M: Marketing with Premium Content Access CardM: Marketing with Premium Content Access CardM: Marketing 2e is the newest principles of marketing textbook from Dhruv Grewal and Michael Levy, and was created with students' and professors' need... Read More >

Posts Tagged ‘take company public’

Advantages To Going Public – How To Go Public – Take Your Company Public

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

When companies contact us about going public they will typically start out by saying something like, “I’ve been watching your videos and have been following your company in the media for a while now” or “I’ve been reading your articles about globalization and going public over the past few months and…”. My point in stating the above is this, I’ve never had a company that calls and says, “We were going to get a corporate line of credit but figured we’d go public instead”. Companies that are going about this the right way will have spent time preparing their company to go public and they’ve taken the appropriate initiatives to set up post public finance options, investor relations and other efforts that are conducive to their company performing in the aftermarket.

As an IPO consultant it’s not my job to sell the company on why they should go public. It’s my job to question their motivations and play devil’s advocate to try to test their theories and inject factual information that will either make them more confident with their decision or talk them out of taking this path. Proceed with caution. If you get an IPO facilitation firm on the phone and they are absolutely in love with your company, idea and plans from the onset of the conversation, chances are you’re going to regret it in the end as this consultant has too much time on their hands and sees an easy ‘fee oriented’ target.

Going public is a mutual effort and can only work if both sides are going to make out financially in the end, not upfront. Consultants that charge front heavy fees are typically not going to be around in a stabilization or advisory capacity once you are public which means you’ll almost certainly fail to raise the public capital you’re seeking. Instead, find a consultant that levels out their fee structure with a general retainer fee and most of the compensation on the back end. Retainer fees of $40k to $50k are common among established and legitimate consulting firms. You’ll also have the PCAOB audit which will range from $10k to $30k and the S1 filing and comments fees for legal should be tied into the back end with some general expense compensation during the process. Your market maker attachment and 15c211 filing should also be included in back end equity by the consultant.

As far as equity compensation keep in mind that if a consulting firm wants to take all upfront fees and makes no mention of the post public equity distribution then they are taking you on as a client for the wrong reasons. If they believe in your concept and truly want to get involved to assist you in a well rounded, strategic offering they will insist on an equity stake of 5% to 20% depending on how much pre public structuring and strategies as well as post public work must be done.

In going public your company can become a globalized, stable industry powerhouse but attaching yourself to the wrong facilitator upfront can damn your efforts before they begin. Find a well published, full service consulting firm that will take control of the situation so you can focus on your business and not have to worry about the intricacies that can destroy your offering potential.

FREE Download of the Ground Breaking eBook Taking A Company Public, to find out how to take our company public, structure a company, globalize your concept and much more. Click here to get Free Pre IPO Investor Alerts

A Meeting with Economic Strategist James Scott, CEO of PCS Inc.

Friday, November 12th, 2010

As a journalist I find myself ghost writing books for self absorbed executives and politicians and never able to take credit for it. I usually get a call from the executive’s publicist and they want me to write a bunch of garbage about his soft side, his humanitarian side or his golf swing. The article is written, published, the clients happy and I feel like a sell out with no journalistic integrity because in this industry, to pay the bills means to compromise and do things you don’t like. This interview was different, completely different.

I met James Scott at Earl’s, a fine dining establishment for Bucks County’s upper crust. The waitress was a snob, I was invisible to the bartender and the experience of waiting for him to arrive was a pride swallowing nightmare that is difficult to put into words then James walks in, polished, confident and ready to get down to business. “Why is my friend still standing” he snapped at the waitress walking by, “I’ll be with you in a…” before she could finish, he interrupted, “we’ll find our own seat, you’ll find us and bring us menus, Steve follow me”. We grabbed a table and to him, this was normal. “If you wait once you’ll spend your life waiting. So what can I do for you?”

I was expecting someone older, in their 50′s or 60′s, he was in his 30′s with a chip on his shoulder to act as warning to any opposition, anytime, anyplace that you may start an argument or debate, he’ll finish it. I became drawn in immediately. He received a call as we sat down from a congressman in the north east and spoke with such confidence, eloquence and authority I felt as though I was sitting in front of an 80 year old statesman that’s been born and bred into the political strategies game.

