Friday, October 30, 2015 • Vol.27 No.1 • Neepawa, Manitoba We offer start-to-finish solutions for every project! Serving Manitoba & SE Saskatchewan Phone: 204-841-0845
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AUTOMOTIVE
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Manitoba entrepreneurs share their big ideas
PHOTO BY KIRA PATERSON
F i v e o f t h e s i x b u s i n e s s i d e a s p i t c h e d a t t h e “ W h a t ’s t h e B i g I d e a ? ” e v e n t i n M i n n e d o s a o n T h u r s d a y, O c t . 2 2 w o n c a s h a w a r d s . (Left to right) Marilyn Crewe, EDO of Neepawa, was one of the event organizers. The entrepreneurs were Marlies Soltys of Minnedosa, Hali and Doug Finlay of Rapid City, Lisa Ballegeer of Rapid City, Darryn Cameron of Neepawa, and Joyce and Michael Rodericks of Riding Mountain. Vern May (right), EDO of Minnedosa, was the other event organizer. By Kira Paterson The Neepawa Banner The first annual “What’s the Big Idea?” event was a success. Marilyn Crewe, economic development officer (EDO) for the town of Neepawa, said that it went really well for its first time. “We were really pleased with the event,” she said. It was put on at the Minnedosa Community Conference Centre on Thursday, Oct. 22. The event was put on as an opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas for a chance to get prizes. It was also intended to help the entrepreneurs get in touch with support agencies that could help them start their businesses, even if they didn’t win anything. There were also different agency representatives and successful entrepreneurs there that made presentations
about how to start a business and what was important to make new businesses thrive. Crewe noted that there was a good variety of entrepreneurs and ideas, and that there was great community support. The seats for the audience were almost filled. There were six different entrepreneurs who made pitches to a panel of four business experts. The panel included Nikita Shaurette, Trent Clayton, Beth McMann and Paul Laliberte and these four decided on who would get the awards that were offered. Each entrepreneur got 10 minutes to make their pitch and five minutes to answer any questions that the audience or panel had for them. The first pitch was made by Rob Smith from Rapid City. His idea was for a casino for hire that only used fake money. It was called Lady Luck Funny Money Casino. He would offer his casino to businesses that wanted to
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put on an event and needed entertainment for it. His games would be set up in whatever venue the business wanted and his dealers would go there and run them. He said that his employees would be trained and able to help those who don’t know how to play the games. His business would be available to anyone in the area, including Brandon. There are already other casinos like this in Brandon, so he was hoping to make his more available to the smaller communities. The next pitch came from Doug and Hali Finlay, husband and wife from Rapid City. They planned to open a dealership called Oakview Equipment for MTZ tractors, which is a company that is just starting to come back into Canada. These tractors are non-computerized, which is an advantage for use in extremely cold weather. continued on page 18
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