Investor relations services: how to truly dominate the public market. If you have a public company or are in the process of taking your company public on the OTCBB or any other reputable exchange the reader must realize that going public is the easy part, having a successful public offering and preserving the longevity of your public entity is another topic all together. As a corporate strategies and public offering facilitator our firm is often called in after a company has a disastrous public offering or they’ve teamed up with the wrong service solutions that pump and dump their equity positions.

Here is the problem that most companies make when they are going public: companies don’t budget properly for general corporate publicity or solid investor relations strategies for the first year that their company is public. Investor relations and publicity stock promotion activity should be at the forefront of every public CEO’s mind.

If you are signing a large contract, publicize it with press releases, viral promotion and TV and radio expert panel discussions. When we take on a company for serious investor relations our campaigns are obviously completely customized but here is the skeletal structure of a prototypical campaign: strong viral publicity strategy consisting of video, article and press release submission, social and news book marking, logo and image posts and after this information has assimilated we get the client on prominent TV expert panel discussions with their name, company name and stock symbol on the screen.

Lastly, we then run two simultaneous 30 day stock promotion intensives with a massive injection of investor promotional concepts on both sides each day which consist of newsletters and stock alerts to ultra-active investors and other strategies daily.

The important thing to remember is that the above must happen monthly for the first six months to a year in order for your company to successfully trade. There is no other way around it, you must budget for your investor relations campaigns or your venture simply will not work.

I consult in the turnaround sector with public companies on the Pinks, OTCBB, London Exchange, Frankfurt Exchange and every exchange in-between and everyone seems to have the same issue: there stock isn’t trading at the price they desire and they are dying to find a way to fix the problems that are hindering their trade. It usually comes down to a few basic elements. Use each of these elements with caution as this industry is full of predatory organizations and consultants and can be dangerous to amateurs. If you’re a newbie, that’s ok. Do what you can but know when you are in over your head and turn the remaining process over to people that swim with sharks for a living.

Public company structuring and turnaround strategies typically center around the elements of: corporate publicity, individual executive publicity, lack of an experienced publicist, lack of strategic alliances and lack of the proper promotion that is conducive to getting stock investors to pull the trigger.

Corporate publicity can be broken down into the immediate and ongoing use of: press releases, viral marketing video and article submission, corporate blogs, investor relations, market maker or broker dealer that is affective and of course the almighty strategic alliances that build hype and build power behind your brand.

Another major component that most companies are lacking is ‘Individual Executive Publicity’ by use of press release, viral market: video uploads with interviews and how to type material, article submission and personal blogs that center around the particular industry genre issues. It is important to make each executive stand out like a beacon in the industry and to press the reality or create the reality that your executive staff is composed of the who’s who of your industry.

Next you’ll need a corporate publicist with a focus on getting your CEO, CFO and/or corporate executives on TV and radio panel discussions as industry authority as well as newspaper and magazine articles and interviews about your company and its executives.

Don’t forget the importance of ‘Strategic Partnerships’. Announce new partnerships with multiple press releases, photo ops and articles. Pick strategic partners that have name recognition or are about to be in the public eye to piggy back off of the publicity they are receiving.

If you are an OTCBB or Pink Sheets company email campaigns to stock Investors are a quick way to get a nice bump in exposure and stock price but too many of these campaigns done the wrong way can hurt your company so be careful. Your investor relations consultant should have you listed on multiple stock alert services that run ongoing back to back. And the last but not least, the old fashion snail mail ‘Direct mail to stock investors’ can be the added bang to your stock price rising and stabilizing.

Turning around a company can and expensive proposition today but can increase your company’s value exponentially if done by an experienced professional. It’s a process that’s worth it to companies with an eye toward longevity.

Easily Find And Secure: Angel Investors, Private Investors, Institutional Investors And More! Raising capital for a start-up, corporation in expansion mode or a company in virtually any position presents it’s challenges and roadblocks. There has been no period in recent history that can simulate the difficulties that current entrepreneurs and executives are having when trying to achieve the procurement of venture capital. The standards have become more stringent and the cross-collateralization of personal and corporate assets as security for loans has virtually become a mandatory prerequisite for any type of funding, equity or loan based.

