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In the strategies of war, how does a new regional military power or upstart guerrilla troop solidify their position? They identify their adversaries and eliminated them. How is business any different? The truth is the strategies are identical while the actual elimination process differs. War is fought with bombs and guns, economics is fought by crushing an idea or believe system that perpetuates the money machine behind a company, take away the public believe system based on the concept put out by a company and you’ve eliminated their ability to survive.

Corporate branding, Marketing and all promotion centers around piercing the minds of the public to inject an idea that ultimately triggers them to have an emotional need for your service or product. Few purchase decisions are spontaneous but for those that are it’s a matter of putting making something available with the threat of taking it away.

When injecting an idea in the mind of the involuntary recipient it must be like a candy coated indigestible as opposed to a spinal tap entry. Smooth and easy as opposed to painful and forced. Some sugar coatings take on the identity of a comedic TV commercial where laughter is the mechanism used to bypass the critical faculty while a sappy emotional segment may work for others.

The key to obtaining and maintaining one’s position is to identify your immediate competition, deal with them and once this is facilitated move on to the next potential threat. For the immediate competitor one elimination strategy that tends to work regardless of industry is to analyze the regional market in which you find a competitor of equal size who is in direct competition with you and then find his localized upstart or micro competitors and via third party strategically align your agenda with their promotional tactics. Help them to collectively and unknowingly pinpoint and weaken specific products and services that pronounce the actual threat to your company. Phase two is to make yourself known to them via this third party introduction and buy equities in these companies and contractually obligate them to use this capital for designated promotional solutions that will grow that regional company. You want this money to be used to infiltrate the region with your services/products and have the new partners go into their established client base with mailers, phone calls and in person sales calls and introduce your company and solutions to them.

Your initial competitor will begin to lose traction (assuming they are a public company) and their stock price will begin to fall, you want to begin buying stock in this competing company but not enough to stimulate or increase the share price. A combination of multiple subsidiary elements ganging up on this one particular company in addition to your firm buying equities in a plummeting stock will deliver to you the control you need in order to remove this entity as an obstacle to your growth.

As the company lessens in market share and comes into a new phase of financial hardship, help the process along by now adding the sell/buy process to damage their stock that much more (obviously, before initiating this phase talk to legal counsel for advice). Now that the stock is at a critical volume and price you can step in and flood the market with the stock that you purchased to send them into ‘penny stock’ domain, the kiss of death for any company that wants to stay on or eventually qualify for the NASDAQ (don’t look at this as losing money, you should see it from the perspective of gaining long term market share) and when the company is close to shutting their doors, you can step in as the savior with investment capital, acquisition proposal or workout a subsidiary type merger.

By this time the company is so weak they have no choice but to accept on of the above options thus, you’ve accomplished the elimination of a competitor while creating a virtual monopoly in this regional based strategy. There is a template strategy that straddles political and economical situations. The template is the same while it needs to be adapted with a customized process.

Looking to Grow Your Company? , find out how to Structure Your Company and Grow Fast With an IPO

It’s outside the nature of the strong willed, motivated IPO consultant, global strategist or structuring consultant to give up and through in the towel but sometimes failure is the only option. When you deal with a company, which will represent most of your clientele, that will follow instructions to get from point A to point B you can help them succeed promptly with little resistance and you can optimize their position with relevant ease if you are truly qualified for the contract that you’ve taken on.

But when you step into an organization that at first is motivated and then because hesitant and fights you on the aspects of your solutions that will help them but they need in depth descriptions and conference calls in order to move on one minute detail of the strategy it’s time to step away. Benchmark your fees so you don’t have to negotiate a refund.

Get a small retainer and set up the remaining fees that are bench marked, success first, then payment. This way the worst that could happen is that the company get’s free services and you walk away leaving the company better off than when you started and they have no angle in which to speak maliciously about you.

If you have a client that brings you on and then fights you for change there is a deeper rooted issue at play. There are psychological elements of insecurity, inferiority, partner disputes, undisclosed debt and other things that are outside of your control so don’t take giving up as failure. Sometimes stepping away is best for the company but only if your billing cycle is as described.

It’s important to leave the company better than it was before your were contracted. Your job as a consultant is about creating value and sometimes creating value is limiting your ability for personal capitalization.

Take it on the chin and move on. There is no shortage of assignments for good consultants in this desolate economic climate.

Want to find out more about Taking Your Company Public, then visit Belvedere Global Strategies Corporation’s site on how to choose between a Reverse Merger or S1 Filing for the best results

If you are taking your company public, expanding your corporation, doing in house cleanup to get rid of dead weight or just filling a C level or VP level position at your company your hiring method should be clear, concise and strategic. You need to take into consideration every intricacy that the individual being interviewed has to be exposed. You need to pay attention to what is said, not said, gestures, verbal intonations and the overall presence of the individual. Here are a few things to take into consideration when hiring an executive. These are elements outside of the resume.

