Business news and advise

When increasing your diversity concerning your stocks portfolio many options look very appealing. However, as any astute investor knows, one must be ever vigilant when if comes to where to trust your hard earned money. Initial public offerings can be an exciting lure, so it is wise to pay close attention to any IPO prospectus you may find. The key idea is to always think long term when investing in an IPO.

It is always a good idea to try and determine why a company is offering shares in the first place. Some initial offerings are made by young companies looking to increase their available capital quickly. Will this be for future growth or immediate gain? This is the type of question that is wise to find an answer to. Look for startups that have an eye toward the long run, and are avoiding any type of get rich quick idealism.

Some older companies may be looking to become publicly traded for a variety of reasons. Do the research necessary to determine why. Is it a plan to enrich major shareholders at the risk to minor ones? Is the company in financial straits and seeking impetus to quick growth? Will the sale of common shares be a boon or a bust to the established firm? These are difficult questions to find answers for, but should surely be sought.

All stock ventures can be risky, this much is obviously true. But how can you minimize that obvious risk? There are some ways that remain valid in all economies. First of all, only trade with stocks for products that you yourself endorse. Having trust in a company not only provides one with a sense of security, but will also increase the attention you pay to it, providing opportunities for more informed decision making tasks.

Look to peers and advisors for solid advice. Seek out others who have gone before, or that are already invested in the concerns that are interesting to you. Friends and colleagues are often invaluable for information based on prior experiences. Be location aware, if you live or have experience with Canada for example, review an ipo from Canada.

Follow your hunches, if you can do so without too much risk. Many traders have made fortunes on instinct, and sometimes the best laid plans fall apart before they can even be implemented. If you are compelled by good feelings about certain prospects, indulge them as safely as possible, but learn to trust yourself.

Read trade journals incessantly in order to determine trends and fads, and to discern what is a lasting pattern as opposed to a flash in the pan. There is a wealth of information for the investor, some for a fee others for free, that can help guide you to safe practices all along the way. Investment experts abound in the market place and some should be sought with care. Research if of the utmost importance when placing your money on the line.

Always, when considering any IPO prospectus, think long term when investing in an IPO. Long term potential is the key to creating wealth in the market, and essential to a solid portfolio. While quick cash is not unheard of, true gains are made over time, providing the sage investor with long lasting returns.

Figuring out how to IPO can be tricky. Before taking your company public through an Initial Public Offering, be sure to learn about IPO valuation, the IPO market, and the how IPO process is conducted by professionals who know it best.

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!

Structuring your company should spearhead your capital raising initiative. Make sure that your corporate layout is conducive to creating and retaining investor and venture capitalist attention. You should have a solid and elite executive team composed of the best of the best that your industry has to offer and if you can’t attract those in the upper echelon of your business genre, you need to take an active approach to branding them as experts using on and offline PR campaigns labeling yourselves as industry experts who are innovating industry changing solutions. Create a stir, be controversial (but not offensive) and be ready to back up your stir with empirical evidence of your knowledge and success. You should have an advisory board and board of directors composed of industry specialists. Each individual should represent a forte that makes investors start to salivate when they are reading the bio section of your business plan. They should be able to contribute with contract negotiation, strong alliance introduction capabilities and more. When choosing professionals to fill the void of advisor and director positions you should think in terms of corporate ‘growth’ and ‘stabilization’.

Next you want to make sure that your entity is prepared to receive debt and/or equity capital. You’ll need a solid business plan, don’t write it yourself, you’ll only hinder your ability to raise capital. Call a professional to write your strategic business plan. Next you’ll need a way to distribute equity or debt shares, a Private Placement Memorandum is the most common mechanism for helping companies raise capital quickly and easily while staying within the regulation guidelines of the SEC. Your PPM must be written by a professional to deliver the ultimate protection for your company while simultaneously spelling out the technical intricacies of your business to the investor.

Now that your company is structured properly, you have a business plan and a PPM, you are ready to start raising capital. Your first call should be to a corporate turnaround consultant with an arsenal of global funding contacts composed of all the necessary contacts such as: venture capital firms, private equity firms, angel investors, private investors, accredited investors, structured finance firms and so on. This turnaround consultant, if they are part of an established firm (always use a small boutique firm if you can find one, they are much more affective and one on one than the larger firms and tend to get the job done quicker without the headaches) they will have a service call and ‘Investor Finder’ service. They will reach into their gargantuan bag of contacts and give you so many funding options your head will spin, thus, making your fund raising efforts fast and painless.

