Over The Counter Bulletin Board – Here Is The Exact Process
March 29, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Blogging
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!
Chinese Companies: How To Go Public In The USA
March 14, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Advertising
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.
Go Public With Your Company, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!
Business Owners: Build A Corporate Structure That Investors Love!
March 14, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Advertising
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!
Foreign, Indian and Chinese Companies, Take Your Company Public, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!
Experience Absolute Domination Over Competitors Starting Now!
March 14, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Advertising
For many professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners the current reality of their intercompany and inter industry promotion and prominence is a far cry from where they originally envisioned themselves to be. What is the factor that thrusts some people and companies forward in the professional sense and why are some straggling behind like desperate, obsolete room size computers in a hand held PC world?
Its actually quite simple and it all comes down to a decision… a decision to step up and dominate in a no holds barred, bare knuckle fight to the finish. You need to understand and be comfortable with the reality that not everyone will make it. Most of your colleagues and professional friends are not psychologically or professionally built to last, meaning, they are not willing to do ‘whatever it takes’ to get to that next level.
Here is how it’s done: First, decide on what you want, who you want to be and where you want to go in your career. Second, surround yourself with people that have the above characteristics your are seeking to acquire. Chances are, most of these characteristics will be spread out over several different people as opposed to one or two professional who demonstrate your future self so find 10+ people to become well associated with and begin to pattern them. Don’t just pattern the outward and obvious characteristics but absorb the aura of their overall presents (calm, cool, collect and maybe even arrogant and rude at times).
What are their hobbies and extracurricular interests as these interests are a contributing factor to who they have become. Next, make a decision! Make a decision to overcome any obstacles that stand in your way. Dump friends and associates who are not supportive as they will only hold you back. You should quickly sever ties with any and all counterproductive individuals and interests that keep you from achieving your goal. Next, every morning as you’re getting dressed, brushing your teeth you should also be putting on your psychological garb as well. Slip into the mindset of that person you want to be.
Put blinders on your eyes so there are no distractions. What you will find is that opportunities will seem to fall into your lap because you are willingly submerging yourself into a subculture that has worked for all of those around you who are living the dream that you will soon be part of.
As for domination, you will find that stepping into this new code of conduct and professional character you will begin to steamroll forward, yes some people will be crushed under the wheel of your progress but this is a natural part of evolution. Use the element of arrogance, not in an artificial way that is used by insecure people but in a form of self promotion. Begin to state your opinion on industry specific blogs.
Put out industry niche information videos on viral media sites. Bring internet surfers to your blogs and videos with social and news bookmarking links scattered all over the web. Brand yourself as the ‘god’ of your industry. Your opinion matters and after others see you opinions and concepts enough they will begin to see these ideas as the norm. They will feel that up until now they have been misinformed and uninformed and you are the person on the cutting edge of your industry. As you build momentum, whatever you do, do not stop! As you build traction of growing your own personal ‘brand’ and ‘subculture’ within the industry, this should only influence you to take it one step further with articles submitted to global, high PR article directories and press releases through various channels. This is just the beginning but you are on your way to absolute, industry domination!
Need A Corporate Consultant?, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183We Can Transform Your Business
Selling Shareholder Offering: Investors Double and Triple Their Investments!
March 7, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Golf
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!
How To Make Your New ‘Public’ Company A Success
March 7, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Golf
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!
Go Public With Your Company, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!
Where Are All The Investor Finder Services?
March 3, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Blogging
Where Are All The Good Investor Finder Services? Companies raising capital whether trying to get a loan, raise equity capital with a private placement memorandum or go public on the Pink Sheets, OTCBB or any other platform has no doubt been told to find a good investor finder. Sure there are multitudes of membership databases like \’Angel Funding Project\’, one of the industry\’s largest and many others but where are the \’investor finders\’ that everyone\’s CPA and CFO are talking about?
I\’ll tell you where, they\’ve discovered how valuable their portfolio of active investors actually is and they\’ve teamed up with consultants that take companies public and they provide the 40 initial investors needed to qualify for a public offering and they also help supply the capital that the consultants need in order to facilitate the \’going public\’ process. They have gone from making $2,000 here and $10,000 there, to making $100,000 here and $500,000 there by getting involved in the ultra lucrative world of pre-IPO finance and technical facilitation.
They are going from the headaches of trying to get investors interested in placing money with a goofball who doesn\’t think he needs a business plan or PPM to raise capital to getting the red carpet rolled out for them at every term by investment bankers, global broker dealers and companies that desperately want to go public but are working with minimal liquidity.
