Read This Before You Write A Private Placement Memorandum - OTCBB

Why Are You Writing A Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) To Raise Capital? I feel like I have to put this out there as a corporate strategies consultant with a firm that is completely submerged in the industry of authoring business plans, private placement memorandums (regulation d rule 504, 505 and 506), facilitating direct public offerings to our database of investors and taking companies public on the OTCBB.

When I get calls about private placement memorandums it is typically one of two scenarios: 1. They want to raise capital and they are shopping around for the cheapest PPM author they can find. 2. They have made the mistake of using the cheapest PPM author they could find and now they can’t find an investor that will fund their 70 page stack of toilet paper.

It never ceases to amaze me when companies are trying to convince investors that they are ready for that next step in their corporate evolution, yet they are being penny wise and dollar foolish with the most technical document their company has ever had done. And why do people put the cart before the horse? I mean, why do people write the private placement memo before they know who their audience is? As a rule of thumb you should write for your audience.

A ppm that is being written for venture capital firms will demonstrate and cater to more of an equity control and technical audience whereas a ppm that is being written for angel investors, private investors and small private equity firms who want to be in and out of a transaction will typically want to buy low and sell high and will typically want to invest in companies that are going public in as short of a time as possible.

The investors in pre public companies and other ‘angel’ type investors have a minimal bankroll of $1m or less (usually) so they have to be in and out of a transaction fast, thus the need for a ’selling shareholder offering’. This is a mandatory prerequisite for a company that wants to raise capital from angels and go public. With a selling shareholder offering you are setting up a scenario that ever investor dreams of.

You are giving them the ability to buy deeply discounted stock and 3 or 4 months later, when the company goes public, they can sell their stock into the market at an offering price that is typically 4 or 5 times what they originally purchased the shares at and the company is happy because the investor created a bridge for the company to go public and then created a public float.

Now, after reading this, you will see why writing a PPM before you know who your audience is and before you’ve contracted with a consulting firm is a critical mistake. Find a consulting firm that is well rounded as a capital raising facilitator and have them help you set a goal as an end result and then build your strategy from there.

July 31st, 2010 - Posted in Blogging | | 0 Comments

Packers Thump Hapless Rams

Now that the Detroit Lions have ended their losing streak, the St. Louis Rams are officially the worst team in the NFL. The Rams extended their losing streak–now the NFL’s longest–to 13 games on Sunday with a 36-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers on their home field at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. The Packers Aaron Rodgers threw for 269 and two touchdowns and rushed for a third as Green Bay pulled away in the second half. The victory snapped a five game road losing streak for Green Bay and improved their 2009 NFL regular season record to 2-1.

Green Bay easily covered as a 6 road favorite, in the process earning their second pointspread cover in three NFL regular season games this year. The Rams dropped to 1-2 against the spread. The 53 combined points scored went OVER the posted total of 42. It was the Rams first OVER in three games this season, while Green Bay went OVER for the second time.

Rogers had been sacked a league high ten times in his first two games, but only went down twice in the victory over the Rams. Afterwards, he praised his offensive line for giving him the time he needed to complete big plays:

“They really gave me some time. I was able to move in the pocket.”

Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo blamed the loss on the ‘big plays given up by his defense:

“It’s the big plays on defense that kill you and the turnovers — we didn’t get any takeaways.”

Packers coach Mike McCarthy, meanwhile, praised the big play ability of his offense in earning the victory:

“Big plays equal points in this league. We say it every week. It was evident today. We have the ability to play that way.”

Green Bay quarterback Rodgers continued to explain the teams big play ability, suggesting that much of it stemmed from the Rams single coverage of Greg Jennings and Donald Driver:

“If they are in press coverage on Driver and Jennings, we’re going to take our shots. I was able to put the ball in the spot.”

The Rams will look to end their ending streak next weekend, but wont receive any help from the schedule maker as they travel cross country to play the improving San Francisco 49ers. Theyll return home the following Sunday to play the Minnesota Vikings before taking to the road again, traveling to Florida to play the Jacksonville Jaguars. Green Bay will head to Minnesota for a Monday Night game against the Vikings next week. Theyll then enjoy a bye week before hosting the Detroit Lions on October 18th.

July 31st, 2010 - Posted in Blogging | | 0 Comments

Steelers Shut Down Bills In NFL Preseason Play

Ben Roethlisberger looked sharp in his return to the Pittsburgh Steelers lineup from injury, while the Buffalo Bills offense continued to sputter as the Steelers topped the visiting Bills 17-0 in NFL preseason action. The victory improved Pittsburgh’s NFL preseason record to 2-1, while Buffalo dropped to 1-3.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who backed the Steelers cashed their tickets as Pittsburgh covered the -6 price as home favorites. The Steelers are now 2-1 against the number in the NFL preseason, while Buffalo dropped to 1-2-1 ATS. The 17 points went UNDER the total of 36 and represented the Steelers third UNDER in three games. Oddly enough for a team thats had trouble producing on offense, the game was the Bills first UNDER verdict of the preseason against three OVERs.

