California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity

Our 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.

Our vision is to create economic opportunity for all entrepreneurs, to build wealth and strong California communities.

CAMEO is California's statewide micro-business network made up of over 170 organizations, agencies, and individuals dedicated to furthering microbusiness development in California.

MICRO-BUSINESSES ARE THE COUNTRY'S BACKBONE

Very small businesses create the jobs. Period. Firms with one to four employees, known as micro-businesses, are stronger than other sized businesses when it comes to job creation. We recently crunched some numbers from the Small Business Administration…

*From 2004 to 2012, U.S. micro-businesses created a net of 7 million jobs, while the largest businesses lost 3/4 million (774,410 to be exact) jobs during the same period.
*Very small businesses created jobs every year and mostly created more jobs than any other firm size.
*During 2009 and 2010, micro-businesses were the only firm size that created jobs.

SELF-EMPLOYMENT IS A LABOR MARKET TREND

Our labor force is undergoing a clear, structural shift to independent work.

*The growing headcount of Americans working more than half-time as individual self-employed contributors reached 17.9 million, up 12.5% from the base year of 2011, generating nearly $1.1 trillion in total income — and growing substantially more than the 1.1% annual growth of the labor force.
*The independent workforce is expected to grow to 24 million by 2018.
In 2012, roughly 1 in 4 independents hired other independents, spending $92 billion and employing the equivalent of 2.2 million full-time workers via contract hiring.
(State of Independence in America report 2014)

Our members help the self-employed and entrepreneurs create their own jobs as well as jobs for others, help Main Street businesses survive and thrive during difficult economic times, revitalize neighborhoods through business development, and provide infrastructure that strengthens families.

We expand resources and build capacity for our member organizations that provide entrepreneurs with small and micro-business financing such as loans and credit, technical assistance and business management training. We also educate the public on the economic impacts of microbusiness through public awareness campaigns and advocate at the local, state and federal level for public policies that support the growth of micro-business, start-ups, and entrepreneurs.

CAMEO has