Investor Relations, Crisis Management And Corporate Publicity: Propaganda Warfare

I remember in college a professor said that, ‘Any publicity is good publicity’. I took that idea with me and tried to apply it early in my career and found the outcome of that concept to be disastrous for a client who was under the same misguided assumption. What university students don’t realize until it’s too late is that instructors teach because they cannot ‘do’.

I have yet to find a professor who was so unbelievably successful in business that he threw it all away in order to mold young minds and shape the future of our economy with tomorrow’s decision makers. To the contrary, those who have a difficult time convincing fellow professionals in the real world of their cerebral preeminence would rather stand in a classroom and spat off statistical concepts formulated and tested by those who this talking head admires yet will never become. It’s a matter of emotional intelligence vs. book intelligence. The former is a prerequisite for powerhouse, contact rich executives and the latter is reserved for individuals that are limited to the creativity and genius of the authors of the material in which they memorize.

The turbulent genre of investor relations, which encompasses crisis management and corporate publicity is limited to the confines of the emotional marathon runner. The up and down swings of this unique niche profession are not for the faint at heart. The ability to parley a crisis situation into that which stimulates trading volume of stock (in a positive manner) is a gift endowed to the street wise, leveraging demigod.

The IR consultants that I know are the guys who get A’s and B’s at a state university, sold vacuums and cell phones the year after college, got their series 7 and after a few years of successful trading, made a nice chunk of cash, got bored and left the industry only to re-enter on the stock promotions side.

They have the technical experience needed to evaluate a stock and test it for chinks in the armor and leaks and they have the industry contacts and street smarts to formulate a deliberate process to promote the company in a way that is conducive to superior public interest and investor coziness.

Successful IR, PR and crisis management really comes down to creating a template for information distribution; once this is accomplished it then in becomes a process of articulating the actual content, good or bad, in a way that reflects the idea that the company’s end result will leave them better off than they are now.

For countering negative press or crisis management issues a company should always have an arsenal of positive information ready to pump out 3 to 1 for the ultimate public distraction (meaning for every one negative, drive 3 positives through the publicity template put together beforehand). What should your template look like? You need a combination of media contacts on all levels (radio, news, TV, talk radio, etc) along with an ample supply of high traffic blogs, article directories, podcasts with large followings, double opt-in email list to investors and shareholders, legislative style spin contractors and powerful bookmarking tools to add to the affect. It is important to test-run through the scenarios before you need them. You’re going to have problems that could hinder your company stock or reputation, it’s just a fact of commerce. Prepare ahead of time so that your crisis management solution is in place. Hire a troubleshooter that can come in and set your organization up with concepts that will free your head from the noose that would otherwise cause your company’s demise.

Characteristics to look for in a consultant of this caliber would be: even keeled and calm, no nervous habits such as nail biting, sniffing, shuffling feet etc. Watch out for name dropping to base their abilities off of their association with another entity or individual, hiring a consultant like this will result in failure and they’ll pass the buck and won’t be accountable. Watch for the involuntary micro expressions controlled by the subconscious mind. To measure this, ask a few trigger questions you know the answers to and watch for the facial reactions immediately after the question but before the verbal response.

Next, ask him questions that would need modified or critical thinking and again, watch for the facial expressions. After you’ve discovered his ‘tells’ you should be able to effectively proceed with a general comprehension of the truth and lies (or over exaggerations) during the qualifications interrogation. Have him run you through scenarios that he’s worked on in the past and the processes that were put in place before hand or on the fly to deliver a powerful end result for the client. Ask him to elaborate on his most powerful crisis management tactics. Find out what he’s done on the IR side to generate trading volume and share price strength. Ask him how he would take your product or service and pump it through his PR stratagem for optimal outcome.

Again, this specialist is a dynamo, not an instructor and they are more of a strategist than a general tactician, meaning they are able to apply the tactical knowledge that the public has access to but apply it to his current environment, good or bad, for a strong, predictable end result.

Want to find out more about establishing real, long lasting corporate power and position ? , then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions’ blog Economic Globalization Strategies, Power Brokering and IPO Facilitation that can transform the direction of your company, career or campaign.

Victory Is Temporary, Annihilation Is Permanent: Corporate Strategist Speaks

If you’re a board member, CEO, COO or CFO in an industry that is as cut throat as pharma, bio-tech, technology, software etc industries you most likely have hired a strategies consultant to step in to help you gain a much needed edge over your competitors.

One of the first things you’ll realize is that winning is only a temporary byproduct of victory over a certain angle and it is only a matter of time until that competitor is back again, bigger and stronger than ever and once again posing a major threat to your organization as you must fight to keep your economic position in your niche marketplace.

The key element is to annihilate the opponent. But you cannot do this directly. One way to obliterate a competitor to the point of no return is to feed their smaller, more aggressive competitors with devastating information that you’ve dug up on the ‘target’ that will damage them in a way that offers no rebound potential.

Find information about the CEO, CFO, COO, board members, advisory board members, product or services weakness, angry customers (give them a public platform to voice their anger) make step in, be invisible, and use your social media agent to make these guys rock stars.

When the press is taking a crippling affect on your competitor you should be evaluating their share price, buy some and dump it and continue to do this ongoing with any major competitor (check with your attorney to find out about any legal issues you should be aware of first). If a mugger is coming at you with a knife you don’t want to kick him in the shin, you want to grab a steel pipe and smack him over the skull until his laying on the ground and you can remove the weapon from his hand, a chump laying on the ground unconscious without a weapon ceases to be a threat. Business is no different.

