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Happy Small Business Week

CAMEO’s Annual Meeting is in Sacramento, June 6-7, 2012. Sign up and then book your room.

In this week’s Must Know:

  • Happy National Small Business Week
  • State Support of Small Business
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs

Happy National Small Business Week

Next week is National Small Business Week. To celebrate, CAMEO has joined the Small Business Majority to co-sponsor a conference call with White House representatives to talk about how to support small business. The call is Monday, May 21, at 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT. Register to receive the call-in information.

Participants in the call include:

  • Ari Matusiak, Executive Director, White House Small Business Council
  • Fred Baldassaro, Assistant Administrator for Communications and Engagement, U.S. Small Business Administration
  • John Arensmeyer, Founder & CEO, Small Business Majority (Introduction)
  • Rhett Buttle, National Outreach & Government Affairs Director, Small Business Majority (Moderator)

The White House has also created a webpage for business resources that you may find useful.

State Support of Small Business

As I mentioned last week, Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed that May is small business month. The state of California now has a small business portal.

We hope that means that California is going to be more small-business-friendly. A new survey by the Kauffman Foundation and Thumbtack.com has some good news and some bad news. The bad news first: California received an ‘F’ from small business owners for friendliness.

The good news is that the survey also found that small business owners are very interested in training programs but they don’t always know about them. This is great evidence for the demand for your programs. Please use it.

Maybe that’s the ticket… better promotion of programs for small businesses. In that vein, I want to make sure that everyone knows about CalCAP’s programs. CalCAP insures loans made to small businesses to assist them in growing or maintaining their business. For example, if you have trucking clients who need to bring their equipment up to par, check out the On-Road Heavy Duty Diesel Program.

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!

Job Opportunities: Check out our jobs page as I’ve added a few in the last couple weeks, e.g. The Aspen Institute/FIELD, CFED Opening Doors, Renaissance Center and Working Solutions have new openings.

Grant Opportunity (for your client): The DOE SunShot Initiative aims to reduce the installed costs of solar energy systems by 75% by the end of the decade, achieving grid parity for subsidy-free solar energy. Prime recipients must be a start-up business incorporated in the United States and must incur at least 60% of expenditures under the project, as measured by the Total Project Cost. Application deadline is May 29, 2012.

Grant Opportunity: For Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Community and Economic Development program, administered by the Office of Community Services (OCS) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), will provide approximately $27 million in grants ($800,000 maximum per project) to Community Development Corporations (CDCs) for projects designed to address the economic needs of low-income individuals and families through the creation of employment and business opportunities. Applications for 2012 CED funding are due on June 5, 2012. Learn more and apply.

Grant Opportunity: The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of approximately $12 million in grants through the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program to provide job training and skills development services that will help approximately 6,000 veterans succeed in civilian careers. Applications are due before June 15, 2012.

Grant Opportunity: The Low Income Tax Clinic program awards matching grants of up to $100,000 per year to qualifying organizations to develop, expand, or maintain a low income taxpayer clinic. Applications are due June 15, 2012.