Posts Tagged ‘how to take a company public’

Taking Company Public: What The Government Giveth It Will Surely Taketh Away

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

As the unfortunate recipients of a bastardized economy whose immediate future is as grim as the past two years there is a massive economic shift. Banks are crumbling towers of cards and executives in charge of this so called ‘rebound’ effort are about as qualified as a blind, deaf, mute, quadriplegic trying to win the iron man. In short, at this rate we’re in big trouble.

How ca a global economy prosper when we have intellectual midgets at the helm as nothing more than marionettes dancing to strings attached to the fingers of bureaucratic madmen controlled by power, greed and the need to dominate? The answer in short, take the control out of their hands and put it in the hands of the people. Companies need to stop looking to the government and bailout legislation for assistance.

“What the government Giveth It Will Surely Taketh Away”. The government gives only to receive ten fold. Banks and institutional finance are under the thumb of the Federal Reserve, a private organization keeping the citizens of this country in debt with fractional reserve lending and FDIC criteria that turns well intentioned banks into armed henchmen.

The only way to step out and take control of our economic fate is to step out of the institutional mainstream and all things associated with the traditional ’system’. The best way a company can do this is by going public. Taking your company public allows you to take control of your financial destiny and take advantage of the OTCBB (Over The Counter Bulletin Board), London Exchange and Frankfurt Exchange. The NASDAQ and NYSE are great but flawed by institutional over involvement.

Align yourself with globalization consultants that can take our mid size regional company and transform it into a well oiled, economically viable international powerhouse. Going public can offer you the financial means to eliminate the fragility that automatically transcends into your business model when held hostage to the institutional mainstream. You have a great product or service, you have customers, go public and then go global. Nothing is holding you back from there. Your future is bright! Now get out there and make it happen.

Follow us on Twitter Princetoncorps , Take Your Company Public and Globalize Your Business call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183 Free Video Take Your Company Public and Expand Globally FAST We Can Make Global Growth Happen For Your Company

Take Your Business Public Successfully: The Spoke Wheel Approach

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

The ‘Spoke Wheel’ Approach To Taking Your Company Public.

A public corporation, just as a private company is composed of several contributing factors that dictate the outcome of its success. If you visualize your corporate entity as the ‘hub’ of the wheel and each spoke as a ‘contributing asset’ to the company you’ll find that the more spokes in the wheel, the more weight the wheel can carry as its strength rests on scores of unified connections working together, each with one simultaneous point of interest, the hub.

These hub connections can be anything that contributes to the overall success and perpetual, yet controlled, growth strategy of the company such as: a dozen strategic partnerships that act as growing distribution channels for your product or service, finance alliances that take care of your growth capital needs, multiple legal professionals that you can tap into for advise and corporate strategies, dozens of companies within your industry that focus on a different element of the industry but cooperate as a referral source for new business and on and on.

Your goal, in creating a solid, strategically aligned pre public and post public corporation is to keep building spokes and bringing on partners and executives that can instantly contribute to adding more strategic alliances and growth enhancers to your ever evolving and emerging corporate wheel.

If you are a public company, partnerships that you should have heavily represented in your model should be securities attorneys, market makers and broker dealers, several publicists with different areas of media focus, viral publicists, investor relations facilitators and service providers etc. Don’t forget the political contacts and padding contacts. By ‘padding’ I mean contacts that may serve no active role other than having some big names affiliated with your company that can gain attention within and outside your specific industry genre.

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

Chinese Corporations: How To Easily Go Public – Over The Counter Bulletin Board

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

As a global corporate strategies firm we are beginning to get many inquiries from foreign corporations that wish to take advantage of the rapid growth capabilities of trading stock in the US. Getting set up with a consulting firm that specializes in fund-raising mechanisms such as private placement memorandum, direct public offering and/or taking one’s company public on the OTCBB can help a foreign entity obtain virtually instant gratification of raising large amounts of capital in an expedient manner.

