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The psychological profile of business proprietors and entrepreneurs in general boasts the critical ‘Risk Taker’ element which allows one to take the leap from the financial security of a 9 – 5 job to the dicey waters of action based, success based income generation meaning: No Sales = No Money and No Food.

Many of these risk takers function within the realm of right brain communicative as opposed to left brain analytical which passes over the critical detail oriented solutions that are mandatory for raising capital. It is crucial for someone of this profile to hire a professional to come in and cross the t’s and dot the i’s in preparation for corporate fundraising efforts. After this is facilitated the entrepreneur needs to prepare mentally and emotionally for the turbulent road ahead.

Raising capital is no easy task and after the company is properly structured and you have an investor finder service, market maker or broker dealer in place to sell or promote your funding cause, you must step back, take a deep breath and prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. This preparation should start with the concept of ‘objectivity’ when you talk to investors, some will love your business model while others see an investment in your company as a waste of time. You must take these critiques, good and bad with a grain of salt. Don’t get caught up in the habit of emotionally reacting to these ideas from outside sources, don’t allow your mind to attach itself to an investor’s idea of your company or it will drive you insane and you’ll find that these emotional ups and downs will find their way home as your family will quickly be affected by your emotional fluctuation.

The second thing you must do is read and absorb the knowledge in such books as “The 48 Laws of Power” and “The 33 Strategies of War” by Robert Greene and of course “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. These books deal with strategy that can easily be translated into the business world and can help you prepare mentally for the art of fund-raising. Read these books cover to cover and then read them again. Absorb the intricacies and strategies that these books offer and make it a point to use these concepts in your daily professional life; believe me, you’ll be glad you did.

The next thing you want to do is to study great strategists like Napoleon and Machiavelli. One thing that you will realize almost instantly is that these investors are out for their own gain, period (Why wouldn’t they?). They will try to attract your attention with the right hand while their left hand is reaching in your financial records looking for chinks in your corporate armor to make their case for more equity for less investment. You need to be able to analyze, not just the words of the investor but also all the other elements of their expression such as: intonation, facial gestures, eye movement, standing and sitting positions and other ‘tells’ that can give you an insight to what they are truly trying to communicate so you can anticipate their next move. These are just a few things to consider before entering the world of venture capital. Raising money for a business is a daunting task only to the unprepared.

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

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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!

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So many companies dream of going public to raise massive amounts of capital, as set up for an exit strategy, to make acquisitions with stock and for many other reasons. While your intentions may be pure and with genuine motives, you’re entering shark infested waters of boiler rooms, crooked attorneys and underbelly consultants who have made careers off of taking well intentioned executives just like you for a 24 month rollercoaster ride while they take every penny you have as your company shrivels up like week old road kill.

Just and honest consultants in the ‘public offering’ industry are as rare as the illusive white elephant. This industry exists in a cesspool surrounded by rose gardens; from afar it looks amazing and an image of a dreamland but get up and close and the sludge and odor are enough to make you run and hide. So what do you look for in a consultant? The best consulting firms are the ’boutique firms’ with minimal overhead that keep a low profile and are made up of 3 or 4 ‘partner’ consultants.

These firms typically have the experience of working with the large consulting groups but for one reason or another have decided to leave and go out on their own. The great thing is, these small groups typically have massive contacts and process your entire public offering in-house. Offering a complete turn-key solution that is managed in-house offers a huge advantage because there is accountability and you can actually build a relationship with the people that are making your dream of a public offering come true.

These ’boutique’ consultants will usually stay onboard as growth consultants for the life of the company in exchange for modest fees and a pre-IPO or pre-OTCBB equity position. The large firms will hack you out at the knees and gouge you with fees while they take massive amounts of equity in your company which takes away your bartering chip when you need to offer more stock to the public to raise capital.