Now that you achieved your first round of fund raising it’s time to get serious. Yes! It’s time to take your company public. Stay away from Pink Sheets and Reverse Mergers, you’ll only regret it. If you are a smaller business or a startup, your best bet is the OTCBB. Go back to your turnaround consultant and have them start putting you through the sec audit, sec registration, FINRA registration and Market Maker joint venture and S1 filing. They should be able to handle the entire ‘going public’ process for you and in 4 to 7 months, you’re public and trading.

Be sure to take advantage of the multitude of strategies to capitalize off of your securities. Remember there are many ways to capitalize off of your shares, selling shares through your market maker, continuously engaging in heavy PR to stabilize and enhance your stock price and another way that many entrepreneurs don’t consider as an option when raising capital, the almighty hedge lender will can lend your company money against your collateralized securities. Yes! Use your stock as security for financing. After you pay off the loan, line of credit or lease you get those shares back (be sure that your lawyer audits your contract with the lender to keep away from any convertible stock clauses). So now you are raising capital by selling stock as well as the ‘on demand’ loan or loc concept of security backed lending.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed ‘Real’ corporate finance 101! Now get out there, put your company together and start raising the capital you need.

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

Structuring your company should spearhead your capital raising initiative. Make sure that your corporate layout is conducive to creating and retaining investor and venture capitalist attention. You should have a solid and elite executive team composed of the best of the best that your industry has to offer and if you can’t attract those in the upper echelon of your business genre, you need to take an active approach to branding them as experts using on and offline PR campaigns labeling yourselves as industry experts who are innovating industry changing solutions. Create a stir, be controversial (but not offensive) and be ready to back up your stir with empirical evidence of your knowledge and success. You should have an advisory board and board of directors composed of industry specialists. Each individual should represent a forte that makes investors start to salivate when they are reading the bio section of your business plan. They should be able to contribute with contract negotiation, strong alliance introduction capabilities and more. When choosing professionals to fill the void of adviser and director positions you should think in terms of corporate ‘growth’ and ‘stabilization’.

Next you want to make sure that your entity is prepared to receive debt and/or equity capital. You’ll need a solid business plan, don’t write it yourself, you’ll only hinder your ability to raise capital. Call a professional to write your strategic business plan. Next you’ll need a way to distribute equity or debt shares, a Private Placement Memorandum is the most common mechanism for helping companies raise capital quickly and easily while staying within the regulation guidelines of the SEC. Your PPM must be written by a professional to deliver the ultimate protection for your company while simultaneously spelling out the technical intricacies of your business to the investor.

Now that your company is structured properly, you have a business plan and a PPM, you are ready to start raising capital. Your first call should be to a corporate turnaround consultant with an arsenal of global funding contacts composed of all the necessary contacts such as: venture capital firms, private equity firms, angel investors, private investors, accredited investors, structured finance firms and so on. This turnaround consultant, if they are part of an established firm (always use a small boutique firm if you can find one, they are much more affective and one on one than the larger firms and tend to get the job done quicker without the headaches) they will have a service call and ‘Investor Finder’ service. They will reach into their gargantuan bag of contacts and give you so many funding options your head will spin, thus, making your fund raising efforts fast and painless.

Now that you achieved your first round of fund raising it’s time to get serious. Yes! It’s time to take your company public. Stay away from Pink Sheets and Reverse Mergers, you’ll only regret it. If you are a smaller business or a startup, your best bet is the OTCBB. Go back to your turnaround consultant and have them start putting you through the sec audit, sec registration, FINRA registration and Market Maker joint venture and S1 filing. They should be able to handle the entire ‘going public’ process for you and in 4 to 7 months, you’re public and trading.