Roethlisberger was happy with his performance, and gave the following observations:

“I was really proud of the way the guys were able to move the ball and … change some plays at the line of scrimmage. We made some mistakes early, but then we drove down the field.”

Bills coach Dick Jauron was less pleased with the showing of his troops:

“We’ve got a lot of issues that we’ve got to solve. We’ve got to solve them very quickly.”

Buffalo QB Trent Edwards credited the stout Pittsburgh defense:

“That’s a great defense. They’re very talented. On our side, we didn’t get the job done. We left our defense on the field too long. … It is frustrating, but the thing is we have a lot to learn. We’re still fighting and it’s still early.”

The Bills were without their star free agent wide receiver Terrell Owens who missed his third straight game with a sprained toe. The team has already announced that TO wont play in their final preseason contest. With their receiver corps depleted due to injury, Josh Reed shared much of his QBs frustration:

“Frustrating. I feel like we’re a much better offense than we showed tonight. It’s still the preseason, but we still want to come out and give a better effort than it felt like we gave tonight.”

Reed wasnt about to panic:

“I’ll say we have more of a sense of urgency than panic. We’ve got to make sure everyone’s still on the same page and nobody’s down. We’ve got to keep everybody up and keep pushing.”

The Bills will open the NFL regular season on Monday night, September 14th in Foxboro, Massachusetts against the New England Patriots. The Steelers will get their 2009 NFL regular season underway several days earlier, hosting the Tennessee Titans on Thursday, September 10th.

July 31st, 2010 - Posted in Blogging | | 0 Comments

CEO Positions - CEO Monster - How To Be A Top Rated CEO

When my firm goes into a privately held corporation to create strategies for expansion and a solid foundation before initiating the ‘go public’ process the first thing we do is analyze the CEO,CFO and COO professional pedigree and many times the current executives need to step back and allow us to bring in professional ‘C’ level management so that the company can go public, attract investment dollars from accredited and institutional money sources.

To save time we’ll go over the CEO position. This executive will be the public face to the company. They need to remain calm under pressure, respond quickly to critical questions and have a contact portfolio that could choke Godzilla. Within this contact base he/she must be able to create strategic alliances to grow the company’s presence domestically and internationally, take the leadership role to set up pre and post public financial strategies with the CFO and Board of Directors, identify and facilitate acquisitions and mergers to cultivate growth, engage the public via TV, radio and public forums as an industry expert to brand his name, the company name and the trading symbol.

An executive prime for this position will have ample publicity contacts for crisis management and getting the ‘good word’ out about the company’s financial position, new service/product, latest acquisition, newest big contract or distribution source or anything that could trigger trading volume with the stock.

At the end of the day if the company isn’t growing steadily and efficiently and if the company stock isn’t trading at a volume that allows the company to capitalize off of its position, the blame falls on the shoulders of the CEO.

Using the above to initiate the evaluation process of your CEO is a good place to start if you are getting ready to go public or if you are currently public and struggling to grow.

July 31st, 2010 - Posted in Blogging | | 0 Comments

Board Of Directors Jobs - CEO Recruiter - CFO Headhunter - How To Get Top Executive Jobs

If You’re Seeking Board Of Directors, CEO Jobs, CFO Job Offers Or Attention From Executive Recruiters, Here Is What To Do. Obviously people want what they can’t have, it’s written in our genetic code to desire what we don’t have and fight for what seems achievable.

It’s the same with recruiters; if you’re available and eager then you are less desirable of a marketable asset but if you have published work all over the place, how to videos plastered on the web and you are intricately involved with the upper echelon power base in your industry niche, the key element becomes having massive visibility, and the reputation for being seen with the who’s who in the industry.

Get your articles published in industry journals and the newspaper. Make yourself available to news affiliates as an industry expert and do the same with radio. Consult for free with industry blogs and websites with high traffic and PR value. Work out a publicity deal in exchange for your efforts.

Have an aura of mystery about you. Don’t put personal information on social media sites; only use the internet for professional self promotion. What will begin to happen is first you’ll be asked to advise on transactions such as private company restructuring, then companies in the process of going public, then you’ll be lobbied for advisory board positions with public companies.