Chinese companies typically have similar questions and concerns when they contact us such as: How long does it take to go public? What are my options for raising capital with a US structure? Do I need to have an American corporation? How much equity should I give up to the public? Can I merge my Chinese company with my American company to strengthen the American corporation’s asset value? And How do we sell the stock to the public once we have a symbol and are ready to trade?

How long does it take to go public? To go public on the OTCBB you need to have a solid business plan and corporate structure, usually a pre-public round is done with a Private Placement Memorandum to offer discounted stock in return for equity seed capital that will fund the ‘go public process’. This process can take a few weeks to a few months, it all depends on the deal and what you’re offering the investors at this stage. Next you’ll want to do your third-party audit and your S1, after your audit is done and your S1 is filed you’ll enter into the ‘comments’ stage where the SEC is going back and forth with you or your lawyer or your consultant (whoever is helping you go public). The comments stage can be anywhere from a couple weeks to a few months, the more unorganized the company, the longer the audit and comments stage will take to complete. The average for an organized company with the audit and S1 prep done simultaneously is around 4 to 6+ months (the more unorganized the company the longer it takes).

What are my options for raising capital with a US structure? Raising capital in the US happens quicker than in other countries because of the vast wealth in North America and its position in the global market place. Invest-able deals are all in the eye of the investor. The challenge is getting in front of investors with a track record of investing in your particular industry genre.

Do I need to have an American corporation? Yes, to go public in the United States, you need to have an American corporation. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to become your primary corporation. You can use one corporation as your operational entity and one as a subsidiary but to strengthen and stabilize your share price you’ll need to eventually show growth and assets in your US entity.

How much equity should I give up to the public? This is a decision that will be made with your attorney and Board of Directors and the decision is based off of your company’s industry position, the value of empirical assets like equipment, contracts, patents, current foreign based share holders etc.

Can I merge my Chinese company with my American company to strengthen the American corporation’s asset value? Yes absolutely. This is the most popular technique to show current and future shareholders that your company will be a long term public player. The more asset ’skin’ you are able to put in the game in the beginning the better for the longevity of your enterprise.

How do we sell the stock to the public once we have a symbol and are ready to trade? During your ‘going public’ process you’ll be attached to a market maker. The market maker, your consultant and your publicist (if you don’t have one your consultant will find one for you) will work together at all fronts to help you leverage your new public entity. Your publicist will have authors in newspapers and magazines do write-ups on your company as they help you label yourself globally as a new industry powerhouse, each of your executive team members will also have their own publicity strategies going as well so that your publicist can place them on expert TV and radio panels as industry experts which brings website visitation, new distribution opportunities, personal and corporate branding and investor confidence which is all conducive to an increase in your share price. All of this will bring call volume into your market maker while they are selling your stock to new contacts as well as calling on their established database of investors. The process is typically audited quarterly by your consultant to find dead weight or weaknesses and tighten everything up.

Using the public fundraising strategies based in the US is a wise decision to grow your business. Finding the right consultant is crucial. The right consultant can make or break your efforts to go public in the United States.

Foreign, Indian and Chinese Companies, Take Your Company Public, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Read This Before You Write A Private Placement Memorandum!

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Why Are You Writing A Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) To Raise Capital? I feel like I have to put this out there as a corporate strategies consultant with a firm that is completely submerged in the industry of authoring business plans, private placement memorandums (regulation d rule 504, 505 and 506), facilitating direct public offerings to our database of investors and taking companies public on the OTCBB.

When I get calls about private placement memorandums it is typically one of two scenarios: 1. They want to raise capital and they are shopping around for the cheapest PPM author they can find. 2. They have made the mistake of using the cheapest PPM author they could find and now they can’t find an investor that will fund their 70 page stack of toilet paper.

It never ceases to amaze me when companies are trying to convince investors that they are ready for that next step in their corporate evolution, yet they are being penny wise and dollar foolish with the most technical document their company has ever had done. And why do people put the cart before the horse? I mean, why do people write the private placement memo before they know who their audience is? As a rule of thumb you should write for your audience.

