The Canadian government announced last week it would be investing more than $4 million into five businesses in southern Ontario run by women.
Ruby Sahota, minister of democratic institutions, along with Mona Fortier, member of parliament for Ottawa-Vanier, appeared at the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise to announce the investment into women-led organizations on Jan. 22.
“This investment is supporting women entrepreneurs in important sectors such as digital services, health tech, clean tech, agri-food and manufacturing industries and ensuring a strong inclusive economic future,” Sahota said.
PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise, an organization that aims to grow women’s companies, received $750,000 for its Women's Innovation Initiative (WIN) program.
Renée Gendron, lead regional coordinator for PARO’s eastern Ontario region, said WIN is to help technology companies owned by or operated by women to grow and accelerate their businesses.
“We have initiatives to help tech-oriented businesses, so the actual product or service is technology, we also have initiatives to help women leverage technology regardless of the product or service that they’re selling,” Gendron said,
PARO’s WIN program can provide support for startup businesswomen through education and funding.
“We have a four-part series on how women can have more constructive and better-informed conversations with technology service providers,” she said.
“They can have the vocabulary to direct, let’s say, a website developer so they know what functions they need and don’t need so they’re not oversold,” Gendron said.
PARO will also match a contribution of up to $2,500 to match investments of the same amount by small to medium-sized organizations led by women in “cutting-edge and critical sectors” such as digital services, health and agri-food and manufacturing industries with a focus on clean and green tech.
Gendron said learning communication skills with service providers from the perspective of a business owner is important because they will discuss critical information about their businesses.
“There’s a tendency, particularly for women entrepreneurs, to be told, ‘You have to learn how to do everything in the business yourself, you have to learn how to do it at the same level or competency that a professional does,’” she said.
Sanjukta Das, a placement advisor at Humber Polytechnique’s Longo Faculty of Business, said there is help for women available to support their startups, but to be successful they have to put themselves out there and give back to the community.
“There’s a kind of entitlement that the information needs to be easily available. You need to know where to tap in to get the right information. It is very unfair to say, ‘We didn’t know,’” Das said.
“I very strongly believe that being engaged in the community where you are giving, you will be provided information. It has worked for me it has worked for many immigrant women who chose to contribute to a community and empower people around it,” she said.
Das is a successful entrepreneur who immigrated to Canada and began volunteering with her local church. Recognized for her hard work, she was hired as a teller for BMO Bank of Montreal. Later in her life, she was hired to be an educator with Humber, where she continued to share her experience and lessons with business people.
“There are many businesswomen who need support, but sitting and getting depressed is not the answer. sitting and getting involved, finding ways to get involved in the community and ready to give in order to receive is the answer,” she said.
