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Native celeb

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FOUR-YEAR-OLD Christopher Williams (icf) gets an ideal view of native dancers Saturday atop father
Frank's shoulders as the pair tak2 in the Native Festival at West Vancouver's Ambleside Park. In the
background is rattle player Robert Andy Sr. (left) and Bella Coola hereditary chief Lawrence Pootless. Clad in
a native blanket, Capilano Colfege student and Bella Bella native Frank Brown (above) stands beside the
hand-made 35-foot canoe he and 10 others paddled from Bella Bella. The expedition, which left Bella Bella in
the second week of August, arrived at Expo Aug. 30 after visiting native villages along the coast. Made of red
cedar, the ocean-going canoe can cover 50 miles a day. Brown, 22, began the project three years ago as his
practicum for the college’s outdoor recreation program. Below, spectators cheer as paddlers break from the

pack to take the lead in canoe races.

NEWS SPONSORS SEMINAR
learn sound business practices

PEOPLE WHO want to start a business often jump at the
first opportunity without properly exploring all options,

says entrepreneur Bill Gibson.

But Gibson, one of Canada’s
most popular speakers on oppor-
tunity development, says that there
are over 50 techniques that can be
used to successfully search for
profitable business opportunitics.

In a free public seminar, spon-
sored by the North Shore News
and the Ministry of Economic
Development, Tues., Sept. 9 at
Centennial Theatre, Gibson will
describe the techniques that business
people can put to work.

“There are things fike using
growth trends — that's a tech-
nique,’ the 41-year-old Gibson
explains. ‘What you do is look for

growth trends and then look and
see what business could then serve
the growth trend.*’

The rapidly expanding fitness
and health industry is one example
cited by Gibson. A whole myrtad
of opportunities exist for someone
to capitalize on, he says. ‘Even
the making of jogging watches
could turn into a nice business."*

The market switch is another
technique, Gibson explains. ‘‘Like
from the bike that I rode as a kid
to the BMX bikes kids ride now.

“You've got to have the special
wheels and so on,"’ Gibson says,
referring to the enormous potential
of serving the specialized market.

“Transferring is another tech-

”

nique,’ the president of Van-
couver's Newport Marketing and
Communications says. ‘You took
at things that are working well and
see if you can transfer them to
another industry or business."”

If there is a profitable market
for pizza-to-go, Gibson suggests
transferring the ‘to go’ part to a
different business, a video store
for example. “How about a video
store with video-to-zo,"" he ques-
tions.

But what about the entrepreneur
beginning a business without much
capital? Gibson can help them too.
It is not impossible for them to do
well, he says.

With great enthusiasm, he
recalls a gardener on Saltspring
Island. Every sear the woman
would mark her various crops tis-
ing seed packages pasted on small

sticks.

“Every vear they would blow
away,’' he explains, ‘Then she got
the idea to make fittle vegetable
figures to represent) what she
planted.

“Now they're putting them out
through all the garden stores,’’ he
grins.

And then there is the group that
specialized in chicken feet.

Gibson recounts a company that
was collecting unwanted chicken
feet from poultry processing
plants. “They were taking them
and freezing them and sending
them to China to be made into a
Dim Sum delicacy,"* he savs,

“That's what vou call utilizing
waste products, another technique
that can be used successfully."'

Gibson, wha has worked for
such big name clients as the Royal

~ NEWS photos Tom Burley

Bank, Shell Canada and GTE,
admits he did not invent the tech-
niques —- he just compiled them
into a publication called Exploring
Business Opportunities.

Each participant will receive a
free copy of his book when the
adman-turned-businessman gives a
free lecture Sept. 9 at North Van-
couver’s Centennial Theatre.

“PT talk ina language people can
understand,”” he says. ‘'I'm funny
too. What f say is no good if peo-
ple get bored of me.”

Tickets for the event are
vavailable ai the News, North Shore
libraries, the North Vancouver
Chamber of Commerce, the Fed-
eral Business Development Bank,
the provincial Ministry of
Economic Development and
Newport Marketing and Com-
munications in Vancouver.