Quality investor finders are becoming more and more valuable as the economy declines in some regions and remains stagnant in others. Good investor finders no longer sell their services, instead clients and strategic partners must sell them on why they should break open their contact base on their behalf. As the global economy changes, new opportunities are popping up everywhere. Investor finders are being heavily lobbied by Chinese and Indian companies who want to merge their foreign corporation with a public American entity.
Any solid consulting firm can take a company public but few have the contacts to be truly considered full service. If you are interested in taking your company public and have a solid business model, find an IR consultant and sell them on your corporate strategy and if they take you on you\’ll be raising capital with lightning speed.
Indian and Chinese Companies, Take Your Company Public, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!
Taking A Company Public: Laws of Obtaining Industry Power
March 3, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Marketing
Corporate strategies\’ consulting is, in its truest essence, a dirty business. Few understand this tiny, yet elite genre of consulting and even fewer are masters of its concepts. The same principles applied by this select faction of specialist should be applied by CEO\’s and company executives in all industries.
First and foremost, executives must understand the idea of power. There are certain unbreakable laws necessary for the ascension of professionals to positions of influence and power within an organization or industry. Here are a few of the concepts applied by serious corporate strategies consultants that are mandatory prerequisites for the rise and maintenance of power in the corporate world.
The individual seeking to take a position of power must possess the ability to customize and facilitate a turn-key solution to transform the fate of a crumbling company. They must have the ability to construct an infrastructure that perpetuates growth and stimulates longevity and stability. Power, in a corporate sense, is purely economic without excuses of any kind that is driven by greed, self assured stamina and the inability to accept anything but a number one position in their specific industry genre.
The ability of an individual to prompt a capable executive group to \’die hard\’ action and a no holds barred mentality is what will save a company from being a statistic. The unrelenting passion to win and the tactical action of this executive to strap the burdens of a company and its employees to his back and take responsibility for all that is to come, good and bad, to absorb the stress, anguish and deprivation of sleep due to mission focus are characteristics of a leader that will step into any company in any situation and deliver them from failure to profitability and growth.
This individual will assimilate into a battle while forcing the war to transfer its current to his terms. He can break through industrial and bureaucratic chaos and capture the essence of the obstacle and create multiple synergetic strategies to inject the corporate growth engine with rocket fuel. An executive primed for corporate power wears a velvet glove over an iron fist and is quiet and calm yet calculating in demeanor. He can step into negotiations composed and cool while simultaneously eying up the jugular of everyone in the room, scanning those present for weakness and chinks in their armor, preparing for psychological attack at the perfect time to press the mission of his agenda that much further adding security to his company.
This individual will not fall for the false lore of friendship from potential competition but will reciprocate like a gentleman to those initiating camaraderie while keeping them at arm\’s length and will always release enough rope to allow those around him to hang themselves if it means strengthening his company and position in his industry. The executive who has achieved the art of power will be able to prick the underlying wound of his target to find weakness then step back and watch them self-destruct as it is easier to do this then verbally pointing out the individual on the executive team who is the weakest link.
Most professionals who have mastered the above find themselves in consulting positions and are hated by their client\’s employees but loved by the shareholders. If you own a business or are in a senior position at a corporation, try applying some of these characteristics to your daily repertoire and watch the response of those around you. You\’ll find that you will naturally fall into a position of power because of the strength that these characteristics hold in the psyche of those around you. You\’ll become the problem solver and the \’go to\’ guy who has a reputation for being able to structure any situation so that your company lands on top. Get ready for rapid promotion, real leaders are hard to find and will usually take a bidding war to keep.
Need A Corporate Consultant?, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183We Can Transform Your Business
Take Your Company Public OTCBB: The Anatomy of A Professional Business Plan
March 3, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Marketing
With legions of halfwit, template loving business plan wannabe writers polluting the web it\’s no mystery that companies are having a tough time getting funding. It use to be that when a company was ready to get down to business for serious expansion they would call a consultant that would help them bring all the pieces together in a strategic fashion and then this consultant would take their extended industry knowledge in combination with the unique concepts of the client\’s business and he would author a business plan.
This business plan would include everything that the venture capital firms, angel investors, private investors and institutional lenders would need in order to make a quick, no nonsense decision about whether to fund the company and how much equity they would get in return.
Today with the cancerous cloud of predatory consultants seeking out startup business prey to suck dry that businesses are too broke and exhausted to move forward with a solid consultant after they have been through the costly obstacle course and fun house of mirrors set up by wannabe consultants who reel in their prey with a few big words and industry terms and at the end of the day, they are going to put your business plan together with some cracked template software that spits out overly generalized business plans that receive laughs and snickers before being tossed in the trash by investors and venture capital firms.
