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Buy Local, Buy Small

In this week’s Must Know:

  • Buy Local, Buy Small
  • Training the Trainer: Web Marketing
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs.

Buy Local, Buy Small

Our staff is grateful for its CAMEO family – our funders, our members and especially for all of the businesses and jobs that you helped create. So we’d like to celebrate our entrepreneurs, like Jessica McGinty (see pic left, read our latest impact story about taming curls while making a profit). The way to thank them during the upcoming holiday season is to buy local and buy from small business people.

Two of our sister organizations, AEO and WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy), are national sponsors of Small Business Saturday, an event that drives shoppers to local, independently-owned merchants. It is a national initiative that marks a day to support the local business that create jobs, boost the economy and preserve neighborhoods around the country – something that CAMEO and its members do every day. Learn how you can get involved and support the national recognition. Check out the small biz stats.

Continue the local love with Buy Local Week (November 25 thru December 4) sponsored by our colleagues at BALLE. A shift of just 10% of holiday spending toward locally owned businesses has the potential to create an impact of billions in economic activity in just two months.

Training the Trainer: Micro-Marketing

Micro-businesses need help with marketing. As a business coach/mentor/trainer, you will be interested in this new tool that helps small organizations market themselves online easily, quickly and effectively.

If you are involved in training entrepreneurs for your organization, join CAMEO on December 1, 2011 from 10:00a.m.-10:45a.m. for webinar on Pubfish. Pubfish allows micro-businesses to create rich “pubs” that can be posted to Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon etc. and of course emailed to customers and prospects. Pubs are fast to make, easy to socialize and most of all measurable [who received it, who commented on it, who added to it, what are the trending topics, who reposted it etc.] Pubfish is designed to help micro-business and not-for-profits build sales.

Register for the webinar and you will be given the login information.

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. A running tab of current Goodies is on the CAMEO website.

Job Opening: Opportunity Fund has openings for a Small Business Outside Sales / Loan Consultant and Small Business Customer Service Representative. Visit our jobs page for other available positions in the industry.

Advocacy Action: Support Individual Development Accounts. Our colleagues at CFED are asking organizations to sign a letter that opposes cuts to the matched savings program. The deadline to add your organization is close of business today Tuesday, November 22 9pm ET. It only takes a minute.

Capacity Building Grants for Consulting: Three consulting grants are available for Women, Green and General Microenterprise Development through several organizations who are working with Friedman Associates – CAMEO member, Women’s Initiative is one of those organizations. Applications are due November 30, 2011.

Webinar: Building the Right Funding Model: Building upon years of primary research and consulting experience with dozens of nonprofit clients, The Bridgespan Group has developed an approach for how an organization can identify and develop a funding model that will allow it to achieve its programmatic aspirations. The Stanford Social Innovation Review hosts this webinar on November 30, 2011 at 11:00a.m. The cost is $49. Learn more and register.

Free Webinar: CAMEO member Catherine Marshall presents How to Build Your Own Coalitions and Social Movements in Thursday, December 1 at 12:00p.m. PT. The webinar is sponsored by the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. Register for the participation information.

Free Webinar: Join CFED for a webinar on Thursday, December 1 from 12-1:30 p.m. PT that will provide background on the Bank On initiative, discuss highlights of the first-ever Scan of the Bank On Field, and offer a brief, hands-on tutorial for using some of the most exciting features of the revamped website.

Free Webinars on Measuring Success by Field: Free webinars to learn how to adopt data analytic techniques long used by the private sector to improve performance. The December 1st and December 9th webinars will help you use benchmarking tools in detail to understand the state of the industry and assess your program’s performance. Register today!

Webinar: BALLE hosts Move Your Money, Then Make it Work for Your Community: Partnering with Local Banks and Credit Unions. Register for the webinar on December 6, 10:00a.m. – 11:00a.m. PT. “Move Your Money” efforts have gained ground, directing individuals and businesses to move their assets to local financial institutions. But what happens next to make our capital work deeply for our communities?

For your clients: CARAT is providing technology training programs for free to small businesses in California. Check out the schedules for November 2011, December 2011 and January 2012.