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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.