Carla’s Movie Restaurant Publishes Microenterprise How-To Book

Carla’s Movie Restaurant (CMR), a local nonprofit dedicated to showcasing emerging artists of all kinds and connecting them to the community, is proud to announce its latest venture: a guidebook that dives deep into the process of creating a microenterprise. Microenterprise Hits the Big Screen - Carla’s Movie Restaurant: A Directorial Debut in Business is now available in print and digitally through Amazon and the Kindle app for just $18.00 and $9.99, respectively.

Penned by Carla Sramek, Hilda Sramek (the founder of CMR), and Leslie A.M. Smith, this cross between a memoir and a guidebook is a testament to what can be possible in a world full of inclusion and community support for individuals of all abilities and disabilities.

“It all started with Carla’s dream,” said Hilda Sramek, Carla’s mother and president of CMR. “We followed her lead and supported what she wanted to do.”

Carla Sramek was in high school when she first spoke of her ambitions to start her own company. Marrying two of her biggest interests, food and film, Carla says she simply wanted to bring people together with art.

“While researching what we needed to do to create a microenterprise, and ultimately registering CMR as a nonprofit, we kept wondering how anyone would know where to start and where to find help,” Hilda added.

Following the suggestion of supporters who shared that a priority has been set for individuals with disabilities to navigate entrepreneurship, CMR decided to write a book to help others to start a microenterprise of their own.

Using CMR as a roadmap and example, the guidebook contains helpful resources and outlines how business hopefuls may take the first steps towards achieving their own dreams. The book is interactive with fill-in prompts andexercises to help a person build out ideas and keep track of what comes next. The theme of inclusion is present throughout all 86 pages of the book, as it has been throughout Carla’s life. Written from an artist’s point-of-view, this book is the first of its kind, combining business fundamentals while inspiring people with disabilities.

Carla was ostracized while she was very young in the public school system for being different, and through fierce determination and abundant support from her community, she was able to beat the odds and succeed in many ways.

For more information about CMR, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, visit www.carlasmovierestaurant.org and to buy a copy of the book, visit Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW2RY6NK/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1677686597&sr=8-2

Other ways to stay in touch with Carla’s Movie Restaurant:

Instagram and YouTube: @CarlasMovieRestaurant

More about Carla Sramek: Carla began to work on behalf of persons with disabilities in middle school as a panelist at Chapman University. Just out of high school, Carla was given the Mary Falvey Outstanding Young Person Award from Cal-TASH. In her senior year of high school, Carla began working at Hollywood Video Entertainment which satisfied her love for films. With her access to films readily available, she started The Movie Club at Los Alamitos High School, where she showed films to her friends and peers. She continued working at Hollywood Video for nine years until the chain closed, acquiring work-based learning on film releases and the intricacies of working with a team. She continues a version of The Movie Club to this day.

Carla's plan of action to facilitate her dreams was published in "Building Connections" by M. Falvey, M.S. Forest, J. Pearpoint and R.L. Rosenberg in Creativity and Collaborative Learning: The Practical Guide to Empowering Students, Teachers, and Families by J.S. Thousand, R.A. Villa, and A.I. Nevin (2002) Paul Brookes Publishing Co.

Carla traveled to Chicago in 2005 with Marquita Grenot-Scheyer and Jennifer Coots from CSULB, and Mary Falvey and Richard Rosenberg from CSU Los Angeles to speak about her college experiences. In 2007 she gave the keynote address, “Education for All,” at the Russian-American Roundtable in Education in Kursk, Russia. She co-authored a chapter in Special Education in Russia and the U.S.A. in 2008 and is a regular speaker at conferences and college classes.

Articles have been written about Carla in the News-Enterprise by John Underwood -- “A case for inclusion – 4-Part Series”, 2002; and “Carla Sramek doing fine on her own,” 2003. Other publications include “Supported living – it takes a village” (Protection & Advocacy) in 2004, The Cage of the Different People by Benjamin Valdivia, 2009, which is available as an iApp, and the children’s picture book La Jaula de los Diferentes: Una Historia Fraternal by Benjamin Valdivia. The English version The Cage of the Different People: A Story of Brotherly Love (2009) is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Named the “Emerging Arts Organization” by the Arts Council for Long Beach in 2014, CMR became a nonprofit in 2018, and is happy about this year’s book release (Microenterprise Hits the Big Screen – Carla’s Movie Restaurant: A Directorial Debut in Business) that outlines the process and satisfaction of pursuing entrepreneurship. (Source: http://ctsartist.com/about-carla)