The small firms will also work one on one with you to show you how to use your stock to grow through acquisition and other nifty ways to use stock to grow. Seek out the boutique consulting firm and save the attorney for spot audits. Hold on to your cash. Why pay outrageous fees to lawyers when you can pay 60% less with a small consulting firm that will add all the bells and whistles for free and actually get your stock trading, usually in half the time?

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

James Scott Blogging Blogging, ipo, james scott, offering memorandum, otcbb, ppm, Princeton corporate solutions, princetoncorporatesolutions.com, private placement memorandum, reverse merger, take a company public, take company public otcbb, take my company public, take your company public

The psychological profile of business proprietors and entrepreneurs in general boasts the critical ‘Risk Taker’ element which allows one to take the leap from the financial security of a 9 – 5 job to the dicey waters of action based, success based income generation meaning: No Sales = No Money and No Food.

Many of these risk takers function within the realm of right brain communicative as opposed to left brain analytical which passes over the critical detail oriented solutions that are mandatory for raising capital. It is crucial for someone of this profile to hire a professional to come in and cross the t’s and dot the i’s in preparation for corporate fundraising efforts. After this is facilitated the entrepreneur needs to prepare mentally and emotionally for the turbulent road ahead.

Raising capital is no easy task and after the company is properly structured and you have an investor finder service, market maker or broker dealer in place to sell or promote your funding cause, you must step back, take a deep breath and prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. This preparation should start with the concept of ‘objectivity’ when you talk to investors, some will love your business model while others see an investment in your company as a waste of time. You must take these critiques, good and bad with a grain of salt. Don’t get caught up in the habit of emotionally reacting to these ideas from outside sources, don’t allow your mind to attach itself to an investor’s idea of your company or it will drive you insane and you’ll find that these emotional ups and downs will find their way home as your family will quickly be affected by your emotional fluctuation.

The second thing you must do is read and absorb the knowledge in such books as “The 48 Laws of Power” and “The 33 Strategies of War” by Robert Greene and of course “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. These books deal with strategy that can easily be translated into the business world and can help you prepare mentally for the art of fundraising. Read these books cover to cover and then read them again. Absorb the intricacies and strategies that these books offer and make it a point to use these concepts in your daily professional life; believe me, you’ll be glad you did.

The next thing you want to do is to study great strategists like Napoleon and Machiavelli. One thing that you will realize almost instantly is that these investors are out for their own gain, period (Why wouldn’t they?). They will try to attract your attention with the right hand while their left hand is reaching in your financial records looking for chinks in your corporate armor to make their case for more equity for less investment. You need to be able to analyze, not just the words of the investor but also all the other elements of their expression such as: intonation, facial gestures, eye movement, standing and sitting positions and other ‘tells’ that can give you an insight to what they are truly trying to communicate so you can anticipate their next move. These are just a few things to consider before entering the world of venture capital. Raising money for a business is a daunting task only to the unprepared.

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

James Scott Blogging Blogging, james scott, offering memorandum, offering memorandums, otcbb, ppm, ppms, Princeton corporate solutions, private placement memorandum, private placement memorandums, take a company public, take company public, take my company public, take your company public

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.

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

James Scott Blogging Blogging, company go public, dpo, go public, how to go public, how to take your company public, ipo, otcbb, pink sheets, PIPE, ppm, Princeton corporate solutions, take my company public, take your company public

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 PIPE’s 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 start-ups 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 McDonald’s, 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.

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

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If you’re trying to raise capital there are regulations set forth by the SEC to make sure everyone is conducting business ethically and in a way that can keep one accountable for their actions if fraud takes place. Regulation D Rule exemptions 504, 505 and 506 offer solid fundraising capabilities that can handle most investment needs. Companies typically hire a consulting firm to author these documents and within 30 days you’re off and running and talking to investors; that is, of course talking to investors while staying within the boundaries of Rule 502c which dictates the guidelines for solicitation which means no active promotion of the issuance of your securities.

