Women Entrepreneurs get Help at PARO
By Scott A.Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
The PARO Centre for Women Enterprise Inc. was started in January 1995. Rosalind Lockyear was working at Thunder Bay Ventures where a project called the women's community loan fund was started and since then the organization has grown to PARO. In year 2000 PARO started the centre on Victoria Ave with about a 3000 square feet office plus the PARO Presents retail storefront on May Street of 1000 square feet. Upstairs they have some incubator sites which as part of of the PARO accelerator program to help grow businesses that have already started.
There is the start up program, gateway progam to self employment, then the accelerator program and the incubator to help women get started. Our main focus is to help women become sustainable, in others word grow a sustainable livelihood. Primarily we are focussed on business development helping women start a small business using our resources like computers, business plans and our lending program which we have offered since 1995. Then we have the accelerator program to help grow the business, the gateway program for women who are EI eligible and for women that don't fit any traditional program we have another program called Making a Difference, smiles Rosalind Lockyear Executive Director PARO Centre for Women Enterprise Inc. We can help anyone who wants to start a business or find a job, are under employed or over employed. We work with a women when she first walks
through the door. That is probably the difference. A lot of programs are based around this is what we do - do you fit. We see where the women is and what are her needs. We look at all the components of the women including where she is, what's her strengths and look to fill the
gaps.
PARO will offer referrals, workshops weekly from goal setting, balance in your life to tax issues and Sustainable Livelihood Models to identify the gaps. Does she have any savings? Does she have any income coming in now? Is she prepared for the future? Can she access credit? Can she get a loan? PARO will put together a program between us and our partners so we will fit her needs. We have experts in the community we work with as well. There are networking events each week. If she wants to be in a PARO group she can be and will get peer support and mentoring. If she has a product we have a store, notes Lockyear. Our store is going very well. Each year the sales have improved and we are close to being sustainable. We have second time around items which we sell and take dry cleaning in as a depot site to help fund the store. Most of the money goes to the women.
In October 2006, PARO has helped 866 women since when they started. They have 10 employees on board and contract women businesses as well. The PARO van goes into the region to provide services. They operate from Wawa to Kenora and up north. It is not about pushing paper although I have to do a lot of that. I worked in a commercial area of a bank, at Thunder Bay Ventures, was a business women myself and have been a teacher. I could see there was a difference for women in that they wern't equal or treated the same. I didn't feel they had an equal opportunity to move ahead. Changes were happening but not quickly, states Lockyear. Women still make only 71% of what men make according to Revenue Canada by Stats Canada. However women are a high percentage of the work force, are living longer and we have to make sure they have the financial resources to do so. Women still have more responsibilities at home than men for children and elder care. 58 % of women are working now up from 42% in 1972. In 2004 68% of all women with children under 3 were working.
Many of those women will choose self employment because of the flexibility. You can do something you have passion and aptitude for and make your own hours. Family is first now. At one time it was money. At PARO family is always important. Business is a big skill developer and those skills are transferable to self employment. Also business a huge self esteem builder, states Lockyear. An entrepreneur needs perseverance first, be a risk taker, guide your own show and show up.We are not going to run out of women to help.