If you want a real business plan, call a consultant that is completely submerged in the venture capital industry and has experience with plugging businesses into the capital machine. An consultant will first give you a consultation so he can assist in any corporate structuring or turnaround issues that need attention before the business plan is together. After the company\’s structure is complete with executives, solid management, strategic partners, advisory board and board of directors, there is still one more thing to do before the business plan. You must decide what mechanism you\’re going to use to raise capital. Are you seeking debt or equity investment or both, how much equity you will give away for the amount of cash you\’re seeking. How many shares does your corporation currently have and so on. You\’ll most likely need to put together a private placement or consider taking your company public on the otcbb. After all this is done then it\’s time to write the business plan.
Don\’t shoot yourself in the foot, don\’t write the business plan yourself, when you\’ve found a consultant, here are the topics that should be covered in the business plan (this knowledge will help you audit their work before you even hire them). The table of contents should read, at a minimum, like this: executive summary with objectives, keys to success and strategic advantages; Market, Market: Growth and Development Analysis with Industry Analysis and Location Based Services; Current company position with Company overview and vision, key successes to date, technical achievements and commercial position, include info about your technology platform. Talk about your management team, product and services offering, competition, market entry/ Five Forces Analysis, barriers to market entry, comparable business model, target market needs, target market characteristics, market demand drivers, PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing implementation and strategy overview and tactical components, process development map, financial model and projections.
There you have it, the process to follow before the business plan is written and the concepts to be covered in the business plan so that you get the attention you need from investors and the money you deserve for your business.
For Corporate Consulting or Investor Finder Services, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!
Need Venture Capital? How To Speed Up The Process, Guaranteed To Work!
March 3, 2010 by James Scott
Filed under Marketing
So you\’ve created a widget that\’s going to change your industry or you have an idea that could make millions, no you need the money. The truth is, creating a ground shattering concept with multiple avenues of capitalization potential is only 1% of the equation.
Before you start trying to raise capital you have to look at your company as a whole. Are your corporate executives in place and who are they? Are they friends and family or are they the who\’s who of your particular industry? Unless your brother is the premier and most sought after CFO in the widget manufacturing industry, he needs to be replaced with a professional CFO; the same goes for other executive positions.
When a VC reads the bio section of your business plan their eyes need to tear up as they see that you\’ve strategically collected the best of the best in the industry for your company\’s launch and you\’ve just succeeded in passing the initial test of the VC. You must have an elite and specialized executive staff with a tried and tested career yielding success in previous business relationships with companies at the same stage as your company.
The next thing you have to look at is your board of directors. Again, each member must have a full bag of tricks and contacts that they intend on using liberally to help you grow you company at a rapid pace. After your business structure is sound and your board of directors is ready to start moving forward with their strategies, you need to use the contacts in the portfolios of your executives and board members to start creating strong and long term minded strategic alliances and partners that will enhance your company. These alliances must be solidified by contracts spelling out what each party will contribute to the relationship.
Leave nothing to chance, unless they are willing to sign a contract with you, it\’s not a relationship that can be taken seriously and will only convert into negative baggage that will haunt you down the road. Now with all this in place, you\’re ready to put together a business plan. Find a consultant who can not only author a premium grade business plan but also offer corporate structuring and turnaround services to look for holes in your business model and correct them. The author of your business plan is playing a vital role in your company\’s ability to raise capital and grow. Choose your BP author wisely.
Now that your company is structured and your business plan is done you\’ll need a way to distribute equity that protects you from lawsuits and gives the investors the comfort of knowing that you are ready for funding if they decide to invest, you need a PPM (private placement memorandum). Your business plan author is the natural \’go to\’ consultant for this as they already have an intricate knowledge of your business and have the writing experience to author such a technical document. After all this is done you are now ready to start talking to venture capital firms. Don\’t leave the success to chance, hire a consultant that matches companies like yours up with the global venture capital market. Go to Google or another search engine and search for \”investor finder\” or \”Venture capital finder service\” these investor finders are a elite group that has substantial contacts in the funding world and can often match you up with investors and equity firms who are seeking investment opportunities like yours.
Raising capital is the last thing you do after you\’ve gone through the process of structuring your company properly, now that you have, get out there and start raking in the cash! Here\’s to your success!
For Corporate Consulting or Investor Finder Services, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!