After you’ve proven yourself as an active and solid adviser and your name is associated with successful transactions you’ll begin to get the opportunity to serve on board of directors for public companies starting on the OTCBB and eventually the NASDAQ and NYSE.

Once you’ve established a pedigree with empirical evidence of strategy, contacts and the ability to work with a board for the short term and long term betterment of the company, open up the floodgates and let the offers come rolling in.

July 31st, 2010 - Posted in Blogging | | 0 Comments

Professional Search Engine Optimization Toronto: Is It Worth The Cost?

Search engine optimization (also known by the acronym SEO) is a collection of strategies designed to increase your Toronto-based or Toronto-themed website’s ranking in search engine results. This can make or break a website financial survival and success.

Yes, you have big dreams of becoming popular with everyone in Toronto, but here’s the truth: most of them don’t even know your website exists! Search engine rankings are everything when it comes to who wins and who loses with internet marketing. When someone wants to find a site like yours they will use keywords to search through the biggest search engines, such as Yahoo, Google, and Bing. The sites that come up on the first couple pages of those search results are going to get clicked on and checked out. Those that come up hundreds and thousands of pages later will rarely be discovered. This is why using SEO to improve search engine rankings is essential to your business.

The Challenge of Search Engine Optimization Toronto

Learning SEO is like doing a scientific experiment. You may understand some aspects of what you are doing right away, but there are always finer details which are much harder to grasp.

So, since everything revolves around your search engine rankings, how do you improve your current ranking? Better yet, how do you get ranked if you aren’t already? Search engines find new websites and rank them within categories by sending out robots which are constantly on the troll for updates and changes. These robots access the content on your website as well as other site data to determine your ranking. If you can gain a deeper understanding of what these robots are looking for you can improve your site ranking. This requires some in-depth knowledge that not everyone has.

Practically anyone can write articles and other site content based upon keywords, but few know how to adjust the coding and web hosting details of their website in order to properly optimize it for the search engines. This is where the knowledge required for complete website optimization becomes far more complicated than most people are prepared to handle.

You could consult the to web designers today and they would tell you they aren’t absolutely sure without any doubt what the search engines are using these days to come up with their rankings. No one really knows! What we do know is that just focusing the content of your site around specific keywords is only scraping the surface of proper SEO.

The top three search engines–Yahoo,Bing, Google-do give some very basic guidelines on their sites about what valid SEO is considered to be, but these guidelines really do not tell you much. They tend to be extremely vague so most of it gives no concrete information to go by.

Search Engine Optimization Toronto - How to Do It Wrong!

There are many Seo strategies which are considered “invalid” with the major search engines because they are designed to trick and deceive the search robots. The goal is to do very simple things to a site in order to wrongfully impact the site’s ranking in a positive way. These tricks have worked in the past, delivering some site rankings that were way higher than the site actually deserved. One of these strategies is stuffing tons of keywords into the site rather than putting up thoughtful, useful content. These strategies are now discouraged by the search engines but because they are often fast and simple they are still tempting to many site owners.

Such strategies, however, are strongly frowned upon by search engines. Giving a high ranking to sub-standard or irrelevant websites can negatively affect a search engine’s reputation. This could cause them to lose business to their competitors as internet users switch to other search engines that provide higher quality websites in their search results. To guard against this, search engines regularly look for such websites using deceptive search engine optimization strategies, and eliminate them. If you’re lucky, they’ll just assign your website a lower ranking. If you’re unlucky, they may ban your website from their search engine altogether. This can be a killing blow to a fledgling online business.

SEO Toronto - Hiring a Professional

If you care a lot about your business and want to give it a fighting chance at becoming very successful in the competitive environment of the online world today, you need to hire a professional search engine optimization Toronto service. You can find some that are lower priced but usually they don’t have the experience or knowledge required to do the job well. You want to find an expert who understands all aspects of SEO and can give you a fully optimized, highly ranking site, without risking everything on shady practices the search engines will frown upon. A professional will show you how to do it right, rather than just doing it fast! In the long run you will more than earn your money back since your site will become more successful than it ever could without that professional guidance.

July 30th, 2010 - Posted in Online Marketing | | 1 Comments

Important Aspects Of Promotional Advertising

Promotional advertising acts as a powerful tool for increasing the popularity of a product or service of a company among customers. Usually, people who receive promotional products, think positive about the particular company. They even start having a fair opinion about the company’s business. In fact, they go ahead and even recommend the business to their friends, relatives or any known person. Thus through promotional advertising method, the company wants to create awareness of its product among people. While using promotional advertising, you need to consider certain aspects of it. They are as follows:

1) Decide the product to promote:

In order to stand out from the crowd, your company’s promotional advertising gifts should be unique and useful to people. Example, if you want to promote your company’s name among people who are staying in a very hot region, you could do that by using fans for people to cool themselves and at the same time it also does the work of promoting your company’s name.

