Financial Strategies

A Rocket Ride for companies that want to grow fast and cash out. With these techniquest you can go from zero to $50-100 million market valuation or more in two years.

The Rocket Ride achieves this in a set of integrated and seamless steps. You use techniques that individually are well known – seed money, venture capital, going public – but in the Rocket Ride are all part of one path to provide the fastest possible company development, not simply a botched mess of separate transactions with the partner who is most convenient at the time.

Starting with the concept, the company is positioned for its growth into an exit strategy. Possible strategic buyers are studies as to their needs and what they would find most valuable. The public securities markets are studied as to what would bring the best market value as an IPO. These items are integrated into the concept and the growth plan.

From the ground floor, the company has to be set up right. That means using sophisticated legal documents that set the company up to go public or be sold from the very beginning.

To create one seamless process, you need to craft the founding documents, the articles of incorporation, the by-laws, the incentive plans, the employment agreements, and the corporate governance rules with an eye toward the exit strategy, whether it is going public or a sale to a strategic buyer.

When you keep this in mind, you can then plan on how best to develop and finance each stage. However, planning is not enough. Everyone has a good plan; it is execution that separates the dreamers from the successful.

When you have the plan, the need for management talent for the team will be easy to see.

History of the Rocket Ride

My work in the investment business started out on the OTC trading desk where all kind of stocks – from the wild penny speculations to the stodgy rust-best manufacturers – were traded. More importantly, this is where most companies that were going public started to trade.

Moving up to Vice President of Trading for an New York investment bank, I not only made markets in our IPOs and the public offerings of the other houses, I had to read the prospectuses and attend all the dog and pony shows.

This experience was like a continuous stream of business school case studies in company finance. It was also an education into what investor will avoid and what they buy.

As I become an investment banker, I developed more and more techniques for venture companies, and that lead inevitably to my starting to run them.

Make no mistake, this was the school of hard knocks – you get spanked hard if you are doing something that does not work and you find out what works and what works like crazy.

Eventually, this transformed into the idea of one process, not one disjointed transaction after another.

The limiting factor in the growth of most companies is their own decisions. In the beginning, the company has infinite potential. Bad decisions build in the limits to growth. It takes experience to build a strategy that can take you all the way.

My experience tells me that the Rocket Ride is for you if:

· You have a public or private venture company

· You have an overwhelming desire to succeed

· You are always optimistic

· You are wildly impatient

· You are a fanatic about your company

· You are a visionary

· You are tenacious

· You are willing to work hard to get results

· You are demanding of others

· You put your business first, knowing success will give you all the rewards you want

· You are willing to share the fruits of your efforts with others

· You are a leader

· You are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, and done on schedule

· You secretly have your corporate logo tattooed on your arm

· You want to grow your company at the fastest possible rate

The steps in the Rocket Ride are done by a team. Management is expert in its core business, but may not have either the expertise or the time needed to take Wall Street by storm. To develop the company fast, a team must perform all the needed functions and support management’s developing the core business in the fastest way.

The first financing is seed capital. Then more rounds of financing. Timing these rounds to minimize dilution is critical. Then, the major financing.

One of the benefits of doing this right is that none of the work has to be done over to prepare for going public or the sale of the company. This minimizes the use of management time. Management has to work on the core business. The money has to be there when it is needed, leaving management to focus on what they really do. Finance is, after all, only a support function.

Finally, the exit strategy. Most venture capital deals plan to do an IPO or merge with a large company. If this is done right, the company is prepared from day one for presentation to many strategic buyers, perhaps in an auction. The strategic buyers have been suitably educated as to the key importance o the company to maximize the price.

If the company is going to go public, there is the process of finding an underwriter, valuing the company, negotiating terms, and marketing the issue. The process does not end there as the company must do well in the aftermarket trading to so the founders can cash out or not and can look back, with a great deal of satisfaction on the whole trip as a true success. That is what you truly want, isn’t it?

It’s unbelievable that schools does not teach us everything that we have to know but left out one important subject, that is Personal Finance Management. No wonder we see rising cases of people with bad debts and bad credit.

Here are 5 ideas to better manage your personal finance.

Build a savings account Your money is something that you work very hard for. If you want to build a savings account for yourself, and for your family, you can do it – but perhaps a little slower than you might like. You can get started by saving all the change you get from shopping at the grocery store, from the gas station and from anywhere else you might go. Putting all this change into a container, you can then fill the container, day by day. As the container is full, roll the coins and deposit this money into your new savings account. You might be surprised, but in just two weeks it is possible you saved twenty dollars, or even one hundred dollars. Your savings account will grow, and you will be managing your money at the same time!

