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Posts Tagged ‘how to take a company public’

How To Take A Company Public – Over The Counter Bulletin Board

May 21st, 2010 James Scott Comments off

There are many ways to use capital without using bank loans, lines of credit and other shady methods like shelf corps and bogus platform scams. If you are truly trying to raise capital for your company here are some simple breakdowns of your options with a quick definition for each one:

 PIPE: Private Investment In Public Equity this is used primarily by mutual funds and private investment firms where they buy discount stock in order to raise capital, there are two types of PIPEs traditional where common and preferred stock is issued at a set cap to raise money for the issuer and a structured pipe issues convertible debt.

 DPO: Direct Public Offering is when you sell equity shares directly to customers, suppliers and employees.

 PPM: Private Placement Memorandum is also known as an offering memorandum takes advantage of Regulation D rule exemptions 504, 505 and 506. This process came into existence with the’33 securities act and popularized in the late’80s, companies can raise money from the public via private placement; there is virtually zero interaction with the SEC after you file form d as long as you stay legal. (most popular form of fund raising).

 IPO: Initial Public Offering: extremely expensive, need SOX 404 audits, must have board of directors, quarterly financial reports to shareholders, report heavily to the SEC and 1 out of every 1000 companies that want an IPO actually qualify. I love participating in these but most companies just can’t qualify for one reason or the other.

 OTCBB: Over the Counter Bulletin Board is an electronic quote system that is the next best thing if you can’t go public via ipo, there is minimal red tape to startups and small businesses and is legitimized by the stringent ongoing reports to the SEC which keeps investor confidence high (these are extremely solid and I suggest this structure to companies when I am hired by their company or legal team as a consultant as a fast, easy way to raise big capital from the public otc)

 Pink Sheet: you can look at pink sheets as the Burger King, while the OTCBB is McDonalds, they are competing otc mechanisms. Pinks sheets are commonly referred to as penny stock and notorious for ‘pump em’ and dump em’ controversies and a lot of crooked people are involved with this platform. This is not a long term process that will allow one’s company to grow, pink sheets companies are typically short lived but it is cheap to set up but not a professional structure that could be upgraded in time to an IPO.

 Reverse Merger: a group funds the filing and creation of a public shell, they then sell that shell to a company that wants to go public, the established company merges it’s entity into the public shell. The sellers retain around 30% equity after they charge an upfront fee of 300k to 1m. 99% of reverse mergers are successful with the merger, but unsuccessful to bring them to trade and the entity basically just fizzles out.

Taking your company public is actually quite simple and inexpensive when you have the right consultant putting the structure together for you. There are countless ways to raise capital quickly and easily. It’s important that you understand your options before you waste time entering into the red tape infested banking system for a loan.

Get Informed with the industry’s Top Financial Blog where the industry’s power players meet. Call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183 if you’re interested in Taking Your Company Public or Global Expansion we can make it happen.

Real Estate Investors: Take Your Company Public, Over The Counter Bulletin Board

April 18th, 2010 James Scott Comments off

For real estate investors, there are two things that are always in short supply regardless of the ups and downs in the economy: capital and quality inventory. Most investors that I have worked with not only need capital but strategies to go after capital that is not issued based solely on a credit score. Even if a real estate investor has good credit they still have the obstacle of too many inquires and too many open loans on their credit report and funding sources are spooked by these distractions and turn the applicant down even though all of their loans are current and they have a solid FICO.

If the above describes you or if you have limited or poor credit and you’re a serious real estate investor, here is how to get all the capital you’ll ever need. First put a solid strategy together. Start with your company infrastructure. Organize your company with a CEO, CFO, Board of Directors etc. After you’ve done this you want to set up your inter-industry strategic alliances which should be composed of other investors, bird dogs, electricians, roofers, general contractors etc. You want each of these alliances to have a purpose. They should be a portal for industry niche knowledge and consultation and also referral hubs. Let each of your alliances know exactly what type of investments you’re looking for and as they are sending you referrals, reciprocate by issuing them work in whatever specialty they are in.

Next you want to have a solid business plan written for your company (don’t write this yourself, have a professional do it for you) that spells out the intricacies of your company, your alliances, your accomplishments and goals. Paint a picture of success and strength.

Next you need a mechanism for accepting investment capital so you’ll need a Private Placement Memorandum. This document package gives a technical breakdown of your investment opportunity and spells out the risks and advantages in detail to keep you from getting sued by investors down the road. This memorandum takes advantage of SEC Regulation D Rule Exemptions 504, 505 or 506. A PPM is the minimum requirement dictated by the SEC for accepting capital from accredited and non accredited investment sources. Real investors will demand an PPM anyway so it’s good to have it done beforehand.