When he hung up my first question was “Where do you get your confidence to talk to power players with such comfort and ease?” He looked up at me with a glare that was focused and made me feel he was looking into me as opposed to at me and replied, “I think confidence is all relative to what you know and what you know you know” with a grin, he crossed his legs, ran both hands over his slacks and continued, “I made it a habit early on to say as little as possible so that when I was ready to talk I had the attention of the entire room. I made sure that I studied the attendees and read through the body language and speech patterns of everyone there to find the leaders, followers, supporters and skeptics and after collecting all this information I could determine who I needed to address in the room. After 12 years of studying body language and voice patterns it becomes a process of analyzing the situation at hand and responding with an objective strategy that can be applied to the situation. I gained confidence from the successes of using this process time and time again.”

“How do you define this unique area of consulting that you specialize in? There are only 3 or 4 other consultants globally that have the contacts to both economic power players and political lobbyists and special interest groups. How do you keep everyone happy in such a stressful environment where crisis management is typically the job you’re being hired for?”

The waitress arrived at the table, it was 10:35am, some people were still having breakfast, I ordered a coffee, he ordered a vodka tonic, double Belvedere with extra lime as if drinking in the morning was normal behavior. He answered “My core consulting genre is strategic facilitation. I started with public and pre public corporations by setting them up properly to go public, then my firm would take them public, put together a post public investor relations process to grow their marketability to investors and then help them expedite their growth with acquisitions and merger identification and facilitation.” He continued, “I began getting involved on the political side as I would be contacted by a lobbyist group that was working with a congressman or senator who had issues they were trying to sort out and there was no one to call so they would typically get referred to me from a board member of a company I structured and they would say something like, ‘our candidate is having a similar issues that the CEO of ABC Inc was having and we wanted to see if you could come on board to help us work it out . . .’ and that’s how I started getting involved on the political side. Politics just like general corporate and economic strategies have many similar threads. I just try to use the experience from one project for the next and so on. I guess more than anything now I’m a fixer but I’m working more with lobbyists and special interest groups.”

I asked him what prompted the change from focusing on corporate strategies to lobby and special interest, “Well, at the end of the day politicians are the visual identification for an agenda. The agenda is typically started by demands from the localized constituency. Lobbyist and special interest groups spend millions of dollars researching statistics and geographic layouts to find the areas of the country/world that their prototypical support base resides. The next move is to identify the political power-base in that region and initiate support planning. If the political figures are open the next thing is localized job creation and general economics. The convergence of the two in a way that is conducive to instantaneous capitalization and results is where I come in. I work with lobby firms because that is where the real power is, not the actual politician.”

Again, every word was pronounced perfectly, his vocabulary was authoritative, his eyes didn’t blink, his posture was perfect and I have to admit, I couldn’t find a single chink in his armor. There wasn’t an ounce of pretentious or insecure put-downs or belittling of anyone and in talking to him I felt myself gaining more and more respect and admiration for him.

This 30 something ‘kid’ has more global political pull than even the most seasoned politician yet he was comfortable in his skin and completely calm. His breathing was paced and as I looked for the prototypical nervous habits such as a bouncing foot on the floor, sweaty brow, nail biting etc, none were present. He was, in every sense of the term a W.A.S.P without a single trace of insecurity. I was in awe and when I think about it now I believe I took something away with me that day. I’m 54 years old and I have to admit, I look up to him. That may sound strange and it’s even stranger to admit this after I’ve been writing on economics for 25 years.

As we wrapped up the meeting (he only set 20 minutes aside for me and time flew by) his next meeting rolled in. A Chinese oil company needing his strategies to help them out of some issues in Africa. “have a seat gentlemen” he said “I’m going to walk my friend out and will be back in a moment.” He walked me out and we shook hands and he said, “I know you’re a journalist and you’ll want to ask me how I want to be portrayed in the article and I would say this, just go with your gut. I have nothing to hide and my reputation is more about what I am able to accomplish for my clients as opposed to what potential clients read about me. Just write for your readers and it will be fine.” He put his left hand on my shoulder while his right hand stopped shaking my hand and just held it for a moment and then he walked away.

That’s it. That was my interview with James Scott, CEO of the almighty Princeton Corporate Solutions. We didn’t get into the juicy family topic because he wouldn’t mix work and family, we didn’t cover any controversy that surrounds him because there is none, there are no legitimacy issues with him as his cell phone has the world’s most influential professionals and political organizations on first name speed dial.