This basically means that unless you have a bunch of millionaire friends, you’re no better off now than you were before the PPM was created. So, how does one raise capital in an environment which limits the promotion of your offering with such limitations? Easy, corporate publicity! You must have your timing right in order for this to work but here is basically what we do with our clients as we are writing their PPM and what you should do if you already have an Offering Memorandum written. First we make sure that they have a solid presence online, within their industry genre by getting them massive exposure virally using video, social and news bookmarks, press releases, unique article submission, image/photo marketing etc. This exposure is just for basic branding purposes and not advertising the investment opportunity.

This process will draw massive amounts of attention to their company while we use specifically researched tags that will cater to the internet user who is researching their industry and/or looking for this specific company’s position in the marketplace. The next thing that you’ll want to do is promote your company using traditional means such as radio, TV and articles written about your company and executives within the company. Now, these promotions are not ads, instead they are interviews and/or expert conversations where you’re being brought in to talk about your industry as a whole. This passive promotional technique will allow for multiple ‘plugs’ during the conversation that lead potential clients and investors to your doorstep.

If you don’t have a publicist you will need one and during your initial ramp up you’ll want to have a targeted, localized and national audience using a minimum of 5 promotional combinations, this is crucial! Lastly, you are going to want to start blogging like a maniac. Blog and respond to any and every industry specific blog you can find. It is crucial that you carve out your position as an authority in the marketplace to tower like a beacon to future customers and investors.

Now you are ready to start talking to investors. The publicity used above will usually deliver a powerful enough promotion that will yield a steady flow of clients and potential investors and once word gets out that you’re company is solid and that you are offering equity investment opportunities…well the fundraising trail get’s easier and easier. You may also want to consider using an ‘investor finder’ at this point. An ‘investor finder’ is an individual or company that has substantial accredited investor contacts and will introduce you to those contacts for a flat fee. They are not a market maker nor are they a broker dealer. They are typically a broker of sorts that holds minimal securities licenses yet packs a punch with their ability to set you up with active investing contacts.

Raising capital is actually extremely easy if you set your company up in a way that is conducive to investment.

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

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As a corporate publicist I’m constantly beat over the head with the latest and greatest way to get my client’s brand out to the public in an orderly yet expedient manner. Fly-by-night methods and organizations come and go, yet the original promotional concepts that yield that greatest results are still at the forefront of the publicity industry, they’ve just evolved and taken a different shape.

Catering to the emotional triggers of the populace while weaving a web of information and post hypnotic cues through the cynical conscious minds to the unconscious faculty of legions of oblivious targets (oops! I mean ‘potential customers’) is still the name of the game. Television, the visual stimulus that fed exhausted, lackluster minds with a temporary, emotional escape from reality has been replaced by web-mercials and the fast pace of viral media.

The informative minds that would gather facts on industry, politics and special interest concepts once supplied by the New Yorker and the New York Times is now replaced by the 24/7 information tornado of Web 2.0. Those colorful ads in Time and the Sunday paper have been overshadowed by interactive flash ads that cater to the senses of sight and sound. And of course the idiot radio DJ that would spit out grotesque and perverted one-liners while simultaneously converting the listeners mind matter to mush has been replaced by special interest audio and video Podcasts.

The actions and reactions of the general population have kept the same structure, but the adaptability and ability to absorb messages has evolved. When marketing to the masses the path to the decision making sector of the mind is still initiated with a single stimulus such as an image, sound or scent. When the attention is attracted, keep that initial stimuli active like the hypnotic dance of the cobra, then use the other senses to input messages for instant or future action, in most cases this action is a purchase.

Using TV commercials and disc jockey desasters to promote a business on a shoestring or unlimited budget is like passing up a brand new luxury sedan for a’85 Hyundai. These methods are out of date and should only be used as modest forms of passive branding while the heavy lifting of promotional branding and call to action publicity marketing should be done with online video, social and news bookmarking, press release distribution, blogging, unique article distribution, Podcasts and other innovative white-hat methods that cater to habits of modern man.