A ppm that is being written for venture capital firms will demonstrate and cater to more of an equity control and technical audience whereas a ppm that is being written for angel investors, private investors and small private equity firms who want to be in and out of a transaction will typically want to buy low and sell high and will typically want to invest in companies that are going public in as short of a time as possible.

The investors in pre public companies and other ‘angel’ type investors have a minimal bankroll of $1m or less (usually) so they have to be in and out of a transaction fast, thus the need for a ’selling shareholder offering’. This is a mandatory prerequisite for a company that wants to raise capital from angels and go public. With a selling shareholder offering you are setting up a scenario that ever investor dreams of.

You are giving them the ability to buy deeply discounted stock and 3 or 4 months later, when the company goes public, they can sell their stock into the market at an offering price that is typically 4 or 5 times what they originally purchased the shares at and the company is happy because the investor created a bridge for the company to go public and then created a public float.

Now, after reading this, you will see why writing a PPM before you know who your audience is and before you’ve contracted with a consulting firm is a critical mistake. Find a consulting firm that is well rounded as a capital raising facilitator and have them help you set a goal as an end result and then build your strategy from there.

For Corporate Consulting or Invest Seed Capital In Pre-IPO Companies, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

OTCBB NASDAQ: How To Structure Your Company For Venture Capital Investment

Saturday, April 10th, 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!

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

How To Make Your Public Company A Huge Success

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

OK, so you’ve just spent 5 months to a year in the process of going public. You’ve paid fat fees to auditors, consultants and lawyers, now you’re public…now what? How do you make a success of your new public company? Obviously you have solid executives at the helm and a board of directors advising you on various strategies and setting up new strategic alliances. You’ve eyed up companies to purchase as growth through acquisition is one of the main reasons for being public but how do you keep your stock selling and stable? How can you make it so your company stands head and shoulders above all other priorities of your market maker or broker dealer? You need to make their phone ring by pounding the pavement via public relations and pure publicity.

A sizable portion of your corporate budget as a public company has to be publicity. You need a publicist that will get you on the radio and on television as an industry expert. You need to be mentioned in newspaper and magazine articles. You have to create a presence that forces people to call their brokers to get information about your company and make a move toward stock purchase.

You must take an ‘in your face’ approach to your public relations strategy and your CEO and even your CFO have to take this as their full time occupation until the company gets the traction it needs and then after you have gained traction, take it up a notch with a simultaneous approach of both publicity and product placement to start rapidly building your brand.

After this, again you should take it up another notch by adding publicity solely to market makers and broker dealers. Get published and buy ad space in journals that cater to this crowd. Do the dog and pony show rounds. Introduce yourself. Tell these industry specialists about your plans for the company this year. Leak out some potential acquisition info that can act as a juicy tidbit to get them to dig deeper.

Now you’re ready to take it up a notch again; be seen with the in crowd. By in crowd we mean other professional executives within your industry genre, not competitors but potential strategic partners, get snapshots taken and have your publicist start the hype machine and remember, anything even remotely ‘note worthy’ should have its own press release sent out to the masses!

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

Taking A Company Public: The Secret Weapon for Stock Investors!

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Selling Shareholder Offering: The Key To Raising Fast Capital For Pre-Public Companies. As a consultant who has taken many companies public on the OTCBB (Over The Counter Bulletin Boards), consulted on even more and turned around and structured more companies I can even count, there are a few common threads inherent in all of them.

Most of the companies pursuing capital from angel investors, private investors, private equity firms or small groups of professionals looking for a quick in and out situation with rapid capitalization did three things that made all the difference in streamlining their raise.

First the executives structured their entity to attract investors which by default strengthened their corporate infrastructure. Now they are proposing investment opportunities from more of a position of strength.

Second they chose a team (in these cases they chose our consulting firm) with a proven track record of success with organizing companies for acquisition, merger and taking companies public.