What I took away from this interview is one thing. The economy is in shambles our government is a disaster but there is a part of me that feels safe and secure knowing that James Scott is involved in the process. We need people like him to help the power structure keep order and to make the moves by these groups solid, strategic and strong enough to help us rebound the devastation we are now experiencing. We need leaders who were born to lead to take us as a people by the hand and tell us that it’s going to be OK and to just focus on our jobs and family, there are qualified people working in the shadows that don’t need nor want special recognition or their names in lights. James Scott is the silent leader that enables crumbling economies to rise again and hopeless corporate organizations to thrive. Keep an eye out for him; chances are he’s turning around a company or an economy near you.

Find out more about James Scott and Princeton Corporate Solutions, some more information can be found on their Corporate Blog

categories: james scott,princeton corporate solutions,princeton corp,princeton corp solutions,take your company public,take company public,the new machiavelli

Educate Your Child Or Watch Them Crumble: The Sad Future Of Global Economic Strategies

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

In life, real life (not this politically correct utopia brainwash content they are force-feeding our children with in school to cripple their minds) is truly, absolutely survival of the fittest. Make no mistake intellectual battle lines are drawn and at the end of the day there are two educations a child gets today: School and Home.

At school children are taught that if they play along with the group, all is well, they’ll get good grades and if they say no to drugs, fall on bended knee before the teachers they will make it. A child’s education at home must be about applications, strategy and considering the public education game a playground. Understand that when you send your child to school they are submerged in a ‘follow the leader’ subculture that goes like this: go to class, study, ready, test well and put your napkin on your lap at lunch get into college and get that piece of paper that convinces intellectual halfwits that you’re qualified for that $30k paper pusher job, fall in line with the student loan suffocation mechanism to allow the government to take their piece of the action and you’ll be fine.

As parents, we need to have a strong, updated comprehension of this because we place our children in a position where they are tied down and force-fed by self proclaimed intellectual scholars yet the reality is they teach because they cannot do (yes I know I’ve said this before but keep reading). Those who can apply the tactics taught in school go from tactician to strategist. A strategist is able to apply the tactics studied in university class rooms to their current and immediate environment, ‘teachers’ also referred to as ‘tacticians’ cannot.

Train your children in the Machiavellian ways that have been demonized by those who are afraid to lose control but mastered by those in control. Throughout elementary and high school training it is your job as a parent to show your child how to apply what they are learning in school as the instructor as their educational facility is unable to do this as they are a tactician not a strategist. Strategists own the companies that tacticians work for. Strategists are on the board of companies and have C level executive stations while hiring and firing an ongoing ocean of tacticians. How can you tell if you’re child’s teacher is a tactician as opposed to an educator with the full package? They treat the halfwit concepts of the new ‘political correctness’ as if they were laws passed down from Mount Olympus and constantly use backwards, mean nothing terminology such as hyphenated ethnicities which is nothing more than one additional strategy used by the powers that be to separate the citizens of this nation even more in turn securing more of a strangle hold on the minds of our youth, they take a kumbaya approach to communication with a ‘there is no wrong answer’ process to confusing the balance of a soft maturing mind, they’ll teach about Victoria, self proclaimed Queen of a so-called ‘United’ Kingdom with no mention of the ongoing British attempts to infiltrate this country with chaos missions during the civil war, the war of 1812, multiple invasions from Canada early in the history of our Nation and ongoing via economics and our current legislative and trade system.

Its war and we are battling for the minds of our children in order to keep them from entering into the zone of the mindless drone. They will brainwash your child all day in school, instead of handing your child over to more negative influences by allowing them to sit in front of the idiot box for four hours per night, give them books to read like the Art of War, The Prince and other books that will train them to assimilate this lame public/private school education into practical, strategic concepts that will set them apart, above and beyond their peers.

Want to find out more about Political and Economic Strategies ? , then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions’ blog Economic Globalization Strategies and facilitation that can transform the direction of your company, career or campaign.

Take My Company Public: Survival Of The Fittest

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

What happens when politicians perpetually fail the people of a nation? What happens when lying, steeling, cheating and other grotesque displays of a primitive mind become mainstream with those who have been elected to govern our nation?

