Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 07/01) - With two babies at home and another on the way, Simone Paradis saw an opportunity to go into business while working at home.

On a trip south the 24-year-old mother had the hand and foot impressions of her eldest son Keenen, who was one month old at the time, set in plaster.

"I came up here and I was pregnant with Ethen and nobody did anything like that up here," she said. So she started investigating franchises. She is now an entrepreneur and owner of the business Our Baby Impressions.

"It took me a year to decide on what I was going to do with it because it was a lot of money," she said explaining that the franchise cost $6,000 plus GST. She also had to pay for a trip to Kelowna, B.C. for training.

Paradis accessed a government program called the Reach Back program. It is part of the federal government employment insurance program.

"The Akaitcho Business Development Centre helped me with a business plan and financial plan," she said.

She also ended up with a grant from the territorial government's Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development for $1,800.

But between a business licence, advertising and other costs associated with operating a small business, Paradis still had to pay out about $6,000.

"The Reach Back program gave me a weekly wage to help me out because I wasn't working and I had never worked up here," she said. "Everything everybody gave me went straight back into the business and then of course my husband lent me the rest of the money."

So far Paradis has only had one customer but she is looking forward to a steady customer base.

"I absolutely love it because I have had my own son done and I know how much I cherish mine. I put his hand up against it and I go, 'Holy cow, look how much he has grown,'" she said, comparing it to a snapshot in time.

She has booked a booth in next week's Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce Fall Trade Fair. The booth comes at a cost of $200.

In order to preserve the image of a baby's hand or footprints forever, Paradis makes a frame and fills it with clay.

"It is a blank slate and then I turn around and I take the impression by pressing their hands and their feet in it," she said.

The baby's reaction is always the same.

"Of course they cry, everyone cries," she said.

But it doesn't hurt them. It is just cold and it feels weird.

"But they are young. They don't remember," she said.

After visiting the child's home to take the image, she returns to her home and continues her work. She makes a cement slur and pours it into the dried plaster image. Then she pops out the three-dimensional image.

"Then I work my magic from there," she said. She sands, finishes, seals, paints and bronzes.

She paints the print a metallic colour, lacquers it and then mounts it on a frame.

Paradis thinks Yellowknife is a perfect place for the business because so many people have family far away. The image is a great gift for grandmas living in other parts of the country.