Be sure to take advantage of the multitude of strategies to capitalize off of your securities. Remember there are many ways to capitalize off of your shares, selling shares through your market maker, continuously engaging in heavy PR to stabilize and enhance your stock price and another way that many entrepreneurs don’t consider as an option when raising capital, the almighty hedge lender will can lend your company money against your collateralized securities. Yes! Use your stock as security for financing. After you pay off the loan, line of credit or lease you get those shares back (be sure that your lawyer audits your contract with the lender to keep away from any convertible stock clauses). So now you are raising capital by selling stock as well as the ‘on demand’ loan or loc concept of security backed lending.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed ‘Real’ corporate finance 101! Now get out there, put your company together and start raising the capital you need.

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

Take Your Company Public The Right Way. Rage Against The Fraud Machine! I get calls on a daily basis from business owners that have all experienced the same cycle of scams in their quest to gain funding for their business. Let’s see, there’s the shelf corporation scam where one buys an aged corporation and believes that buy fraudulently adding verifiable lines of credit a bank will bypass all logic and give them $100,000′s in non-recourse loans and lines of credit regardless of their sub 500 FICO score.

There is the Platform scam where an individual, business or nonprofit gives a modest deposit to an unlicensed securities dealer and this dealer has a unique relationship with a top MTN, BG, T-Strip or commodities trader in Europe and in a matter of a few weeks this trader is supposed to be able to take your $100k deposit (which secured a instrument from a top tier bank and then monetized it and took your money into trade) and make it into millions upon millions of dollars that you’ll never have to pay back and abracadabra, you’re an instant millionaire. Soon you find out that your contact’s phone number no longer works and that bank account you wired the money to has been closed for weeks.

There is the reverse merger into a public shell scam where unknowing small business owners sees an adwords at for an ad that says something like “Public Shells for sale $10 million line of credit attached” and the client buys this shell which has liens, open lawsuits and a group of investors that retain 20% of the stock so they can pump and dump the stock and leave you curled up on a ball on your kitchen floor calling for mommy.

And finally there is the virtually obligatory Pink Sheet scam where, for a great price, you can take your company public with virtually zero interaction from the fussy SEC and a market maker group will even sell your shares for you and they are guaranteeing 400% increases in share price. And soon you find that this market maker was a boiler room that makes a living out of stock manipulation and in a matter of a few short weeks your stock is deflated to the point where you can’t even give it away as an employee incentive.

Listen, if you want to raise capital and/or go public there is a much easier way. If you are seeking legitimate options to raise capital you can go with a Private Placement Memorandum which uses Regulation D Rule Exemption 504, 505 or 506 to raise fast cash from investors in a solid, SEC regulated structure. If you are a real estate investor, start-up or small/medium size business you can take your company public quickly and affordably via OTCBB (over the counter bulletin boards) and if you have lots of money and time you can do an all out IPO. The reality is you can even take your company public for minimal out of pocket expense by starting with an initial fundraising round using a Private Placement Memorandum 504 and then take the capital from that initial raise and pay for your OTCBB offering. It’s unbelievably simple and there is zero out of pocket expense coming from you (with the exception of the PPM docs).

When you hear the terms Platform, Pink Sheets, Shelf Corp or reverse merger into a public shell, put down the phone or walk away from the meeting, you’ll only get burned. A PPM and OTCBB are real, viable options if you are trying to raise real money, fast.

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

Why Take Your Company Public? There are several reasons why a company would decide to go public; here are some of the advantages. Liquidity is a popular reason for going public via OTCBB or IPO, many global lenders and private equity groups will lend against stock collateral. Private companies lose time jumping through hoops with various FICO driven line of credit and lending programs with outrageous interest rates while a public company can strategically offer stock for sale or collateral.

Run a solid company with growth and a sea of content stock holders and you’ve got your own cash register to grow your company.

Another popular reason for going public is to offer stock options to key employees which creates and retains loyalty while reducing cost of compensation. There is no better way to have employees go the extra mile day in and day out than rewarding them with a piece of the company. Stock options are also a way to attract those prized executives that are in demand.

Having a public company allows massive buying power from the perspective of growth through acquisition. Find a company that is the perfect strategic alliance and buy them with company stock. This method of expansion has served the interests of top tier companies since Standard Oil. What about those companies owned by an individual or a close knit group of entrepreneurs who are getting up there in age and need to start thinking about an exit strategy?

Public companies demand higher sale prices and sell faster because of the flexibility of the structure. We could go on and on about the advantages of going public.

