1Love Talent UPDATE: Market Research in Jamaica

Its been a long while since One Love Talent has been active online as the business has been in development stage for some time now as we prepare for the construction of the website and the eventual official launch of the company.

After the initial inception of the Business idea in 2008 and the test trading of the services with selected artistes in the Music industry mostly. In 2012 The Entrepreneurial Challenge, sponsored by Scotiabank gave us the opportunity to receive some much needed attention, funds and support. Still although being amongst the top 50 companies chosen to take part in the competition, which was already a tremendous achievement, as a young start up company without having a proven client history or a record of sales to demonstrate our success.

Still the competition was a great platform and One Love Talent director Amaechi, was interviewed by Cliff Hughes on Nationwide 90FM, as well as in front of the Panel of Judges for Scotiabank the Teller. Although we had a lot of good support and encouragement throughout the competition, we didn't unfortunately have the budget or sponsorship that was needed to really make the difference with the bottom line, in the end which always comes down to the numbers. SO we made it as far as the Top 20 but just missed out on a place in the Top 10!

Currently One Love Talent affected by the prolonged recession in the region, as well as globally changes in the industry, and the lack of growth in the Entertainment industry. Has been going through a transition period, the development of the business model and the business plan itself is being fine tuned. This will enable us to provide services that are beneficial to our clients, cost effective, affordable and that really make a tangible difference to productivity and help increase profitability.

One of the current challenges that we face at present is finding reliable, dependable data for Market Research, which is as important to Business planning, as butter is to baking. Attempting to complete cash flow projections, predict sales and plan pricing without researching the numbers is almost impossible. Unless one chooses to use "Guesstimates" to achieve the predicted numbers, its really a good idea to do the research. The issue is that transparency in the Music business, especially as it relates to pricing is rare. It can be difficult even to obtain pricing information about competitors or similar service providers in the industry. And particularly in Jamaica where the music and entertainment business is notoriously, lackadaisical as times where it relates to proper administration of paperwork. This has resulted in loss of revenues and royalty payments not being made at all or not to the right persons and many other discrepancies that has resulted in a deficit in the arena of Arts and Entertainment. Many industry personnel who have contributed a lot of time, effort and skill are often not properly paid or even acknowledged for their work.

One Love Talent planned to change this by providing an effective suite of services for Industry Professionals. Support services, Business and Product Development, Business Consultancy, Legal Consultancy and other ancillary services will enable and assist clients to be compliant and maintain professionalism, whilst protecting their assets, brand image and position.

Still we have encountered some obstacles, difficulties, challenges along the way in relation to obtaining assistance with finding qualitative data for Market Research. I'm certain that the Market Research industry itself could be developed in Jamaica and possibly the Caribbean region. To bridge the gap and provide niche services to support Professionals, Consultants, Entrepreneurs with quality materials for Business Development.  This will attend to the need of finding good sources of data in Jamaica for Marketing plans, Business plans and the associated areas of planning and research.
I'm guessing that this will almost certainly have a positive effect on the development of successful, sustainable business entities within Jamaica and the Caribbean region in general.
It will most definitely create an environment where Business plans and Marketing planning are able to evolve rapidly, with more accurate projections and the opportunity for successful startups and establishment of brands and business that are viable and resilient.