When initiating the process of raising capital one should take into consideration the use of a combination of funding options such as but not limited to: traditional venture capital, bank institutional, institutional equity investment, hedge fund lenders, private money lending, angel equity and loan investment, a private placement memorandum as the mechanism for raising capital distributed in shares, international equity based funding, the reality of taking your small business public on the OTCBB and many other concepts of capital raising that can be placed into a simultaneous strategy.

It’s a common mistake among entrepreneurs and executives to place all of their attention and time into one singular aspect of the above funding concepts. Instead, you should pick a multi pronged approach and go after multiple genres of financing for your business. Some avenues will yield success, some will not but you are more likely to achieve incremental funding successes as oppose to one gargantuan, be all and end all finance victory.

To achieve funding you’ll need to be able to contact multiple finance sources to start the ball rolling. Find online membership database sites that are owned and operated by professionals in the venture capital industry.

There is a big difference between a generalized database of possible lenders and a strategic database of success driven finance solutions. Find the most cutting edge, full range database on the web and join them.

If you’re a stock or bond investor, you most likely have a broker who helps you make decisions and he or she makes a hefty commission for their effort. Most investors don’t know that the brokers ‘research’ and ‘advice’ are simply coming from their 9am meeting where company management told them what stocks to pump, which stocks to dump and how much to advise the clients to sell. In reality this is something that even a rookie investor could do on their own.

You simply pick an industry niche and trading platform, check out the trends on various stocks and make a modest buying decision and diversify as much as you can while playing it safe. You may find that this process of ‘do it yourself’ stock selection is much more financially rewarding than payout out ungodly commissions to intellectual midgets who are nothing more than desk jockeys with a cold call phone at one ear and demanding management yelling buy/sell instructions in the other.

The truth is, if you take the time some time to research profitable stocks, you’ll find that there are real, viable, ground floor opportunities in the form of seed capital investments, direct public offerings and companies in pre-public mode where you can get instant access to absolutely incredible investments and returns.

You can actually get on a consultant list that deals with Direct Public Offerings (DPO) investor selection where you can literally do nothing but rake in mounds of cash by investing small amounts in multiple companies that are in the process of going public and you will be one of only 40 investors to simply help the pre-public company qualify to go public by having the minimum limit of 40 investors involved in the transaction. Investors can double, triple and even quadruple their original investment in an extremely short time.

If you’re not investing in the seed capital, DPO and Pre IPO game, you need to get on the boat and fast! Find a consultant that can help you tap into this wonderful market for optimal capitalization that you can do over and over again!

Seed Capital Investors Make Fortunes on Pre-IPO Companies: Now You Can Do The Same! Many private, angel and accredited investors feel left out of the investment loop when it comes to the opportunity of investing in the seed capital stage. Many times it seems that only those closely affiliated with broker dealers, market makers and mergers and acquisitions consultants keep the juicy and ultra-lucrative information to themselves.

So if you’re an investor who wants in, how do you claim your golden key for access to this world of instant liquidity, deeply discounted stock and massive return on investment? The first thing you shouldn’t do is pay for it. When finding solid companies in need of quick seed capital to complete the public process, the last thing a company like this is going to do is charge you to see their business plan and PPM.

I have seen several times where companies or individuals claiming to have direct access to these pre-IPO companies will charge a membership fee for access to the opportunity. When you come across those situations just walk away as there is always a con involved. The best way to find real companies that are in the pre-IPO stage is to make contact with the companies that facilitate this process in house. Our company receives calls from investors all the time who want to invest in companies that we are taking public; we never charge for that information, we simply get their information and pass it to our clients who call them back and send them their business plan and private placement memorandum and the investment can take place almost immediately and the share price is always at a substantial discount to the share price when the company gets it’s symbol and is publicly trading.