The answer is simple, natural law kicks in and the Darwinist notion of Survival Of The Fittest becomes the new reality. Don’t think for a second that your children can’t see it and I f you pay attention you’ll notice it with the crowd around the water cooler and even the racquetball clique. People, smile and goof off less and synergize more. The subconscious, primal survival mentality of our fight or flight ancestors is now dictating our moves as we are once again in survival mode.

Here is what I’m seeing in global commerce. Companies and entrepreneurs that would normally go out of business, claim bankruptcy, lick their wounds and go sell insurance for a living are now seeking synergistic relationships with other like-minded professionals.

Today, I was contacted by three different men: one was a performing and non performing note buyer who made great money but wanted to expand and go public, the second call was from real estate investor who owned around 2.5 million dollars in property, had liquidity and money in the bank but was afraid to do anything until he has a strategy for taking his company public and the third gentleman had a construction background in the luxury home industry and made great money but also had around 3 million dollars in commercial real estate holdings.

Each of them said, “my goal is to go public but I would like to team up with other men just like me so that together we can make a huge success of the public company”. Now obviously that was not verbatim but you get the point.

When I got off the phone, I walked down the hallway from my office to the conference rooms, grabbed some coffee and slowly walked back to my office and then…a moment of Zen, it is time to bring out the merger machine! I immediately got on the phone, called all three clients and within 2 hours had all three of them doing back flips in their living rooms. We took the strengths of each of these men and put them together into an entity that will work.

Don’t give up! Whatever you do, you must never give up. Don’t believe for a second that your Senator or Congressmen is going to do or is even capable of doing anything to improve your position. If they were drowning in a lake you would be the first person they grab and use as a flotation device. Open your eyes and take it all in. Are you fit enough to survive?

Take Your Company Public For Less Than $50k Free Video Download , call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183 Take Your Company Public For Under $50k

Global Consulting Firms – Global Expansion Consultants – Take Your Company Public – Change Is Needed

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Placid expressions on the faces of the soon to be sacrificed entrepreneurs, “Line up, take a number, politicians are momentarily occupied at the citizen guillotine but they’ll get to you in a moment. Yes, just stand there and wait your turn while the IRS picks your pockets and bankers rape you of your dignity, don’t worry it will all be over soon.”

Is this a little to graphic or a little to real? Which is more upsetting to you? I believe that the fact that the above is the psychological reality of the American populace at this moment in time and that is what’s so disturbing. We are led to the slaughter as sacrificial lambs and we are expected to just grin and take it as it is our patriotic responsibility not to complain. Just take this two ton backpack of burdens, place them on the backs of our infants and move on. Right? I am asked to speak on the topic of global finance, IPOs and corporate globalization internationally and the one common thread I see in every country I visit is that the citizens of the host country feel that it is their patriotic duty to stand there while corrupt politicians place the noose over their children’s heads and slowly suffocate the lives out of them with debt, corruption and the economic burdens of multiple generations.

Truth be told, the patriotic thing to do is ask questions, protect our children from a mountain of growing debt and tell the institutional powers that be exactly what we demand of them. In the meantime what does a company do when they are trying to raise capital to stimulate rapid growth or stabilize their position? The last thing you want to do is open yourself up to the life sucking banking imps who lend with the intent to repossess.

Take the power back, create wealth for your family and your children’s children. Take your company public, start with the OTCBB (over the counter bulletin board) if you can’t qualify for a larger exchange and grow from there. Be smart with your corporate capital and use your stock sparingly and preserve it. Before you sell shares for public consumption, conserve your share price by securities backed loans like PIPEs.

Offer shares to loyal employees and give them a chance as well. Politicians will pick your pockets until there is nothing left, banks are pawns to the Federal Reserve whose sole purpose is to bury you in debt and wrap invisible handcuffs around your wrists. Go public. Create opportunity and wealth and take charge of your own fate.

Take Your Company Public For Less Than $50k Free Video Download , call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183 Take Your Company Public For Under $50k

Institutional Lenders And Political Blood Letting And The Goblins Beneath Your Bed. A Must Read

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Think back to when you were a child and your imagination was developing? You’d hear a bump from your closet or your eyes would play tricks on you as you swore you could see something slithering under your bed when the hallway light was turned off or when you’d creep, with back to the wall to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you could feel the energy of something staring at you from the opposite end of the hall’s expanse, you look up and sure enough you’d see a cast shadow made visible by the glow of a full moon peering through the window.

