I have been taking Small Businesses and Start-Up companies public as a consultant for over 10 years now. And for 10 years I have been repeatedly asked in various ways "Can I really go public? We only have a million dollars in revenue. Aren't we too small?"
The answer has been and still is "Yes, you can go public. And no, you are not too small."
A company doing a million dollars a year in revenues would be relatively easy to take public. Even a company doing a couple hundred thousand in revenues would be relatively easy. And though four or five years ago we could take a company public with just a business plan and no business operations, that scenario has become, admittedly, very hard to do, though still not impossible.
It has become harder and harder to take a company public with no revenue and no business operations because the SEC and NASD are rightfully trying to eliminate micro cap fraud, but yes it can still be done. If you have no revenues, however, you will have to have patience, some money in the bank to guarantee you can survive for a couple of years, and you will have to be making genuine progress on your business plan to show the powers that be that you are a "real" company and not just a "sham" set up for micro-cap fraud.
The advantages to going public in the early stages, rather than waiting, can be substantial.
1) Leverage a larger retention of ownership
2) Grow your company faster and make it more powerful by attracting top personnel without necessarily huge cash outlays
3) Grow your company faster and make it more powerful by attracting top notch team members to your board of directors.
4) Raise money faster and cheaper by increasing the "liquidity" factor for your investors.
5) Grow your company faster and make it more powerful by increasing your ability to attract "mergers", "acquisitions" and "strategic partners.
6) Grow your company faster and make it more powerful by increasing its ability to compete for large corporate contracts.
7) Grow your business faster and make it more powerful by increasing your status in the eyes of all those you do business with.
8) Leverage your personal return on investment as an owner by decreasing the amount of time it will take you to make money on your investment, as well as increasing the valuation of your company, as well as, changing the liquidity of your asset to a much more liquid form than that of a private company.
If you are a small business and you don't plan to be mom-and-pop forever, then "Going Public" is something you should look into in the very early stages. "Public" money is usually a lot cheaper than "private" money.
I have seen private companies give up 50% of their business for a $100,000 investment. By the time they have raised twenty million dollars privately, they typically only own 5% or 6% of their company. If that individual had gone public as a start up they could have typically raised the same twenty million dollars and still have retained 60-65% of their company.
Of course there are downsides to going public early too, but most of those have to do with being preyed upon by non-professionals, fraudsters, and others who really don't know what they are doing. If you check out your advisors and get advice and structuring and referrals from professionals who know what they are doing, you can eliminate most of the downside of going public early.
And if you are potentially the next Microsoft (or even just a shadow of that giant), the decision to go public early on could make you millions if not billions of dollars in the extra equity that you retain and don't give up to venture capitalists.
(c)2006 Charlene Kalk
You've already figured out that your small business needs a web site to compete with the big boys and maintain every aspect of your relationship with your customers. But once you have your web site up and running, you'll need web site promotion ideas so that people know about your web site. After all, no one will visit your web site if they don't know it exists. The first of your web site promotion ideas is submitting your web site to all the major search engines. Search engine traffic is a major draw to web sites and most web masters will tell you that the vast majority of their traffic is coming from search engine clicks.
Most of the major search engines have a specific page you can use to submit your site. Once it's submitted, it will usually take a few days to a week before it starts showing up in keyword searches. Other web site promotion ideas include advertising your web site on internet message boards and discussion forums centered on subjects related in some way to your business. For example, if you run a small business selling pet supplies, you could go to message boards and discussion forums frequented by pet lovers. Other tried and true web site promotion ideas are banner exchanges. You can contact other web sites involved with the same target market and ask to exchange banners on each other's web sites or you can sign up at a banner exchange portal that will automatically generate banners for other sites on your site and banners for your site on other participating sites.
Some other ways of promoting your new web site however, going the route of affiliation. This is a good method of not only promoting your new site but an easy fashion of making some quick money as well. How this works is you sign up for an affiliation to a site, generally you will want to find a site that has some relevance to the site you are trying to promote. When ever someone goes to the site you are affiliated with and they link on to your site by pay per click method it takes them to your site and right into the thick of your content. The unfortunate part of this method is that whenever someone clicks onto your site from your affiliate, you end up paying the affiliate for the transfer of sites.
Although this could easily be a very small fee to the affiliate, the point to remember is if they click and you pay the affiliate, there is no guarantee that they will make a purchase from you. For even more web site promotion ideas, there are many online resources dedicated solely to teaching people how best to create awareness of their web site through the internet at large and strategies for attracting more visitors to their web site. There are other resources for web site promotion but then start with these basic ideas and when you're ready, explore for more! To Your Success.
Both Charlene Kalk & Wazir Singh are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Charlene Kalk has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Business and Finance and Pink Sheets. Charlene Kalk is a consultant that has been assisting companies "going public" for over 10 years. She provides full services for companies, large and small, that want to go public. Charlene provides. Charlene Kalk's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
Wazir Singh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Computers and The Internet and Finances. Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights. Do please browse for more information at our website :-. Wazir Singh's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.