There is an old adage that if something appears to good to be true then it may well be so, I invite you to be the judge!

I saw an ad in the Daily Nation promoting a free seminar on marketing at the ICBL complex on Country Road – great, near my stomping grounds…

It is intriguing to note it was primarily women as opposed to men who attended the session, even so far as a a young mother with infant among the audience, but most of the men present were dressed like young CEO’s or executives that had already made it!

This seminar was co-chaired by Everett Eastmond of ACR Incorporated and Adrian Reid of Legaci Marketing; many points they listed were true – globalisation and the Caribbean Single Market & Economy have essentially licked out the concept of 100% Bajan, using competitors as your partner (this can be done, whether passively, aggressively or mutually cooperative) as well as how most businesses tend to push what they do rather than the results they offer…

This was some of what Mr Eastmond commented on, but it was Mr Reid who delivered the crux of the seminar in a specialised power-point slide-show that night. Adrian’s initial question was to see who in the audience ever heard of a “P-C2-T“? Product, Customer, Competitor & Trends – in his view, understanding these components are key to building a successful business.

Remember, this seminar is free, plus? Only 90 minutes to hammer home some of your point; which indicates there is another shoe to drop, so to speak…

That shoe came down with certainty when the price-tag came up for a six-month consultancy…

Four hundred and ninety-nine dollars per month for auditing, assessing, in addition to 25 hours of personal marketing/ a mystery shopper (where applicable)/ competitor observation/a focus group/guerrilla campaigning at a ten per cent discount – which equals two thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-four dollars, just shy of three thousand bucks!

This is not including if you want them to run your books or to advise on such, that’s an additional two-hundred and eighteen dollars – making for a grand total of three thousand, two hundred and twelve dollars, or? A tad under thirty-five hundred dollars – a series of payments for a car or a mortgage, perhaps an initial loan for a new business?

There was one lady who seriously considering a small growth business loan to run the programme, but many participants beat a hasty retreat, this was no surprise since in their view they may be laying out not just net worth but gross profits on a previously unknown quantum.

In my view? Legaci needs to build a strong track record with more established companies before proffering their services to the micro-entrepreneurs.