These recollections make us laugh as we mature and realize that is a perfectly straight forward reason for that shadow or rattling pipe etc. But this day in age it’s no longer the spooky ‘Scooby Doo’ style ghosts and goblins that haunt the dreams of our children. Instead, it’s the reality of state Marshals and Cops breaking into their home in the middle of the night to enforce a foreclosure eviction or a politician signing a bill that will strip them of their rights or the reality that when they get out of college they will immediately have a multi trillion dollar bill to pay because of today’s liberal welfare and social security misspending by politician snakes that slither around their room at night just waiting for the right time, when their guard is down, to strike.

The nightmare for our children is no longer a figment of an overgrown imagination. It’s all too real. How can we bring that innocence back into the dream space of our youth? For starters, take control of your career, step away from large corporations and get involved with the entrepreneurial small and medium size businesses in strong growth industry such as: alternative energy, technology, global distribution facilitation etc. If you are a business owner, don’t hook up an IV to the arm of your infant and sell your soul to the devil by taking a loan to grow your business. Institutional lenders backed by crooked and unqualified politicians will see to it that your company can not meet the terms and your business expansion loan will go delinquent and the IV will star sucking the life out of your offspring and all the gifts of a profitable company yielding a good college education, comfortable transition from university into a career, help with a down payment on a home and other competitive advantages that you want to provide and that your children deserve will go up in smoke while the fat cat politicians and institutional lenders laugh at you and move on to the next easy prey.

Stop and think before you fill out that bank loan application. Don’t put up your home as collateral for a business loan. Don’t take away from your children what should be theirs. Instead, do what the wealthy do, grow your company by creating opportunity for others to make money off of your business concept and track record. Even if you’re a small business making $2M per year, you can take your company public on the OTCBB. The OTCBB (Over The Counter Bulletin Board) is the spring board toward the possibility of a NASDAQ qualification but not necessarily a mandatory move to grow your company. The OTCBB is a trusted, solid exchange with respectable and consistent trading volume where you have access to all the growth capabilities of the industry big boys. You can cross collateralize your securities so you don’t have to personally sign for loans, you can purchase companies to grow quickly using your stock as currency. Bring on prize executives to help you grow your company by offering them stock in the company as they reach certain benchmark goals.

Step away from government lies that will damage the future of your children and banking contracts that will almost surely crucify your company as it’s slowly sucked into Hades like a diamond sinking into a bubbling tar pit. Take your company public and take advantage of the massive success that you truly deserve.

Taking Your Company Public? Get The Facts At the Top Financial Blog , call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183 or Call Us To Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Over The Counter Bulletin Board – All The Answers Are Here! A Must Read.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

What Is the Process Of Taking A Company Public? Here Are The Answers!

Going public can make or break a company. As long as you are prepared it can be the biggest blessing ever bestowed on your company. Understanding the process can help you decide if this is a direction you’d like to take. Here is the process:

First you’ll need corporate structuring to create a business model that is conducive to raising capital and increasing investor confidence so you’ll need to take a long hard look at your ‘C’ level executives and their educational and professional pedigree and track record, your board of directors capabilities and abilities to contribute with capital connections and strategic alliances.

Second you’ll need to write a business plan that take into consideration a strong business model, financial projections that will stand up to the scrutiny of your SEC auditor and investors who have their investments audited by legal counsel and accountants while simultaneously painting a picture of a solid and viable, and yes, recession proof business model.

Third you will need a PPM to break your company up into shares to distribute to seed capital investors and stay within the SEC Regulation D requirements.

Fourth you’re ready to file your S1 and get into the comments stage. Be prepared to answer questions and be patient. The SE needs to understand your business enough to approve it. Some of their comments are pretty strange but it is what it is. Your best bet is to have a good securities attorney file for you.

Fifth you need your third party audit. This can be a large financial undertaking if your books are a mess and a good auditor can be in and out in around a month.

Sixth after the SEC approval you’ll have your market maker file your 15c211 with FINRA to get your approval and stock symbol.

Lastly, you’ll need a strong post public investor relations strategy to induce investment and calm down those who want to sell their stock. A good IR strategy will also bring into account massive amounts of traditional and viral publicity.