2) Use a proper strategic promotional plan:

In your promotional advertising campaign, you should introduce the product from the initial promotional advertising point of view. Thus in this case you don’t have to announce all the amazing features of your new product. All that should be taken care of, by the additional advertising campaign.

3) Think about the budget:

Set a budget for promotional advertising and make the best out of the available funds. However, you could stretch beyond a certain limit, only if there is a strong profitable reason to do so. Otherwise, you need to stick to your budget.

4) Check the customer’s relationship:

Consider the level of your relationship with the target audience to whom you are trying to promote your product. If the target customers are high profile business people, then you need to offer high-end promotional gift. On the other hand, if you are promoting your product as normal give a ways, then it is advisable to give simple product but the quality of the promotional item should be reasonably good.

5) Consider the quantity requirement:

While deciding to give your promotional gifts, you should consider the quantity that you require. If you order in larger quantities, you will be able to get the promotional items for lesser price. However, based on your actual requirement, you should decide to order a particular quantity of promotional items.

Usually, people prefer to receive promotional products than other normal forms of advertising materials. This is mainly because people consider promotional advertising materials to be useful to them. Consumers like to receive promotional gifts for their usage and they don’t have to pay for it. Promotional advertising is often used for supporting that initial product that is just newly launched into the market. This is done by adding a sort of an incentive product along with the initial product that is being sold to customers.

Promotional advertising can be done in various ways. Example, the company can offer a packet of free chicken breast to any customer who purchases three bottles of barbecue sauce. So, one of the basic idea of promotional advertising could be to offer some type of attractive product or service against a product that is purchased at a regular price. Another form of promotional advertising involves free give a ways. The items that are given as free are usually useful items that can be used in the home or office. It is a known fact that promotional advertising is a fantastic method for promoting a business successfully, as long as you know how to utilize it properly.

July 30th, 2010 - Posted in Online Marketing | | 0 Comments

Use Three Important Free Advertise Based Concepts For Your Business

Promotional advertising acts as a powerful tool for increasing the popularity of a product or service of a company among customers. Usually, people who receive promotional products, think positive about the particular company. They even start having a fair opinion about the company’s business. In fact, they go ahead and even recommend the business to their friends, relatives or any known person. Thus through promotional advertising method, the company wants to create awareness of its product among people. While using promotional advertising, you need to consider certain aspects of it. They are as follows:

1) Decide the product to promote:

In order to stand out from the crowd, your company’s promotional advertising gifts should be unique and useful to people. Example, if you want to promote your company’s name among people who are staying in a very hot region, you could do that by using fans for people to cool themselves and at the same time it also does the work of promoting your company’s name.

2) Use a proper strategic promotional plan:

In your promotional advertising campaign, you should introduce the product from the initial promotional advertising point of view. Thus in this case you don’t have to announce all the amazing features of your new product. All that should be taken care of, by the additional advertising campaign.

3) Think about the budget:

Set a budget for promotional advertising and make the best out of the available funds. However, you could stretch beyond a certain limit, only if there is a strong profitable reason to do so. Otherwise, you need to stick to your budget.

4) Check the customer’s relationship:

Consider the level of your relationship with the target audience to whom you are trying to promote your product. If the target customers are high profile business people, then you need to offer high-end promotional gift. On the other hand, if you are promoting your product as normal give a ways, then it is advisable to give simple product but the quality of the promotional item should be reasonably good.

5) Consider the quantity requirement:

While deciding to give your promotional gifts, you should consider the quantity that you require. If you order in larger quantities, you will be able to get the promotional items for lesser price. However, based on your actual requirement, you should decide to order a particular quantity of promotional items.

Usually, people prefer to receive promotional products than other normal forms of advertising materials. This is mainly because people consider promotional advertising materials to be useful to them. Consumers like to receive promotional gifts for their usage and they don’t have to pay for it. Promotional advertising is often used for supporting that initial product that is just newly launched into the market. This is done by adding a sort of an incentive product along with the initial product that is being sold to customers.

Promotional advertising can be done in various ways. Example, the company can offer a packet of free chicken breast to any customer who purchases three bottles of barbecue sauce. So, one of the basic idea of promotional advertising could be to offer some type of attractive product or service against a product that is purchased at a regular price. Another form of promotional advertising involves free give a ways. The items that are given as free are usually useful items that can be used in the home or office. It is a known fact that promotional advertising is a fantastic method for promoting a business successfully, as long as you know how to utilize it properly.

