Mybusiness Articles

OK, you're ready to take your company to the next level and your CFO and legal counsel have advised you to go public to raise capital as well as to retain some of those prize employees with stock options and to bait that new sales executive with a signing bonus made up of stock options. You've looked into everything from pink sheets to reverse mergers to OTCBB to IPO and you have come to the conclusion you're going to need to take on investors so that you can afford to follow through with your plan. If you're lacking the funds to dive right in and start creating your public structure, here is a way that just about any business can afford to go public.

OK, you're ready to take your company to the next level and your CFO and legal counsel have advised you to go public to raise capital as well as to retain some of those prize employees with stock options and to bait that new sales executive with a signing bonus made up of stock options. You've looked into everything from pink sheets to reverse mergers to OTCBB to IPO and you have come to the conclusion you're going to need to take on investors so that you can afford to follow through with your plan. If you're lacking the funds to dive right in and start creating your public structure, here is a way that just about any business can afford to go public.

First, get a real business plan. Your business plan needs to sizzle and reel in the investor and clearly paint a picture of your vision to the investor and their advisors. Next, you'll want to raise an initial round of cash quickly so that you can afford to take your company public without hindering your current company structure with additional ancillary costs. You're going to need something fast and affective; you should consider having a professionally authored private placement memorandum put together for your company.

If you are trying to go public via OTCBB a Regulation D Rule 504 exemption will suffice, if you are trying to achieve an IPO you'll need to go with a Regulation D Rule 505 exemption (pink sheets and reverse mergers into shell corps are not very successful in immediate and long term success so I would suggest you stay away from these structures). Build into the PPM verbiage that you are raising an initial round of capital that will be used to take your company public. When savvy investors see that they are investing in a real, viable pre-IPO or pre-OTCBB formation you will see investors climbing out of the woodwork to give you cash if your business concept is sound.

Next you hire the consultants (usually the same firm that wrote your PPM) to start the process of taking you public. On the PPM your Mini/Maxi should allow you to use capital almost immediately to get the ball rolling on your public company. You can count on a solid OTCBB going for between $75k and $250k and an IPO going for $1M+ so have your PPM written accordingly. If you follow the path set forth above you will notice something extraordinary.

The only out of pocket expense you had was for your Private Placement Memorandum (and your business plan if you didn't have one) and 100% of the capital needed to go public was supplied by greedy investors who are excited to invest because of the quick payoff of their investment when you go public. This process means you can literally take your company public for less than $5,000 (the typical cost of a strategic Private Placement Memorandum. This is a simple, strategic and inexpensive way to get the capital you need for your company quickly, without using your limited financial resources in the process.