Start-up companies wishing to investigate this concept of fundraising you may want to consider the OTCBB, this is a solid and regulated formation to trade your stock publicly with stock holder confidence as opposed to a lesser trusted option called Pink Sheets. For corporations with some age and capital and IPO may be the best way to go, though this process is expensive and can take more than a year, it’s worth it for the right companies.

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

Private Placement Memorandum authoring and the process of taking one’s company public are services that require extensive experience and the ability to look at a deal objectively and peripherally to evaluate all the angles to enhance the ability of the client to achieve funding in a timely manner.

Many times, when I’m hired to structure a company before funding, they will be under the impression that my evaluation is a mere formality and they are ready to go. Often I’m the bearer of bad news when I have to break it to the client that their company has more holes than Swiss cheese and 30 to 60 days away from starting the fund raising process.

They will often get a second and then third opinion and usually run into the same thing before they eventually find their way back to our firm. As they call around to consulting firms they perpetually experience the ‘hard sell’ by firms who ‘need’ the business because they lack the rewards and referrals that come with cultivating each client relationship because they take on and spit out deals so fast they hardly remember their client’s name during the transaction.

This mentality dominates the larger firms because of their gargantuan overhead while the boutique firms can take a more personal approach because they have a steady flow of business and referrals because they are not stressed about bringing in the next big deal so they can meet payroll and keep their lights on. The smaller companies that focus on turnaround consulting, private placement memorandum authoring, top tier business plan writing and taking companies public usually take a one on one approach to the consulting process and will rarely pressure clients to sign on because their phone is ringing off the hook with previous clients who want to hire them for the next stage in the evolution of their company’s growth.

This business is all about relationships. Ditch the consultant that applies the high pressure sales tactics and seek out the smaller, more personalized groups that don’t ‘need’ your business but will cultivate and value it.

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

There is a misconception that the process of taking your company public has to be costly and stressful. The truth is that it’s the ‘learning curve’ that makes it stressful. By learning curve, I mean dealing with industry sharks that will con your company and take every dime you have while simultaneously never having the ability to take you public in the first place.

On a daily basis I hear one tragic story after another about how a pink sheets facilitator took them public and then dropped them without passing them to a broker dealer or market maker or someone to sell their stock to the public so they were left to fend for themselves. Another reoccurring story I hear is how a company sold a small start-up a shell company for a reverse merger but the shell had liens and shareholders that were ready to dump the stock as soon as the transaction was completed.

All this said, after the sharks and the scumbags there are many good consulting firms that love the industry and take joy out of helping a corporation fulfill the ultimate dream of a public offering through IPO or OTCBB or legitimate reverse merger (oh, the money is a nice benefit as well haha). The boutique firm is your best bet, if you can’t find one then find a small securities lawyer.

These people are in this for the love of the industry and the massive plethora of industries they get to work with. Personally, I love hearing from an executive that owns a company and is completely stressed, he’s been lied to, conned and feels helpless. It is an amazing feeling when I can calm his nerves and say, “All this is in the past, let’s talk about how we are going to make this work!” The relief in their voice after a statement like that is such a reward for me its difficult to put into words. I will customize a public offering strategy that falls within their affordability capacity of their company and put together a path to get them trading as quickly and efficiently as possible. I am happy to say that there are many consultants and attorneys that do the exact same thing.

If you are trying to figure out a quick, affordable way to take your company public here are some ideas to consider: most likely you won’t qualify for an IPO (that’s ok, most companies don’t) but you will qualify for an OTCBB offering which is just as rewarding and you can evolve that structure into the IPO phase if you so desire in the future. If you lack the capital for a public offering, consider raising a quick round with a Regulation D 504 (Private Placement Memorandum), its fast, easy and cheap. Raise the capital you need to pay your fees for going public and allow a group of eager investors to flip the bill. If you want to grow your company and take it into the ‘public’ arena this should be an exciting time, don’t ruin it by being stressed. Find a consultant that you feel comfortable with who will take the burden off of your shoulders and carry it for you; this is the job of the professional public offering consultant!

