PARO’s advanced Business Accelerator program provides a flexibility of workshops, mentoring, business counseling, web and tele-classes to women who are already established in their businesses but want to ‘grow a little or shift a lot’. This program builds knowledge, skills, capacity, confidence and resilience as a business owner, and each participant’s program is specially tailored to suit their needs. Contact accelerator@paro.ca to find out how the program can benefit your business.

PARO's Accelerator project has been supported with a grant from the Canadian Women's Foundation Economic Development Collaborative Fund, a partnership of the Canadian Women's Foundation, CIBC, The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation, The Ontario Trillium Foundation and an Anonymous donor.

This project is supported by Industry Canada / Fednor.              

June 25th - Biz and Bagel

Are you a Woman with a Disability?
Dissatisfied With Your Work?

Want to Become Self-Employed?

Are you a woman contemplating going into business but do not know where to start?

For more info, please call Joni at 625.0328 or 1.800.584.0252

Start Your Business Today. Let us help you!

Join the Making A Difference: A Business Development Program

Funded by:

The support of Government of Ontario through the Ontario Women's Directorate, the Ministry of

Citizenship and Immigration is acknowledged





PARO Self-Employment Benefit Program

PARO's GATEWAY: A Path to Self-Employment

On EI now or in the last 3 years, or had Maternity benefits in the last 5 years?

Register Today!!

Click here for more information

This program is funded by the Government of Canada



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Do you have a computer? Can you surf the internet easily? Why not try our new Pilot project...
PARO On-line.

Please mark your calendars to attend our exciting press launch for the 
2007 Northern Ontario Women’s Leadership Forum

Tuesday, June 26^th, 2007

10:00 am in the Atrium

Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre
1294 Balmoral Street

Refreshments provided

WANTED: A FEW GOOD WOMEN  

NOMINATE ONE OF CANADA'S TOP WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TODAY!  

Now in its 9th year, the PROFIT W100: Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs is the country's largest celebration of women entrepreneurship. It's the definitive list of Canada's leading women-owned and women-run businesses, ranked by revenue.  

Past winners say this honour has garnered them valuable publicity, new clients and relationships with other dynamic companies. It’s also an excellent way to recognize the efforts of employees—so don’t hesitate to nominate yourself!

Winners will be recognized in the November 2007 issue of PROFIT magazine and year-round at PROFITguide.com. They'll also receive a complimentary invitation to the PROFIT W100 Idea Exchange, a powerful business-building conference at which W100 leaders share ideas, learn from experts and enjoy unmatched networking opportunities.  

Request a nomination package by calling1-800-713-GROW or completing the online ballot at www.PROFITguide.com/w100ballot

Deadline: June 30, 2007

E-mails and Business (Conclusion)  

My previous columns stress that it is important for entrepreneurs, in a business environment in which customers and entrepreneurs rarely meet face-to-face, to craft their e-mails in ways that allow them to maintain their reputations, credibility, and professionalism; the columns also contain a number of basic rules designed to accomplish this.  These rules are:

• the maintenance of an air of formality in all e-mails, including personal messages;

• the use of proper grammar, since grammar comprises a set of rules, which, by their very nature, impose structure, organization, and discipline and, thereby, convey an air of formality; and

• the use of proper paragraphs, which, when constructed correctly, give the material order;

• the avoidance of technical writing devices designed to draw an inordinate amount of attention to the message, such as CAPITALIZATION OF LETTERS and the use of an inordinately large font size;

• the avoidance of acronyms and emoticons; and

• the use of proper salutations and farewells.

There are a number of other rules worth following.  

7. Always include a subject line when you write e-mails.[1]  Keep it brief; use no more than six words.  Make it descriptive; for example, use ‘June 2007 Monthly Report’, rather than ‘Monthly Report’.  In effect, make it easy for recipients to find your e-mail, if necessary.  An explicit subject line alerts the recipient to the importance of the message[2] and makes the e-mail relevant; as a result, the e-mail is less likely to be sent to the junk folder.[3]

8.  Never criticize a person in an e-mail.  “Email is plain text and goes out over public networks, and is often stored on servers for a long time.  It might feel ‘throwaway’ at the time, but it will not be thrown away, as senior executives at Microsoft, Enron, Worldcom, and others have discovered.”[4] 

9. Be selective.  Don’t burden individuals with unnecessary e-mails or replies, which take time to read, to respond to, and even to delete.[5]  “The fewer emails you send – and the more cogent and succinct they are – the better impression you make.”[6]  The issue of selectivity is highlighted by a 2004 study done for the Department of Trade and Industry in Scotland .  The study’s results surprised the researchers: “one in 10 employees in Scotland confused co-workers or clients by sending an e-mail to the wrong person; almost two in 10 confused people with humour.  The poll of 1,000 full- and part- time employees……showed that 59 per cent of workers in Scotland would still rather talk to co-workers in person than via e-mail.”[7]

10. Pause before you click ‘Send’.  Re-read the e-mail, review the   information in it, and make sure you have adhered to the rules of e-mail etiquette.

Writing Tip  

Use of commas with adjectives:  

Use a comma between adjectives when both adjectives modify the subject equally.

For example: “The dirty, torn shirt was not worth keeping.”

To test the rule, try using the word ‘and’ between the two adjectives; if the phrase still sounds grammatically correct, the comma is appropriate.  The phrase “dirty and torn shirt” is grammatically correct.  

Below is a case in which the use of ‘and’ between the two adjectives does not sound grammatically correct.

For example, “One beautiful chair stood in the living room.”  The phrase “one and beautiful chair” is not grammatically correct.[8] 

      Learn a New Word

 Alfresco: adjective or adverb: (pronounced al-fress-koh)

-occurring or located in the open air; outdoor, outdoors

 For example: Our friends are looking forward to warm weather, which will allow them to dine
             alfresco in their backyards.

Note that ‘alfresco’ refers to more than just dining; it also describes a type of painting.  ‘Fresco’ is the technique of painting on fresh plaster; it comes from the Italian adjective ‘fresco’, which means ‘fresh’.  

It is the aim of this column to address the issues of the importance of good writing to the success of business, correct grammar, proper punctuation, and the writing of business letters, cover letters, proposals, resumes, brochures, faxes, e-mails, and memos.  I invite readers to submit questions related to writing; send your questions to clearly_written@hotmail.com. 

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