This past weekend I was in Orlando hosting the Caribbean American Passport Connection event (I had the name wrong in my previous column) where they honoured outstanding Guyanese contributors to America as part of our Jubilee Year celebrations. The CAPC has been operating for years in that city as probably the best of the Guyana/America associations, and Tradewinds have played for many of their functions organized by Sam Roberts (son of Guyana’s one-time Crime Chief Skip Roberts). In this event, at the DoubleTree hotel, they paid tribute to an array of home folks who have done well in the US in a variety of businesses or community work. Frankly, I was very impressed at the range of abilities being recognized at the event, and I suspect that in fact most of these Guyanese, in a wide range of disciplines, are relatively unknown in their homeland.
In one case, however, I was not surprised to see Brian Bacchus, who operates Luxury Rides Inc, a limousine service, as one of the honoured group on stage. His is an impressive story, one I have known about from the time we started playing for Sam Roberts’ group and Brian turned up at the airport to pick us up in one of his shiny limousines known in Orlando as the top of the line. The Brian story is one of many Guyanese who migrate to another country bringing their inventiveness and determination, and as one person at the function shouted out – “their broughtupcy” – inbred from their youth in Guyana.
Son of Raymond Bacchus, Field Manager for Uitvlugt Estate, Brian migrated to New York in 1983 with, as he put it, “a curiousity about the rest of the world’s happenings. I had never worked in Guyana, but once I got to New York I saw the need to educate myself and was interested in law. However, with no money to go to school, I got a job as a taxi-driver; also in play here was that I knew a 9-5 job was not for me.” Interested in the music scene, he soon switched over to working for a limousine service that catered to people in that industry, but ambition was pushing him. “I spent about six months, watching how the business operated, analyzing the various aspects and filing it away, and in 1986 I acquired my own limousine. My philosophy, still in place today, was to go beyond the standard transportation ingredient and concentrate on providing customers with the extra little courtesies and assistance ‒ getting them tickets for an event; arranging laundry services; changing a flight, etc ‒ I would do those extra things and that would turn them into regular clients instead of occasional ones. I gradually began to build up a clientele among the various entertainment people in their travels. One of my first big-name clients was Roberta Flack – she would request my limousine service whenever she came through – and others were Kool and the Gang, Rick Springfield, the Beach Boys, Billy Ocean, and Boys to Men.”
However, the West Dem boy was growing dissatisfied with the hectic nature of New York, and in 1996, with an established clientele, he moved his business to Orlando. “The first time I went to Orlando, once I hit the airport and saw the palm trees, and the tropical look, I realized that’s where I wanted to be.” Coming to his new location with many big music names already his clients, he quickly began getting work from Universal Studios and the Walt Disney operation, and eventually the University of Central Florida.” Today Brian operates 20 limousines (5 of which he owns outright) and has sub-contract arrangements with limousine services in other American cities. “I never spent any money on advertising. I grew my business by this group of clients I had secured in New York and who were now recommending my services to Universal and Disney people.” Organisations of that scale are hard to break into, but Brian’s satisfied clients in the entertainment business were opening doors for him in his new environment. “I came there already known to some of the big names in music; from that, things really took off for me.”
Reflecting on his success, Brian credits his Guyana upbringing. He particularly cites his father for instilling in him an ambition to be disciplined in his work and to make decisions based on analyzing a situation carefully. “It was also hammered into me by mother to be kind to people. With that background, my reaching out to customers and determining their needs came naturally to me. I love to call it ‘Concierge on Wheels’; it was the core of my service from the beginning; I never lost sight of that.” Brian’s natural astuteness in his business is reflected in this comment he made to me recently regarding his grasp of detail: “I always mention to my chauffeurs to always perform their best as you never know who’s observing.”
On my recent trip to Orlando, Brian met me at the airport. Normally your transportation is waiting for you outside the terminal, but here Brian was with his sparkling Lincoln limousine parked inside the terminal in a secure area. It turns out that he pays to get special clearance which allows him to bring his vehicle inside adjacent to the baggage claim area – you pick up your suitcase and the limo is steps away…convenience for the customer and superior service from the country boy from West Dem, competing in the big arena, and making waves outside; a diaspora success story, if I ever heard one.