Get on the good side of a solid, turn-key consultant who takes companies public and you’ll get the keys to the kingdom.

You’ll be able to increase your net worth to a level that you have never dreamed possible. They’ll give you all the juicy information and introduce you directly to the principles of these pre-IPO structures.

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.

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!

Bypassing the blistering reality that banks aren’t making small or medium size business loans. Lines of credit are deal. Hard money predators are out in full force and legitimate funding sources are at an all time low. Companies can take the tried and tested route in hiring a consultant, structuring their company, building strategic alliances, creating a solid board of directors and then authoring the business plan and PPM for the initial raise but why would they when they have so many scammers telling them that they can easily raise the capital with a shelf corporation or reverse merger into a pink sheets public shell.

People in need of capital don’t want to be bothered with the reality the capital is not as easy to obtain as it once was. Entrepreneurs are seeking the quick and easy way out which typically turns out to be the route that ruins their company and depletes their cash flow.

The truth is that your company has to be constructed on the success and failures of your executive staff. These individuals are the lifeblood of your company and their contacts and experience is what will drive your company forward into ongoing self-perpetuating growth.

Don’t believe the hype when it comes to raising fast capital in the corporate realm. Don’t believe that a shelf corporation will do anything but make you and your company look like idiots and don’t think for a minute that there is any way to initiate your first round of capital without an SEC regulated Private Placement Memorandum.

Big brother is always watching and those who try to raise money without the proper structure always get burned. Why not step back, take a breath and start off your campaign to raise your first round of capital the right way with a private placement memorandum, then a direct public offering then move onto the public offering on the OTCBB.

Why not for a change, do things the correct way, using the structures that are conducive to actually raising capital the legitimate way as opposed to the fast and easy way.

The fast an easy way is often the wrong way and in the end there is no capital being raised at all, only headaches and lawsuits. Find a consultant with the experience of taking startup companies and expansion mode companies public.

Don’t waste time with the scammers. Raise capital the right way and you’ll never have to redo the process.

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!

Private Placement Memorandums and Direct Public Offerings, the most common mistakes made. When gearing up to raise capital it is typically a business owners first instinct to simply throw together a business plan and find the cheapest company to put together the private placement memorandum and then seek funding. What these professionals don’t realize is that they are doing things in reverse and often times a PPM is not a standalone solution to financial needs.

The first problem is the most companies will first write a business plan and cheap PPM and look for a capital solutions last, when strategically speaking, one should first find a full service solution who has a database of investors ready to fund properly structured corporations with well authored business plans and private placement memos. After you find a company that has a ready network of seasoned investors you will often find that this firm will also structure your business and documents so that you are able to attract the attention of these investors. Next, don’t make the mistake of hiring just anybody to write your biz plan. You need to find a professional author who is well rooted in the art of technical writing and has a solid comprehension of your industry.

Now it’s time to write the PPM. Here is a warning that will most likely go in one ear and out the other but you must never choose the cheapest service for your PPM you will regret it and this is a guarantee. Investors see these documents all day everyday and they know a template when they see it. Don’t believe for a second that you will get a viable private placement memo that will actually achieve funding for anything less than $3,000; it’s just not going to happen. There is too much work involved in putting a fund-able strategy together and you’ll never find an experienced firm to do it for cheap.

The moral of the story is to first find an investor finder solution with a solid network of investors, second have this company write your business plan and private placement memorandum to fit the needs of their investor base and lastly, talk to this consultant about helping you perform a DPO (Direct Public Offering) to their group. This is what separates the men from the boys in the venture capital consulting industry.

Legitimate consultants who stand behind their work will take your PPM directly to their investor base and help you raise capital quickly. In return for this service the company may want a modest equity position in addition to their fee but it is always worth it and typically they will take the final step and have their investors pay to take your company public. This is the ultimate for any company that is seeking a long term funding solution.

Remember the order: 1. Find an investor finder 2. Have that company write your biz plan and PPM 3. Convince the firm to perform a DPO for fast funding 4. Offer some equity to sweeten the pot so that they take you public!