their advisers, as well as community groups and local residents, the free tool aggregates a range of data — for the first time broken down to match the irregular borders of Congressional districts — to present a district snapshot intended to inform smart policy-making.