San Francisco, CA – CAMEO celebrates and recognizes the risk-taking and innovation of all entrepreneurs across the entire spectrum of small business for National Entrepreneurship Month. We want to especially recognize those who don’t get much media attention.
Kudos to Lydia Mendez who invested her $20,000 of savings from working in the fields and now owns her own taqueria in Watsonville, CA. We celebrate Jessica McGinty whose “right to remain curly” came after experimenting with hair products in her own kitchen and expanded into a company that sells nationwide. And cheers to Kevin Ho and Juan Miron who own MIHO Gastrotruck in San Diego and have tweeted themselves to ride the food truck crazy and employ over 17 people.
“When most people think of entrepreneurs, they think of Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs. They think of businesses like Twitter, Instagram and Task Rabbit,” says Claudia Viek, CEO of CAMEO. “When I think of entrepreneurs, I think of local small business people who took the risk to run their own business and take control of their families’ financial situation and have become the foundations of their neighborhoods.”
According to the Association of Enterprise Opportunity micro-businesses are 88% of all businesses, generate $2.4 trillion in receipts, account for 17% of GDP and employ more than 31 million people.
“Although, most of the resources and attention go to high-tech firms looking to be the next big thing. Annually, venture capitalists invest between $20-30 billion into more than 3,000 companies*.,” says Claudia Viek, C.E.O. of CAMEO. “With a small fraction of the money, micro enterprise development organizations served over 200,000 businesses with entrepreneurial training (think mini-MBA) and microloans (loans under $50,000).”
According to Association for Enterprise Opportunity micro-businesses are 88% of all businesses, generate $2.4 trillion in receipts, account for 17% of GDP and employ more than 31 million people.
With less than three percent of the money, micro-businesses employ more people than venture capital firms and generate about 2/3 of the GDP.
About CAMEO
CAMEO’s mission is to grow a healthy, vibrant, thriving environment for all entrepreneurs and start-up businesses by advancing the work of our statewide member network – the over 160 organizations, agencies and individuals dedicated to furthering the growth of micro-businesses in California. Last year, CAMEO member organizations assisted the creation of 21,000 businesses that created 38,000 jobs.