For Corporate Turnaround Services or Investor Relations and Publicity, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Take Your Company Public: Understanding The Political Machine

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Our firm takes small companies and industry genre leaders public in the United States. We specialize in the OTCBB, A to Z facilitation as well as NASDAQ IR and strategies consulting. We work with global corporate entities from Greece to China, from South America to Europe. I say this not to boast or market myself but to give you some comfort that what you are about to read is based purely on experience and absolutely objective and if you are about to take your company public or trying to turn-around or restructure your public entity, this information will be of tremendous help to you.

I see companies rise and fall before and after the ‘going public’ process. Some companies have great ideas and constantly struggle, some are hardly worth their weight in pocket fuzz but thrive and to understand why we must step back and look at a public and pre public concept as you would a globe that you can set on a desk and spin slowly over and over again. Stand on the desk and kneel on the ground, stand on your hands if you have to and the point of this exercise is to look at your public entity from every imaginable angle searching for any and all chinks in the armor.

Think past the basics of going public. Any informed CEO, COO or CFO of a pre or post public entity will comprehend the basics: you’ll have a first round seed capital raise, you’ll need a solid board of directors and solid executives with an appealing pedigree, your company needs a viable and yes, ‘recession proof’ product or service. You need a solid pre public corporate publicity strategy to make your company stand out like a blinding beacon with strategies that wrap around the corporation as well as each executive to increase the market awareness of their existence in the industry power structure and of course you’ll need solid and massive post public investor relations to stabilize and grow that stock price.

Now here is something that you may not have taken into consideration but is a necessity to filling in the gaps of your corporate profile as well as strengthening those invisible inferiorities in the corporate armor. Political power structure contacts are a must. Yes, political in every sense of the word. I mean you need strong contacts in your operating country’s political electoral system of influence to gain access to those ‘no bid’ contracts. It’s a mandatory evil that separates the men from the boys. Get to know lobbyists, congressmen, political attorneys, senators and most importantly get on a first name basis with the direct executive assistants for each of these players as they are the ones that will make the introductions.

Your face needs to be seen in the papers and journals alongside of these power players. Your name needs to be mentioned in cigar filled rooms where these individuals congregate. Don’t think for a second that hard work, blood sweat and tears will get your company to the next level; it’s all about connections and the public conception of you and your company.

Simultaneously you need to take into consideration the social political conception of your company. Truth be told, celebrities and corporations get involved with charities and socially conscientious callings such as Poverty Awareness, Haiti Financial Assistance, African Relief and like strategies not necessarily because they have a spiritual awakening and want to make the world a better place.

These companies are piggybacking off of the free press and the social idea that free money to charity somehow justifies the means in which they earned it. Free handout charity affiliation has a way of wiping the slate clean and telling the public that if they buy your product or use your service they are, in some strange way, making the world a better place and instantly something that was once considered a guilty pleasure (such as a $5 coffee and $8 scone from Starbucks) is now a socially responsible action because .02 cents per $20 net profit intake goes to pay for coffee beans that grow in a third world country that is trying to ‘get by’ and grow organic, whatever.

Going public is one thing, staying public is something entirely different, staying public and profitable is almost unheard of. Increase your chances of success by looking at all the angles!

Corporate Power Strategies That Work! , Take Your Company Public, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Public Strategies Consulting success the easy way!

Business Owners: Build A Corporate Structure That Investors Love!

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Business Owners: Build A Corporate Structure That Investors Love! Ok, you’ve decided to go after investment capital but you’re not sure where to start. Here are the basics that you should pay close attention to before putting your company in front of investors.

First and foremost you need to perform an industry analysis that answers the questions pertaining to where you are in the industry and who are your competitors. It doesn’t matter what product or service you offer. You could be selling underwater sock fitting kits and there is a competitor and industry leader somewhere in the world. Don’t be so naive in thinking that there is no competition or that you are at the pinnacle of your industry. Show your audience that you’ve done your research and that you’ve identified the players in your market.

Next get your executive team together and it better be the who’s who in your industry. If you can’t attract the upper echelon of your industry genre then you need to do some serious PR on behalf of your individual executive team to show the public what they are made of. Brand them as the up and coming powerhouse executives in the industry. Publish their articles and knowledge on industry blogs and article submission sites. When a funding source initiates general due diligence you need to shine like a lighthouse in the fog. Each and every executive team member needs to have an image that screams power, success and investor security.

