Thursday, January 13, 2011

Taking Your Company Public: Good Luck, You're Going To Need It

By James Scott


Taking a company public has multiple intricacies. I get calls and emails daily from people who want a quote for taking their company public and I respond the same way each time, "No Thanks and good luck, you're going to need it if this is how you're approaching the process of going public". Business owners who are seeking a 'competitive quote' from a consultant to take them public are asking for trouble and just begging to attract the wolves. Its shocking how many startup consultants are crouched over in darkened alleyways waiting to pounce on unsuspecting entrepreneurs and take their money and deliver absolutely nothing.

If you want to find a consultant worth their weight in salt you need to take the approach of general evaluation using targeted questions to find out if they are truly qualified to take your company to the next level. First and most basic, ask them if they are offering a turn-key public offering service, meaning do they participate in everything from soup to nuts including but not limited to: S1 filing and comments completion for SEC approval and market maker designation and 15c211 filing with FINRA to obtain symbol.

Think of this as the stuffing between the OREO cookies. Now you need to qualify them for their pre public and post public solutions. Pre public you need to make sure they will assist you with corporate structuring, expansion strategies, board of adviser selection, board of director election, executive pedigree evaluation for a public company, corporate and executive publicity generation using traditional means of radio and TV expert panel participation and viral publicity branding.

Your post public strategy is crucial and should be set in motion pre public so that you can hit the public market full throttle from the onset of your public offering. Post public strategies should entail a vast and in-depth investor relations strategy using stock alerts, press releases, promotion to market makers and other advisers, TV and radio interviews, article publishing and growth through acquisition just to name a few strategies.

You shouldn't come out of the gate and lead the consultant to answer with the above information but target your questions so that they are general enough so that the consultant gives you their pre customized, boilerplate template strategy.

Going public can be extremely rewarding if done properly. Don't try to do this on your own. Find qualified professionals to take you through the process in a structured and orderly manner.




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