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

Raising capital has become quite a chore in this depressing economic state so entrepreneurs are thinking outside the box when it comes to obtaining funds for their start-up corporations or businesses in expansion. Institutional lenders are a thing of the past, liberal hedge fund lenders are a mere cast skin of what they once were and with the massive infiltration of scams like shelf corporations and public shells leave the minds of individuals trying to raise funds in perpetual skeptic mode. Though the banks have brought small and medium size business lending to a screeching halt, there are still various turnkey methods that one can facilitate in order to raise the optimal amount of funds needed to pursue their venture.

Have you ever considered taking your company public? Don’t be scared off by the nightmare stories of needing millions in financial backing or the critical and ultra costly SOX 404 audits that can make or break your efforts. There are several ways to raise public capital in a cost effective and rapid turnaround process. If you are considering a public offering in the United States, your options are OTCBB, Pink Sheets, Reverse Merger (not recommended), IPO and Private Placement Memorandum. Obviously the IPO is the most sought after method of raising public funds but it is the most expensive and longest route to funding. OTCBB and Pink Sheets are a great way to raise capital without the expense of an IPO but be prepared to battle investor skepticism and ‘pump ‘em and dump ‘em’ securities scrappers who can have you on cloud nine and swimming in a surplus of cash one day and broke as a joke the next.

The next method that one will run into on their trek to raise capital is the mysterious reverse merger into a public shell. You’ll hear many entrepreneurs talk about this method but few actually understand the intricacies of this process and sadly don’t realize it’s high failure rate until they are sitting alone at their office at 2 am holding their head in their hands when faced with the reality that 99.9% of reverse mergers into shell companies don’t work and they just threw away $200k.

The safest, cheapest and quickest way to raise capital from the public is by way of Regulation D exemption rules 504, 505 and 506. This process is also referred to as a Private Placement Memorandum, Private Placement Memo, Offering Memorandum or PPM. After simply having a professional business plan authored and geared toward raising capital with a PPM, the next step is to see a professional about the Regulation D facilitation. You can pay $20k to an attorney or you can spend around $5k to use a consultant, most companies choose the later. After you’ve had the PPM docs customized, you’re ready to go! Most Private Placement Memorandums only take 2 weeks to put together and file (form d) with the SEC office and then you’re off and running!

PPM’s are becoming more and more popular as informed entrepreneurs are seeking capital but want to hold on to a majority share of their company. If you are trying to raise capital for your small or medium size business or wish to increase your company value exponentially in an expedient manner, start looking into having a Private Placement Memorandum authored for your company. It is absolutely the fastest and easiest way to raise capital for your business without all the expense and red tape of other public fund raising processes.

Want to find out more about Taking Your Company Public, then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions’ site or call 267-233-0183. Go Public fast and easy!

Internet Publicity marketing has evolved tenfold over the past 3 years. The good ole’ boy publicity firms have found themselves left in the dust by the newer, cutting edge publicists that use the internet as their publicity marketing canvas. TV, radio and newspaper articles have become pass while online viral marketing concepts have completely taken over.

Internet business publicity marketing offers the instantaneous results that that are in demand by a fast paced public and with the economy in the state it’s currently in, clients are able to achieve massive results for a fraction of the cost of traditional publicity mediums. Traditional publicists will argue that a radio interview will create a ton of exposure for the client during the airtime, but they forget to mention that a solid online campaign delivers 24/7 and the exposure will deliver staggering results like clockwork if performed by seasoned publicity marketing experts.

Traditional publicity agencies argue that publicity is just one part of an overall marketing strategy but the reality is Publicity and Marketing are intertwined and interdependent and must be done by the same organization or the momentum is lost in a sea of bureaucratic blur. The truth is, publicity and marketing have merged into one single area of expertise now coined ‘publicity marketing’.

Corporate publicity marketing offers the rapid results of direct marketing with the brand exposure of the professional publicist. This process uses turnkey solutions with a customized client by client approach to deliver results that will support the instantaneous lead generation and website visitation needs of the client while creating an avalanche of long term, permanent publicity branding.

If you are using a publicity agency for branding and a marketing firm for direct response, you may want to consider investigating a new and talented breed of publicity marketers, you’ll pay a fraction of what you pay traditional publicists and ad agencies and the results will be virtually instant and your message will spread over state and country lines for a rapid expansion that up to now you’ve only dreamed of.

Business Publicity, that will blow your mind! Princeton Corporate Solutions, Internet Publicity professionals.