First look at the obvious. Evaluate the overall attire of the individual pay attention to his suit, dress shirt, tie and dress shoes and even the shoe laces. Are his suit, shirt and tie crisp, conservative and pressed? Are his shoes shined, scuff free and are his shoe laces in good condition? When he crosses his legs and his socks are exposed what is the condition of his socks? These things may seem artificial, pretentious and pointless but keep in mind, you are hiring the appearance of the individual as well and most times the clothing condition and selection tell us a lot about the subconscious activity and mindset of the individual. Do they pay close attention to detail? Do they have a clean presence? These things are ‘tells’ every time the executive stands before a client or panel.

Next the interview, obviously you’ve gone over their resume and checked references before you even bring them in for a serious interview so let’s go past the general inquires that go along with an executive interview. You need to evaluate their intellectual and emotional fitness by getting right to the point. How much do they know about your company? Finding out how much they’ve researched the company will demonstrate their level of motivation in becoming part of the team with a focus on contribution. The strongest candidate will come into an interview ready to define their role and express the realities of what they bring to the table in the form of contacts and intellectual capital.

Ask them, in their own words, from their own research, where they see the company in 5 years with them in a leadership position. Ask them to give an example of 5 to 10 strategic alliances they have planned for the company and what that will contribute to the bottom line of the company. What expansion experience do they have? Ask them what makes a company in your position better or worse for being public or private and have them elaborate. Ask them to critique the top executives of the company and how they would reorganize the company if they had their way. Get past the artificial nature of educational pedigree and ask them about their professional pedigree and how it has prepared them to join your corporate team.

Now during this process pay close attention to their physical gestures and take notes. As you’re asking them questions look for their subconscious movements that they are using to communicate. Look for gestures that demonstrate confidence, arrogance, insecurity. Are they sitting back in their chair when they are talking (if so they are too comfortable, a qualified executive will be sitting up straight without letting his back rest on the chair, you on the other hand should be relaxed and sitting back). Are their legs crossed? Are they using their hands? Is their forehead crinkled or calm? Are they making use of a strong vocabulary that can strengthen their presentation etc?

Hiring the proper executive for a specific role in the company can be challenging but using the process above to help weed through the poor candidates will help you in securing the perfect candidate.

Want to find out more about Taking Your Company Public, then visit Belvedere Global Strategies Corporation’s site on how to choose between a Reverse Merger or S1 Filing for the best results

Think back to just a few short years ago, banks were on a lending spree, corporate lines of credit were being issued in record volume and companies were able to raise equity and debt capital with reasonable ease; then came the banking crash which unfortunately brought on an entirely new group of scams preyed on the innocent and naive small business owner which damaged the economy that much more.

Scams such as platform based funding, banking instrument collateralized lending, shelf corporation scams and on and on. Fortunately there is a light at the end of the tunnel thanks to some of the venture capital and private equity industry’s talented global finance executives who have decided enough is enough.

Now entrepreneurs are seeing professional collective funding efforts put forth by these seasoned finance gurus in the form of online membership databases which possess some of the best kept secrets in the global funding markets. Many of these databases include finance companies and methods that have never been available to the public and were used for decades by VC professionals who were able to pull off funding miracles on behalf of clients and in return made hefty commissions.

Now, with these unique contacts being placed in database form they are now available to everyone and anyone who needs capital. Imaging going to one website, joining for a modest fee and getting access to thousands upon thousands of private investors, angel investors, venture capital firms, hard money lenders, private equity firms, aggressive hedge fund lenders, Asian and European finance, factoring and other wonderful and easily comprehensive options to acquire capital.

A few of these membership databases have even taken the next step to give the business owners the elements to promote their business in a way that will help them pass due diligence with ease. Some venture capital executives got so fed up with having a client with a great business model, solid infrastructure, exceptional board of directors and even money in the bank but the deal would die when the company went into the due diligence and offer phase that they actually paid programmers to design a download-able application that offers the entrepreneur easy yet extremely powerful publicity with the strength of an actual high end PR firm all at the click of a button, it’s truly amazing.

The economy may not be what it used to be but it has forced the evolution of certain aspects of the financial industry to be more small business and entrepreneur friendly. There is massive funding out there for your company if you take the time to look.

Do You Need Financing For Your Business? Do You Need Angel Investors, Private Investors or Venture Capital, then visit Angel Funding Project’s site and find the best Business Funding Sources In The Industry.

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!

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

Are you taking your company public? Here is what you need to know. Disclosure Obligations: “If my company becomes “public,” what are its disclosure obligations?”