The next thing you need to do is take a serious look at your board of directors. Who is on your board, what is their compensation and is there someone that is a better fit for formulating strategies and alliances than those who are currently populating your director staff.

One of the main reasons that investors turn down companies for funding is because they lack the backup of industry players in connection to strategic alliances. You need to identify and contractually reach out to companies that will enhance your overall business strategy. Your minimum goal should be 10 solid, aged companies that have already branded their names in the marketplace and are willing to add you to their mix of advertising and ongoing strategy and they will expect the same from you. Show investors that it’s not just you treading water in the industrial whirlpool and that you’ve built a life preserver of alliances.

Now you are ready to write a business plan and private placement memorandum that takes all the essential elements above and puts them in two well authored and to the point documents that will make an interesting and informative read for investors who have a track record of investment in your particular industry. If you’ve written your own business plan, toss it. If investors are going to take you seriously you need a professionally written business plan that touches on all the triggers that investors are currently looking for.

Next, it’s best to use the Regulation D, Private Placement Memorandum as the vehicle for staying within SEC guidelines for raising capital and you should use a Direct Public Offering as the process for raising the actual capital. Reaching out to friends, family, industrial counterparts and alliances should be the first place you go for funding. If you are lucky the consultant you hire to assist you with the above processes will have a solid database of investors to assist you in your initial, first round raise via DPO.

Last but not least you should consider, even though it’s not a mandatory requirement for a PPM or DPO, getting an independent audit done on your company to demonstrate an objective analysis of your financial reality so that investors can find their comfort level quicker without a prolonged comments stage.

There you have it. These are the basics to what it takes to achieve equity investment in this current market. Get out there and raise some money!

Want To Go Public With Your Company, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

How To Go Public: Make It Easy With A DPO

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

A direct public offering is when a company raises capital by selling its shares directly to what is referred to as affinity groups, unlike an IPO which are sold by a broker dealer to its customers and the general public through other broker dealers who have customers interested in buying shares in the company.

In IPO’s you have a firm commitment underwriting, where the underwriters promise to purchase the securities for their own account if they can not sell them to customers.

Best-effort underwriting: The underwriters do not guarantee any specific number of shares to be sold, they merely act as brokers.

In an IPO the lead underwriter is referred to as the syndicate manager, he keeps the book and invites other broker dealers to join the syndicate. In a firm commitment underwriting, an underwriter’s agreement makes members liable for any unsold securities, regardless of how much of their allotment they sold. .

In a direct public offering the company sells the shares to affinity groups; who falls in this category? Customers, suppliers, distributors, friends, family, employees and other members of the community. In a direct public offering (DPO) the company places its shares in the hands of those people who are familiar with the company and know the company’s product and management, and are most likely to hold the shares longer because they feel comfortable with the company’s prospects for the future.

Direct public offerings are considerably less expensive than IPO’s and most effective for smaller offerings, for large offerings the sales staff and customer base of a broker dealer are usually necessary.

Since the affinity group is already familiar with the company and its practices it doesn’t put pressure on the company to change the way it does business, and will remain loyal to the company because of it’s presence in the community.

DPO’s are preferable to venture capital financing because it allows the present management to execute its business plan without outside interference. When a small company turns to a single large investor they tend to surrender the freedom to make all the decisions.

In a DPO like other methods of going public today audited financial statements are required. Unlike a reverse merger you choose your shareholders and you don’t have to deal with shady, unscrupulous shell owners.

Shell owners usually keep between 5-15% of the shares outstanding and are quick to liquidate, and they do not have an interest in the well being of the company’s share price. Even if you insert a stipulation in the contract that they can not sell for a year they will find a way of shorting the stock and destroying the share price.

This makes the DPO a preferable option even for companies that don’t need financing but would like to go public.

A DPO does not always require audited financials but if you plan on going public you will need them. So you must hire an auditing firm that is “peer review” or PCAOB.

If you wish to take your company public then you must file a form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a form 211 must be filed with FINRA.

A DPO is an alternative to an IPO or Reverse Merger for a company wishing to go public or obtain financing; it allows the company owner(s) to call the shots instead of an underwriter or a shell owner.

Want To Go Public With Your Company, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Privacy Policy