July 30th, 2010 - Posted in Online Marketing | | 0 Comments

4 Ways Of Online Free Sell Concept

In the online market world, free ad space for a business is vitally important. Mostly, new businesses don’t have huge funds to use on advertising expense. In fact, they usually work on limited budget. However, online free add space can come to their rescue. Through free classified ad sites, companies can use free add space and increase and enhance their business. Especially smaller businessmen can now easily promote their business and service with free online classified ads.

Online free classifieds have the ability to promote your business in the most effective manner. Through online classified sites you can expect targeted responses by using free add space. All this is possible because these free online classifieds are no frill and to the point advertisements. These sites are usually viewed by people who are interested in a particular advertised product or service. Thus, classified ads that sell free ad space increase the response rate for your business. There are many benefits that are involved with free online classifieds sites that sell free add space. The benefits are as follows:

1) Cost effective:

Free classified ads are very beneficial to business owners, especially to new and small time businessmen. They operate with a limited budget. Hence, free ad space concept is like a blessing for your business.

2) Search Engine friendly:

The free ad space opportunities that you get in online free classified sites can be found in search results via various search engines. This can help your site to get optimized as per search engine guidelines.

3) Provides link building capabilities:

The free ad that you place in these free classified sites, act as a form of link building for your site. Mostly, the websites that offer free ad postings have a high page rank and you can expect a link back from these free ad based websites to your website or blog. These features will help in increasing the SEO rankings of your blog.

4) Provides website traffic:

The free ad that you place on the free based websites helps in enhancing your website. Thus, you get a lot of traffic towards your site.

By now, you may have realized the importance of a free ad being placed on free based sites. Thus, in my opinion, no one should underestimate the power of free add concept. It not only saves your money on advertising expense but also helps you to increase your customer base. There are many types of free online classified ad websites that are available online. However, you need to do your own research, in order to find out which free classified websites are genuine and effective enough to get targeted visitors for your website. You should opt for those websites which are well established and already popular with customers.

When you place an ad on a website that offers free ad facility, you increase your online presence. There are many people who visit free based websites in order to look out for advertisements, dealing with jobs, business or some promotional offers. Every free ad that you place on the website is definitely going to be accessed by some person because they are in need of it.

July 30th, 2010 - Posted in Online Marketing | | 0 Comments

Discover How To Create Leads For Your Internet Marketing Promotion Business

At its foundation an internet marketing promotion business is a simple and very powerful business. In it’s simplicity it is a three step process.

1. Drive traffic to your site or preferably blog. You have multiple choices here and please don’t be sucked in like so many others by unscrupulous people simply trying to sell you their e-book etc.

2. Make sure the leads are targeted ands fit your ideal prospect list.

3. You must follow up with those leads who have visited your blog. Always remember this ‘the fortune is in the follow up’.

When it comes to succeeding to what ever level you want to in your internet marketing promotion business by following these three marketing steps you will get there. In fact because they are that important to your marketing success, I am going to devote a separate article to each of the three steps. Lets begin with step one which is driving traffic to your blog.

I am assuming you already have a website or blog? If you don’t already have one, scroll to the end of this article and be sure to click the link in the resource box and contact me, so that we can get you set up with your own blog. There is no point creating leads if you have no where to send them.

Have you given any thought to what the “ideal” system would include for getting those all important leads

A great lead generation system should have the following elements…

1. Run by itself, once set up, so that you can spend your most precious resource, your time doing the things that you would most want to do.

2. Build a list of leads with their contact details who are genuinely interested in knowing and wanting to hear from you about your product or service.

3. A way to know when people are genuinely interested in your offer and a way to automatically follow up with them with your specific offer.

4. The system needs to be high touch and not just high tech in order to build that all important know, like and trust with those who are receiving your information.

5. Will give you a predictable result if you follow the system. Just like McDonalds does. We both know McDonalds have lousy burgers but their global success is built on the predicable and duplicatable system.

The very best system that my clients have found for achieving all five steps is article writing with content that leads back to your blog with an opt-in box.

Unlike advertising, this strategy helps you build credibility and, overtime, a steady stream of highly qualified prospects. If you don’t have an hour or two per day to write and submit articles you can automate the process by subcontracting a service such as article writing to a third party or ghost-writer.

If you prefer to focus on other aspects of your business, you can hire a ghost writer to write your content and articles.

If this article has been of benefit to you, be sure to request part two of the article titled ‘How To Qualify Your Leads For Maximum Leverage In Your Internet Marketing Promotion Business’. You can get your copy of that very informative article from http://bit.ly/agelHF

July 29th, 2010 - Posted in Online Marketing | | 0 Comments