The third element that is common in most successful enterprises which are seeking a first round of seed capital to fund their ‘going public’ ambitions is demonstrating confidence to the investor with a “selling shareholder offering”. Obviously this last element tests the skill of the consultants going back and forth with the SEC during the comments stage but this demonstrates confidence and organization by the company wishing to raise capital.

A ’selling shareholder offering’ tells the investor (if not purely in the initial documents then in the phone conferences leading up the a check being cut) that the company has an organized pre public and post public investor relations strategy, general corporate publicity strategy and a market maker that’s built to last (mostly the former than the later). By offering seed investors the ability for massive profitability by buying your seed shares for fifty cents with a public offering price anticipated at $2.00. What real investor would turn this down?

Offer your seed investors an ‘easy in, quick out’ funding option and watch them swarm to your offering in droves. Let these investors create your float and let your company’s performance and hardcore investor relations take care of the rest!

For Corporate Consulting or Invest Seed Capital In Pre-IPO Companies, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Over The Counter Bulletin Board – Investors: Pre IPO Companies

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Those who are able to achieve higher yields on their investments typically don’t have a broker and don’t listen to the advice of a financial planner. After all, if either of them knew what they were talking about they wouldn’t be hustling others into allowing them to learn the trade game off of other people’s money.

The reality is the few that have gained a comprehension for seeking out and getting involved with trades that open the floodgates to massive profits use their own money and operate as part of a small, tight knit group. The members of this ‘group’ always have their feelers out like tentacles sucking up and analyzing potential transactions, immediately looking for strategic elements and immediately dumping 99% as they don’t meet the criteria.

Two major components that professional investors who use their own money and are able to consistently pick winning transactions are companies that are in merger and/or acquisition mode and companies that are seeking seed capital specifically to go public.

Let’s focus on the latter. Companies seeking seed capital to go public are often financially viable companies with modest liquidity but are taking on seed investors so that they can meet the SEC minimum criteria of having 40 investors on the books to qualify for going public. Investors that are able to, literally, make millions per transaction have a way of getting into these opportunities by connecting with consultants who take companies public.

If you are able to get involved with these consulting firms and if you have some capital to designate as a seed investor, you can literally be placed in 4,5 or even 6+ pre IPO investments per year. When you are one of the 40 investors in a pre public OTCBB corporation you are usually investing seed capital at a fraction of the future public price by way of DPO (Direct Public Offering). The difference between what you pay for the seed stock and what the company charges per share when public is the profit.

It isn’t at all out of the ordinary to buy seed stock at 50 cents and have that stock gain in value of $1.00 to $1.50 when the company goes public and yes, you just made 50 cents to $1.00 net profit on each share. The great thing is you can often invest as a seed investor with as little as $5,000 to $10,000. If you have more capital you can spread it out over multiple pre-IPO opportunities. Seek out the pre- public companies and make a fortune!

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

Take My Company Public”: Here Is How To Have A Successful Offering!

Monday, April 5th, 2010

So many companies dream of going public both as a growth and exit strategy but unfortunately few succeed with this process. The third party audit, sponsoring of the S1 and 211 by a market maker and SEC comments stage is just one of the obstacles involved with taking a company public. The attempt at going public and actually achieving a symbol are two entirely different things and if you are lucky enough to achieve a symbol there’s a completely separate area of expertise needed to keep your stock trading and to preserve a company’s longevity in the marketplace.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind when gearing up to take your company public. Forget everything that you’ve read and heard and pay attention to what you’re about to read because this is the straight forward, objective reality of the process. First, do not hire an attorney to take you public as they will take you on a long drawn out process to get as many billable hours as possible, instead, hire a consulting firm whose sole business model is to take companies public and take advantage of the relationships that they have with attorneys. This is the first rule: hire a consulting firm that offers a complete A to Z turn-key solution for taking a company through the process of going public, achieving a symbol and preserving the trade with a solid, ongoing post public investor relations strategy.

Next, when you’ve decided on a consulting firm evaluate their team, don’t ask for references to call to research their track record, better yet, ask for symbols of previous clients and links to the Edgar database to check out current deals in the comments stage. The proof is in the empirical track record, not potentially fraudulent phone references that are easily engineered and BS.

