New way of selling too
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 30/01) - Marg Baile leads her customers into a suite on the Explorer Hotel's second floor.
It's quiet, comfortable, and has elegant displays of diamonds and black pearls -- a combination inspired by Baile's trip to a pearl farm in the Cook Islands north of New Zealand.
She's banking on a solid reputation as a former Yellowknife art gallery owner and an idea she thinks Yellowknife is ready for -- marketing diamonds by appointment.
That's the type of service that Sheila Bassi and Dave Kellett wanted.
For their wedding this summer, the Irish-descended couple also wanted custom-designed Celtic knot-style diamond jewelry.
"We'd gone to the stores and nothing struck our fancy," Sheila said. The two picked Baile because of her good name, evening availability and preference for custom work.
Baile predicts Northerners will want to own a Northern diamond.
She sells diamonds from all three of Yellowknife's diamond cutting works -- Sirius, Arslanian and Deton'Cho -- and competes with three other Yellowknife retailers.
After living in Yellowknife five years, Baile realized in 1985 the great opportunities the North holds for those willing to take risk.
So with no business experience, she left social work to try her hand as an entrepreneur. Nobody was more surprised than she was by the success of what is now Northern Images. Burned out and suffering from arthritis, she sold it to Arctic Co-op three years ago.
In one way Baile is returning to her entrepreneurial roots. She started the gallery by selling art in the Explorer Hotel's lobby. She hopes to have a storefront there to get visitors' attention, but will always keep renting the more private space on the second floor.
"We have so many visitors. I don't mean tourists, they're coming here for conferences. And everyone knows we have Northern diamonds now. That's why I started this in a hotel."