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requires a company to file certain periodic reports once its registration statement has been declared effective. This obligation continues indefinitely unless:

At the beginning of any subsequent fiscal year, the class of securities offered is held of record by less than 300 persons; or

At the beginning of any subsequent fiscal year (except the two fiscal years immediately succeeding the year the registration statement became effective), all securities offered are held of record by less than 500 persons and the issuer has had less than $5 million in total assets for each of its last three fiscal years.

In these cases, the reporting obligation may be suspended. Otherwise, a company must continuously disclose certain information about:

Its operations; Its officers, directors, and certain shareholders (including salary, various fringe benefits, and inside transactions between the company and management); The financial condition of the business (including audited financial statements by an independent certified public accountant); The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (or PCAOB) (sometimes called “Peekaboo”) is a private-sector, non-profit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a 2002 United States federal law, to oversee the auditors of public companies. Its competitive position, material terms of certain contracts or lease agreements; acquisitions and mergers, creation of certain financial obligations, and material impairment of assets; unregistered sales of equity securities; changes in its accountant; and changes in its board of directors and management;

In addition, a company must promptly disclose to the public any information that would be considered important to its present or prospective stockholders.

All companies with total assets exceeding $5 million and a class of equity securities held by 500 or more persons are required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to file the same supplementary, periodic, and current reports as noted above. Companies with these characteristics must also comply with the Commission’s proxy rules if proxies are solicited from holders of its securities. In such a case, the company must furnish all shareholders proxy statements disclosing all material facts concerning matters on which they are being asked to vote. If the proxy solicitation by management relates to an annual meeting at which directors are to be elected, the Commission’s proxy rules also require the company to furnish each shareholder an annual report disclosing certain information about the company, including audited financial statements for its latest fiscal year.

Exemptions

The Securities Act of 1933 provides several exemptions from the registration requirements; the most common are discussed below. Nonetheless, purchases or sales of securities (even in exempt transactions) are subject to the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. This means that issuers are responsible for false or misleading statements (whether oral or written) which may be redressed through private or government legal action, including criminal sanctions. Also, if all conditions of the exemptions discussed below are not met, purchasers may seek to have their purchase price refunded. In addition, the fact that an offending may be exempt from certain provisions of the federal securities laws does not necessarily mean that it is exempt from the notice and filing obligations of various state laws.

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

With global economics the way they are it would be redundant to rant and rave about the downsides of corporate fund-raising. Quick infusions of cash from venture capital firms and institutional lenders are on hold and it is what it is but companies are becoming creative and corporate attention is steering away from the problems and toward the solutions.

The US and Chinese markets are intertwined in many ways and now a new trend in finance is making the relationship even closer. It’s a fact that Chinese corporations are still trying to figure out how to make their domestic stock market profitable and stable. Many of these companies have global ambitions with unique technology solutions business products and strategies but because of the week Chinese economy (compared to the power of other currencies) they have no choice but to head to the Frankfurt Exchange or the OTCBB market here in the United States.

As a corporate consultant that facilitates the process of going public for both domestic and global entities I have received maybe 5 to 10 calls per year from Chinese companies wanting to set up American corporate subsidiaries to absorb their foreign corporations and trade on the Bulletin Boards but all that has changed. I now receive 5 to 10 calls from Chinese and Indian companies per week to take advantage of the global market place that centers around America’s gravitational pull.

Here is how you can take your foreign entity public: set up a domestic corporation (I usually have corporations set up in Delaware because its fast, easy and the states statutes go back to the original 13 colonies so there is sufficient case law and precedence to protect a public entity affectively). Next you will need a professionally written business plan in English. Translated business plans don’t work as Western investors look for different details in transactions than their Asian counterparts. Write a new business plan based off of this new corporate entity.

After this you will use the Regulation D Rule 504 exemption to offer discounted stock to a core group of investors via DPO (direct public offering) we have spent 11 years putting our core group of investors together that can finance around 80% of the public process so it becomes extremely reasonably priced for foreign companies. Then the S1 is put together while simultaneously their SEC audit begins which is simple and fast because the company in the US is a startup. We go through and get the SEC approval, then FINRA and then the market maker that we have attached to the deal goes to work.

Now here is the kicker. If you have any experience with taking companies public you’ll see one common thread throughout all the companies that you work with and that is the fact that the company executives who started this company and are more than likely the majority share holders, want to retain as much equity as possible so this is simple. When the company is publicly trading, limit the issuance of stock specifically to your original core group and let the stock price stabilize then you simply take some of the company owned shares and use them as collateral for equity loans and lines of credit.

Once you’re public the last thing you want to do is liquidate shares to raise capital quickly. Instead, use your shares as collateralized bartering chips and you’ll never have a problem with cash flow or fund raising or the threat of losing control of your company. Foreign companies that want to go public in the United States are often intimidated by the strenuous process and the concern of ‘who to trust’. Find a consulting firm with experience in turnkey ‘go public’ facilitation and you’ll be fine.

