Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Jan 15/99) - As Fort Simpson's business development officer, Sean Whelly offers what seems like countless services for local merchants.

From registration to licencing to photocopying -- "I'm here to provide any kind of assistance for business," he said.

Whelly, who has filled the position for the past two-and-a-half years, has plenty of background knowledge in the business world. As a Grade 12 student in Fort Smith, he and a classmate (and his classmate's family) purchased the Slave River Journal newspaper.

Whelly wrote editorials and got his first business experience through the venture until he sold his share six months later. He went on to study journalism at Carleton University for a year before deciding to pursue a marketing/management diploma from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Whelly's job as business development officer is on a contractual basis. In addition to helping out others, he's a full-fledged entrepreneur, with janitorial, consulting, carpet steam-cleaning and campground maintenance ventures of his own.

"I've always been more self-employed than just employed," he said.

For all these reasons, he said he feels he's in just as precarious a position as his clients because, "there are no guarantees in business."

Other aspects of his job as business development officer include helping others access funding, preparing business plans, helping with books and financial statements and sorting through the piles of forms.

"There's just a load of paperwork, it seems, to run a small business," he said from his office located in the Visitor Information Centre where he has five boxes of accounting files sitting on the floor.

Now that the Business Development Centre has opened its doors, Whelly acknowledged that there may be some overlap of services.

"I may become like the Maytag repairman, right?" he joked.

In all sincerity, Whelly has been in the community for 15 years and said, frankly, that some people feel more comfortable coming to him, and he will be referring some to the BDC. He has more than enough to occupy his time, he said.

"Just helping businesses -- that part of the job has kept me busy," he said, adding that March is particularly hectic because of tax time and April is equally chaotic because many people begin applying for newly-announced funding sources.

He has also been kept busy organizing conferences such as the Northern Territories Waste Water Association conference hosted by the village of Fort Simpson last month.

Then there's the Internet. Whelly has designed numerous Web sites, including the official village Web site. However, he's been busy looking for a new home for that site because the former host recently went out of business. He received only a day's notice.

The Internet is of primary importance to tourism-related businesses, according to Whelly, who also acts as the village's tourism officer during the slower winter months. The Fort Simpson site had more than 800 hits (or visits) from September to December last year, he noted.