Going Public: Now that You Have Successfully Made the Transition, What Do You Do?

Ok, you have successfully accomplished your dream of being the CEO of a public company. The stock of your company has a symbol and you are continually going to the computer to check the price, you tell all your relatives and friends and you even tried to encourage them to buy the stock.

You think your job is done, you selected an excellent market maker, you released an announcement to the financial news media, but nothing is happening.

If you are playing basketball and you make a three point shot do you sit on the court and admire your accomplishment or do you go back and play defense? You do not have to manage the price of the stock like so many CEO of newly listed companies try to do, instead you go back to work and use the newly acquired tools to grow your company.

As a public company now you can now approach investors and let them now that you are working hard to grow the company but if they should need some liquidity the market will provide it.

You can now go out and retain a public relations firm and make sure that the investors know who you are and where to find you. But before you do this make sure that you can afford the investors relations company, otherwise you will have to learn how to promote your company and stay within the legal boundaries as define by the regulators.

You will now be able to attract and retain more highly qualified personnel by offering stock options and bonuses. Because you will need them. With the privilege of being a public company comes added responsibility, so you must have highly competent personnel to meet the challenge. Now as a public company you have received a tool to help you grow your company. As a public company you have stock with a known market value, The stock can be use for acquisitions.

Acquisitions must be made in a prudent manner, you have to make sure that the companies have synergy and you are acquiring something of value the will make your company larger and more prosperous.

I won't mention any names but I know of several franchising companies that have acquired many different franchises some as many as 600 different franchises. But all they have done is acquired names of different known franchises because the the earnings have not improved nor has the price of the stock. These companies are trading for pennies with little or no chance for improvement since they have a ton of stock outstanding.

That is one reason that acquisition must be done prudently and selectively, and not just for the sake of getting the name of your company in the papers.

You must have a business plan and the fortitude to stick by it regardless of the critics, the business plan must be flexible enough to allow you to make changes when necessary. This plan must be in writing and available to potential investors. If you approach investors without a business plan you will have a difficult time trying to convince them that you are offering a good investment.

A business plan shows investors that you know what you are doing and where you want to take the company. A lack of a business plan indicate a lack of direction, some entrepreneurs are big dreamers but their plans tend to swing all over the place causing them change direction every other week.

Begin by designing a strategy for the future, taking into consideration what you want to accomplish after you take your company public. If you have a plan your chances of success will be greatly improved.

By being successful from the beginning opportunities will present themselves almost immediately and give you a head start on the competition.

If you are thinking of going public visit our website: www.genesiscorporateadvisors.com

Joseph D. Quinones, President of Genesis Corporate Advisors has spent over 25 years in the securities industry. In 1992 he founded JDQ Financial Group, Inc. and proceeded to build it up from a one man operation to the point where it employed many traders, advised numerous client and generate millions in revenues.