Indian and Chinese Companies, Take Your Company Public, 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.

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

If you own or run a company that is trying to raise capital in the current economic conditions you’ve undoubtedly been challenged by the limited funds available. Investors are more difficult to find and the individuals that are actually willing to part with their cash are even tougher to find. You’ve talked to friends, family members, your cpa and your attorney but trying to get them to invest is like drawing blood from a stone, it’s just not happening.

There is an easier way. Most broker dealers and market makers have an emergency number in their rolodex that reads “Investor Finder”, these specialist consultants are brought in when there is nowhere else to turn for cash. A true Investor Finder has 1,000′s of investor contacts that they can call on to get funding for their clients and are constantly using online viral strategies to attract more investors to their database.

An investor finder usually is not a licensed securities broker/agent or attorney; instead they are traditionally consultants that are active in the investment banking facilitation aspect of the industry. Being that they are not licensed they do not accept equity payments or percentages; instead they work on a flat fee basis.

A good consultant in this genre can bring in 30 to 70 real investors per day and it’s up to the client to sell the opportunity from there. A typical lead from an investor finder will be an investor or investment firm that is responding to the consultant’s opportunity introduction email or snail mail mailing, they have read about the opportunity and they respond one of two ways, either they are calling into a phone room to be screened and qualified or they are contacting the client directly.

Many times the investor doesn’t know that they are part of the “finder’s” database but do recall signing up to receive investment opportunity updates, so either way the investor is solid and active. If you are trying to raise capital and need real results quickly and can’t afford to waste time begging for cash, you need to seek out a qualified Investor Finder consultant and make your fundraising efforts fast and easy.

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

Take Your Company Public: A Must Read Before You Do Anything! As a consultant in the business of structuring companies, setting up strategic alliances for clients, writing business plans and PPM’s and taking companies public on the OTCBB, I must admit I’ve seen my share of scams and swindling of uninformed clients. One sad issue that permeates the industry is clients who believe that their only option is to give up substantial equity while paying hefty fees to consultants who take your company public.

Here is the reality. When you are investigating the industry to find a consulting firm to work with to facilitate your ‘go public’ process, the first thing you need to do is make sure you are hiring a ‘turn-key’ solutions consulting group; meaning they need to offer everything soup to nuts in house because the second your consultant outsources anything, accountability is lost.

Next, on the issue of paying fees and also giving up equity, it should be either or, not both. If a company tells you that they want you to pay them in both upfront fees and in equity, you should laugh and walk away. In actuality the best deals for the client are those that are simply fee based, not equity based.

It’s better to pay 100k in a few easy installments than to pay millions in stock that will only be liquidated after the IPO which will completely obliterate your stock price and almost certainly ruin your company’s chances of success. It baffles me to see the scenarios that uninformed company owners accept. Currently there is a company that is promoting all over Google Adwords that they will take your company public for $25k and after a month of talking to the company, when you finally agree to use them they break the bad news that they are not going to charge you $25k or anything even close to that, they are, in fact, going to charge you $125k upfront, plus $10k to $20k for your initial SEC audit and on top of all of that they are going to take 30% of your company! It’s shocking but this group of consultants, because of their extensive advertising, has no problem bringing in clients and turning the tables on them at the last minute and sadly, because the client is uninformed, they accept the contract and pay the fees.

If you are going to give up any amount of equity in exchange for the process of going public, it should be with a licensed broker dealer and there should be zero out of pocket expenses from you. Your broker dealer should pay for the SEC audit, S-1 filing, SEC approval, FINRA approval, Symbol achievement and ongoing investor relations to keep your stock price solid. Unless your broker dealer is doing all of this, you need to find a new, full service broker.

Keep in mind, each consulting firm you talk to will give you a million reasons as to why their fee structure and process is the best but here are some comparable facts so that you can make the right decision on how to proceed. First of all, if you get an emotional consultant that acts like he is excited about your project and ‘can’t wait to get started’ this is bogus and you should walk away. The best consultants keep clients at arm’s length and never get emotional because it clouds the process and makes them ineffective. Besides, if they are acting so excited about your company it’s probably because they are trying to convince you of their legitimacy that won’t stand on its own merit.

Next you want to make sure that you are getting a quote on your specific company type which includes at a minimum: corporate structuring, strategic alliance facilitation, board of directors evaluation, business plan authoring built for IPO, investor finder service, SEC audit (the should be able to give you a general idea of the cost of the audit and have a company that you can use as most consultants don’t employ an auditor on staff), S-1 filing, SEC approval, FINRA approval, symbol achievement, market maker or broker dealer relationship/contract setup and investor relations for long term success.

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