Now look at their team. Make sure that the consulting group has a solid legal team, market makers, investor relations team, auditing group and someone well versed in the comments stage response as this can be one of the major hang-ups in achieving your symbol in a timely manner. Also, most important, they absolutely MUST have a solid group of investors to fund the process for equity and to sell their shares into the marketplace post public to create a market for your stock as well as a network of market makers familiar with your deal to piggyback off of the sponsoring market maker’s 211.

About one month away from symbol achievement you’ll want to meet with your consultants to get a solid IR strategy together for a big offering dbut. You will want to set up a strategy for 30 day IR intensives every other month with general corporate publicity strategies in between. I suggest changing your IR firm each quarter to keep it fresh and open up your trade to a new network of investors.

One special note to consider is that when you are raising your initial round of capital from seed investors, the fastest way to do this is to have a fist full of contracts and purchase orders in hand to strengthen your position and publicize this reality with an arsenal of press releases. Its 100 times easier to raise capital if you are showing seed investors a handful of ’soon to be’ cash than to solicit them empty handed.

Obviously there are a multitude of other issues that you need to take into consideration when going public so find a consulting firm that can help you make it happen. Don’t try to venture out into these waters on your own as you’ll be diving into shark infested waters and you’ll almost certainly fail.

For Corporate Consulting or Invest Seed Capital In Pre-IPO Companies, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

OTCBB and NASDAQ – Take Your Company Public By Partnering With A Consulting Firm. A Must Read!

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Many companies have a unique service or product but either lacks the capital or know-how to go public. Going public slams open the doors to massive global capital possibilities and massive partnering and strategic growth capabilities. A financially broke company should never try to go public to raise money to stay afloat as you’ll only attract the fee based predatory consultants who make their money on individual fee oriented services without the ability to bring it all together in a turn-key solution so in the end there is no accountability.

The prototypical company that will succeed in going public is either a profitable and mature company or a start up with contracts in place for capitalization and patented and/or proprietary technology or systems that give it a massive edge over competitors. The decision to go public should be based in the desire for rapid growth and capitalization. The qualities of a company that will succeed on the public forum is one with a solid executive staff, experienced board of directors and a service that is recession proof (Yeah I know, what business is recession proof?), and finished with the actual developmental stage with a solid product or service and identified partners and distribution sources.

If you realistically have a chance at going and staying public you’ll attract consulting firms and/or broker dealers and market makers and many times law firms that focus on taking companies public in return for minor upfront fees and a solid equity position. Be careful not to sign on with a company that does not offer a ‘one stop shop’ or turn-key solutions which includes everything if you are going to be paying an upfront fee and equity. Many solid firms will ask for both fee and equity compensation and it’s worth it if they are truly capable of delivering a full range of services.

You should have a polite yet rigorous interview process with the firm before signing on. The ideal situation for a company going public is to partner with a consulting firm or broker dealer who offers absolutely everything you will need to succeed in the pre-IPO and post-IPO market. Expect to pay a fee for corporate structuring, business plan, private placement memorandum and Direct Public Offering to the firms database of investors (if they do not offer an introduction service to investors you should not take them seriously as a full service consulting firm as they are only offering you a sandwich without the bread).

Parts that a consulting firm will partner on if they can truly take your company public from A to Z is the initial Direct Public Offering to an in house group of investors who will invest the capital needed to pay for the audit (though many times this will have to come out of your pocket even if you team of with the best firms in the business), S1 filing and comments, SEC and FINRA approval and ultimately to the point where a market maker or broker dealer is selling your securities to the public. Sometimes it’s good to just hire a company that is strictly fee based for your ‘going public’ ambitions but be prepared to pay hefty fees. If you are a solid corporation with a realistic chance at going public, you’ll be able to tell by the tone that consulting firms have with you when you engage them in the initial phone consultation. If you’re ready to go public, a proper consultant will be able to identify your position in the market place to fill in the blanks.

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