Taking a Business Public and Why IPOs Fail – S1 Filing – Real Strategy, Solid Growth – A Must Read
It’s a sad fact, the roadside to achieving a trading symbol and succeeding in volume trade with the Over The Counter Bulletin Board, NASDAQ and NYSE is littered with the carcasses of companies just like yours. I don’t say that to discourage you, but to help you approach with caution. You’ll obviously have a consultant that is helping you along the way. You are better off finding a boutique consultant rather than a high volume facilitator. Boutique firms will structure your company pre-public in a way that will get the stone ball rolling and building momentum so you can steamroll right through the public offering process and up and over the critical market creation aspects of generating trading volume post-public.
Volume trading is the only way your company can succeed in the public marketplace. A volume-less public company, regardless of the exchange, is like the cast skin of a snake, a substance that is shriveled up and dead with no pulse, no movement and no hope of anything better than what previously was.
A company with solid and even mediocre trading volume will allow the company to collateralize it’s securities for cash, lines of credit, loans, acquisitions, merger facilitation and just about anything else a company needs. Obviously too much dilution too quickly can damage a company so just as with taking in strong alcohol, all things in moderation.
A candle burns out quickly if it’s lit on both ends so have your strategies team create benchmarks for steady growth. Think about the Sun Tzu method of ‘slow, slow, quick, quick’ and apply this to business and to take another concept from ‘The Art of War’, don’t burn out your troops with constant warfare, take time to step back, regroup and reevaluate. The plan laid out for this year as of today, will most likely be adjusted in two months. This is normal and as you’re making these adjustments, there should be a chain reaction of positive reactions down the chain of command that cater to this adjustment by informing alliances, employees, consultants and associated management.
If your company has hired qualified consultants, listen to them. Don’t be bureaucratic with minor decisions. Micromanagement has never worked and is the biggest reason for company failure. Company founders need to know when to step back and step away. Don’t try to figure out and approve a process in which you have no background. The ego often times cripples the growth and crumbles the spine of what could otherwise be growing and prosperous companies
The ego, unqualified staff and intricately involved founders will grow your company the first couple of years but will obliterate your chances of expansion down the road. Qualified management, absence of the ego, strong alliance and a process that centers around scalability are what will take your company over the top and successfully into the global market place.