Now that your company is properly structured, you have a solid board of directors and alliances; your business plan is well written and to the point, you have a solid outlet for accepting capital from investors, you are now ready for capital. Your best bet is to go back to the company who wrote your business plan and private placement memorandum and use their ‘investor finder’ service. Legitimate corporate consultants who write technical documents will also stand behind their work by assisting their clients in finding investors. One solid strategy for getting access to capital quickly and easily is to have your Investor Finder forward go through their database and email individual and institutional funding sources.

When you are contacted by these investment sources, give them the option to invest in your company using the PPM (which will give you a fund in which you will be able to rehab real estate, buy at auctions etc). You will also want to give them the option of investing in a ‘per deal’ scenario. Allow them the option to also (or only) invest in particular transactions with you so when you get a deal, with a solid investor finder service, you’ll eventually have 100+ solid investors to go to for quick capital on particular transactions that go above what your PPM fund can handle.

There you have it, a strategy that works 100% of the time for real estate investors globally. Your best bet, to make sure that you do this properly, is to hire a consultant that can set up this process for you. Cheers to your success!

Need Real Estate Partners and Funding?Need A Corporate Consultant?, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183We Can Transform Your Business

Take Your Business Public Successfully: The Spoke Wheel Approach

April 1st, 2010 James Scott Comments off

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!

Taking A Foreign Company Public: A Must Read!

March 3rd, 2010 James Scott Comments off

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.

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

Take Your Company Public: Here Is The Process

February 27th, 2010 James Scott Comments off

Becoming a publicly traded company is an exciting and rewarding experience. The following sets forth the method, steps, fees and estimated timetable to go public on the OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) ‘from scratch’, or through a self-filing and discusses the 1934 Exchange Act responsibilities after a company’s registration statement has gone effective (after the company has become publicly traded):

Prior to filing the registration statement, a company that wishes to go public must first obtain an audit of the Company’s financial statements for the past two fiscal years. For most companies, the financial audit can be completed in about a month and costs typically range between $5,000 and $25,000, depending on the complexity of the company financials.

A public company will also need shareholders. To that end, if additional shareholders are needed, the company going public will need to complete a self-underwritten Regulation D, Rule 506 offering in which the company sells shares of its stock to investors for real consideration. This is not a difficult task, so long as you have a properly prepared private placement memorandum (PPM) and you follow the relatively simple rules of Rule 506. The price per share and number of shares offered can be determined by the Company, but most registered broker-dealers that will eventually submit a Form 211 for an OTC Bulletin Board quotation prefer to have a minimum of 400,000 shares distributed among the investors.

In addition to the minimum number of shareholders requirement, a company must have free-trading shares, called the ‘float’, in order to go public. Upon completion of the private offering and the financial audit for the prior two fiscal years, an S-1 Registration Statement must be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (”SEC”) to register the shares sold in the private placement, thus creating the free trading shares. The completion of the S-1 process with the SEC will make the Company a 1934 Exchange Act reporting company, which is required in order to obtain a quotation on the OTC Bulletin Board. The SEC will review the S-1 and provide comments within 30 days from the filing date. Comments from the SEC typically relate to the terms of the offering, the Company’s business and its financial statements. It usually takes between 2 to 3 months for the SEC to approve a registration statement on Form S-1 and for the S-1 to become effective. However, the actual amount of time will depend on the level of review and number of comments given by the SEC and the corresponding response time by the Company in filing its amendments.

Shortly after filing the S-1 registration statement with the SEC, a market maker must be ‘engaged’ to file a Form 211 application with FINRA for the purposes of obtaining a quotation of its common shares on the OTC Bulletin Board. It is important to note that market makers cannot receive compensation for making a market in a stock, thus typically you must have connections to accomplish this. The timetable for approval of the Form 211 process is approximately 3 weeks to 5 weeks. However, the Form 211 will not be approved until the S-1 is approved by the SEC since the approval of the S-1 provides the “free trading” shares necessary to obtain the OTC Bulletin Board quotation.

The completion of the entire process to become a public company typically takes approximately 3 to 4 months from completion of the private offering and financial audit, however, the actual time could vary based on the factors discussed herein. If done right, with planning, hard work, the proper foresight, and a good firm guiding you through the process, going public is a truly exciting and rewarding experience.

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