Paying bills on time Paying your bills on time is going to be a something you need to make a habit for your entire life. Your credit report, your credit rating and your personal credit worthiness is going to depend on how often you are on time when paying your bills. Paying your bills on time is important for a solid financial future. As you pay bills on time, you are less likely to pay higher interest rates, you are not going to pay late fees, and you will build a good credit rating at the same time. To pay your bills on time, all the time, use a system that will have all your bills put into a pile in the same place. Put the bills that are due first on the top of the pile. Put the bills that are due at the end of the month in the bottom of the pile. Look at the pile every day, or at very least every other day. When you have the money, pay the bill on the top of the pile and work your way through all the bills for the month, and then you can start on the bills for next month!

Building good credit To build good credit you want to pay your bills on time, and avoid paying those higher interest rates. If you have good credit, you want to keep it. What some people do not realize is that you can hurt your credit if you are moving often. Moving every month, moving every year, and moving more than needed it going to lower your credit score. If you live in the same house, the same apartment for over five years this is going to help your credit. Avoid moving when possible. Get a copy of your credit report; review the addresses that are listed for you. Remove addresses that are not applicable to where you have lived in the past.

Use coupons and save money If you are not using coupons now, you should be. With the price of everything going up, and up, you need to learn to make your money ‘go further’. To make your money last longer, and to get more for your money seek out coupons for the goods and services that you always purchase. The secret to using coupons is this: don’t use, clip or keep coupons for items that you don’t usually use in your home. Coupons are enticing to get you to try other items, and sometimes can cost you even more money. Clip coupons from the Sunday paper, from the Internet online coupon sites, and look for coupons on the products you already purchase. This is going to give you the best savings possible, stretching out the money you have, and that you want to make last much longer for your household budget.

Money management involves working for a living Money management is a budgetary thing, meaning you need to know how much money you have, and how much money you can spend. If you are spending more money than you are earning, you are most likely relying on your credit cards just way too much. If you are relying on your credit cards, your payments are going up and you will never pay off those credit cards. Money management involves your earning money, and spending the money you earn, and not more than that. If you need more money in your home budget, you can do a few things: get a new job with better pay, ask for a raise, get a second job, or build a business of your own. Relying on others for handouts, making minimums payments on credit cards you can’t afford, and living beyond your means is only going to come back to cause you trouble later in life.

Many small businesses turn to traditional lenders when they are ready to open for business.  They gather together their business plan and head to a bank in the hopes that the bank will fund their venture.  For many small business owners that means using their personal finances as security and that is a terrifying proposition. The Best Finance Tips for small business are those that help them grown with minimal risk

 

There is an alternative though and that’s business-to-business finance.  There are companies whose goal is to offer an alternative to traditional financing and this can be the perfect avenue for many new businesses to pursue.

 

Business to business finance is essentially a simple concept.  Established businesses often want to invest in other businesses. They have the resources available to offer not only capital but in many cases advice as well.  The companies offering the money see this as a good investment.

 

There are companies that you can turn to when you decide to look into the prospect of business to business finance.  Some are the companies themselves. You contact the representative of the company who specializes in the business to business operations and get more information from them.  They will explain what their qualifications are and what financial opportunities they are offering. They will have the Best Finance Tips available for their specific business.

 

Another often overlooked aspect to business to business finance is when one business takes another under their financial wing so to speak.  By offering them support in key areas such as marketing, the smaller business will flourish which translates into increased revenue for the

larger supporting business.

 

One area that this might be utilized is in IT support.  Many fledgling businesses don’t recognize the need for having a strong web presence.  The Internet is a fundamental resource for any new business and in a business to business financial arrangement, if the larger business provides ongoing support in the areas of building and expanding an online market, their investment will grow.

 

Not all businesses offer to direct business to business financing to smaller companies.  That is the reason that there are companies created that handle the transactions and act as a proxy for the larger corporations.

 

In this instance of business to business to finance, a larger corporation who wants to provide financial support to smaller businesses contacts a company who provides essential financial services to those businesses.  An agreement is reached wherein the larger business provides

financial backing and their initial investment is secured in one of several ways. 

 

One way this type of business to business transaction takes place is the same route that traditional financing is handled.  Loan agreements are secured and the smaller business uses the capital to finance their business and make payments back to the larger corporation.  The larger

company who works as an intermediary takes a percentage and offers additional support, including business training and ongoing advice in an effort to ensure the smaller business is going to be successful.