Want to find out more about Publicity Marketing, then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions website at Princeton Corporate Solutions

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This article is nine years in the making. The concept is so simple but 99% of the clients I consult with have made identical errors in their effort to raise capital. They will have a business plan and they will have a Private Placement Memorandum and after one read of these two documents I have to deliver the bad news, “Sorry, but your business plan and PPM are completely worthless”.

They will then proceed to give me a story where the one consistent theme usually goes like this, “That can’t be…there was a guy…..he gave us a great deal on our business plan besides he wrote the business plans for my brothers sock sewing company and my friends underwater basket weaving video business and he really seemed to know what he was doing and then we bought a template online and just took the content from the business plan and used it to fill out the PPM template…blah..blah..blah…”.

Look, before you have a business plan written, test the author’s knowledge on your specific industry genre. There is no such thing as a one stop shop for business plans, the good consultants will cater to certain industries. Find an author with a solid comprehension of your goals and can translate your ideas into the fickle, skeptical language of the investors reading it.

Your business plan should include, at a minimum, financial projections/assumptions, growth and development analysis, market analysis, research analysis and implementation, competition analysis, management summary, marketing plan, risk analysis, capitalization analysis, market penetration analysis and SWOT analysis. Without these crucial elements your business plan is dead in the water and so is your future in fundraising.

Next, never… and I mean never buy a PPM template on the internet. There are certain aspects to your offering circular that can trigger the invest button or snooze button in the mind of investors. Your business plan’s job is to ’sell’ while the PPM is meant to spell out risk and other technical information that isn’t present in the business plan. The last thing you want to do is simply cut and paste information from the business plan over to the Offering Memorandum; it’s unprofessional and immediately loses legitimacy in the eyes of credible investors. Find a professional consultant, accountant or attorney who specializes in Regulation D to write your Offering Memorandum for you. A poorly written Private Placement Memo can destroy your ability to raise capital so fast it will shock you but a well written, professional PPM will make raising capital fast and easy.

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

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Banks and hedge funds have dried up. Scams like shelf corporations and platform based funding are on the rise so where can an entrepreneur turn to raise capital? It’s sad to be faced with the reality that legitimate fund raising methods have fallen into a minority position in today’s depressed economy.

Corporation owners still need expansion capital, start-up companies need seed capital, how can the owners of these companies bypass the learning curve set in place by the online scammers and find the legitimate ways of raising capital? There are two solid ways of raising capital that are supported by the SEC and can have you raising capital without the drawbacks of dealing with people that just want to take your money and run, Private Placement Memorandums and OTCBB.

First, Private Placement Memorandums allow the business to raise capital under the umbrella of three Regulation D rule exemptions: 504, 505 and 506. Also referred to as a PPM or Offering Memorandum, a Private Placement Memorandum allows you to raise capital, legitimately with an SEC supported and approve process that uses the laws pivoting off of the’33 Securities Act that helps entrepreneurs raise capital legitimately and safely. All are protected with a well written PPM.

If you’re looking to raise capital in more of a ‘public’ setting, check out the almighty OTCBB (over the counter bulletin boards), be careful on this one, there are several consultants and broker dealers that will take your money and walk away while you stand there with an entity that is, umwell, worthless. For an otcbb to be successful you need the back end support and ongoing consulting assistance of people that are completely submerged in the industry and know their way around so they can guide you around the trouble makers and into a world of massive corporate growth and funding nirvana.

If you are looking for real, honest, fast acting funding solutions the private placement memorandum and the OTCBB are your safest bet. Steer clear from the bogus formations such as shelf corps and platform and leased instrument based funding, they will only result in losing time and hard earned cash for your company.

Want to find out more about Private Placement Memorandums, then call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183. Find out about site on how to choose the best OTCBB Today!

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