Want to find out more about Political and Economic Strategies ? , then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions’ blog Economic Globalization Strategies and facilitation that can transform the direction of your company, career or campaign.

Take Your Company Public OTCBB: A Must Read Before You Do Anything!

Take Your Company Public: A Must Read Before You Do Anything! As a consultant in the business of structuring companies, setting up strategic alliances for clients, writing business plans and PPM’s and taking companies public on the OTCBB, I must admit I’ve seen my share of scams and swindling of uninformed clients. One sad issue that permeates the industry is clients who believe that their only option is to give up substantial equity while paying hefty fees to consultants who take your company public.

Here is the reality. When you are investigating the industry to find a consulting firm to work with to facilitate your ‘go public’ process, the first thing you need to do is make sure you are hiring a ‘turn-key’ solutions consulting group; meaning they need to offer everything soup to nuts in house because the second your consultant outsources anything, accountability is lost.

Next, on the issue of paying fees and also giving up equity, it should be either or, not both. If a company tells you that they want you to pay them in both upfront fees and in equity, you should laugh and walk away. In actuality the best deals for the client are those that are simply fee based, not equity based.

It’s better to pay 100k in a few easy installments than to pay millions in stock that will only be liquidated after the IPO which will completely obliterate your stock price and almost certainly ruin your company’s chances of success. It baffles me to see the scenarios that uninformed company owners accept. Currently there is a company that is promoting all over Google Adwords that they will take your company public for $25k and after a month of talking to the company, when you finally agree to use them they break the bad news that they are not going to charge you $25k or anything even close to that, they are, in fact, going to charge you $125k upfront, plus $10k to $20k for your initial SEC audit and on top of all of that they are going to take 30% of your company! It’s shocking but this group of consultants, because of their extensive advertising, has no problem bringing in clients and turning the tables on them at the last minute and sadly, because the client is uninformed, they accept the contract and pay the fees.

If you are going to give up any amount of equity in exchange for the process of going public, it should be with a licensed broker dealer and there should be zero out of pocket expenses from you. Your broker dealer should pay for the SEC audit, S-1 filing, SEC approval, FINRA approval, Symbol achievement and ongoing investor relations to keep your stock price solid. Unless your broker dealer is doing all of this, you need to find a new, full service broker.

Keep in mind, each consulting firm you talk to will give you a million reasons as to why their fee structure and process is the best but here are some comparable facts so that you can make the right decision on how to proceed. First of all, if you get an emotional consultant that acts like he is excited about your project and ‘can’t wait to get started’ this is bogus and you should walk away. The best consultants keep clients at arm’s length and never get emotional because it clouds the process and makes them ineffective. Besides, if they are acting so excited about your company it’s probably because they are trying to convince you of their legitimacy that won’t stand on its own merit.

Next you want to make sure that you are getting a quote on your specific company type which includes at a minimum: corporate structuring, strategic alliance facilitation, board of directors evaluation, business plan authoring built for IPO, investor finder service, SEC audit (the should be able to give you a general idea of the cost of the audit and have a company that you can use as most consultants don’t employ an auditor on staff), S-1 filing, SEC approval, FINRA approval, symbol achievement, market maker or broker dealer relationship/contract setup and investor relations for long term success.

For Corporate Turnaround Services or Investor Finder Services, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

Attention Investors: How To Make Double Your Money Investing in Pre IPO Companies

Those who are able to achieve higher yields on their investments typically don\’t have a broker and don\’t listen to the advice of a financial planner. After all, if either of them knew what they were talking about they wouldn\’t be hustling others into allowing them to learn the trade game off of other people\’s money.

The reality is the few that have gained a comprehension for seeking out and getting involved with trades that open the floodgates to massive profits use their own money and operate as part of a small, tight knit group. The members of this \’group\’ always have their feelers out like tentacles sucking up and analyzing potential transactions, immediately looking for strategic elements and immediately dumping 99% as they don\’t meet the criteria.

Two major components that professional investors who use their own money and are able to consistently pick winning transactions are companies that are in merger and/or acquisition mode and companies that are seeking seed capital specifically to go public.

Let\’s focus on the latter. Companies seeking seed capital to go public are often financially viable companies with modest liquidity but are taking on seed investors so that they can meet the SEC minimum criteria of having 40 investors on the books to qualify for going public. Investors that are able to, literally, make millions per transaction have a way of getting into these opportunities by connecting with consultants who take companies public.

If you are able to get involved with these consulting firms and if you have some capital to designate as a seed investor, you can literally be placed in 4,5 or even 6+ pre IPO investments per year. When you are one of the 40 investors in a pre public OTCBB corporation you are usually investing seed capital at a fraction of the future public price by way of DPO (Direct Public Offering). The difference between what you pay for the seed stock and what the company charges per share when public is the profit.

It isn\’t at all out of the ordinary to buy seed stock at 50 cents and have that stock gain in value of $1.00 to $1.50 when the company goes public and yes, you just made 50 cents to $1.00 net profit on each share. The great thing is you can often invest as a seed investor with as little as $5,000 to $10,000. If you have more capital you can spread it out over multiple pre-IPO opportunities. Seek out the pre- public companies and make a fortune!

For Corporate Consulting or Invest Seed Capital In Pre-IPO Companies, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!

You Need Power Factor Correction and TVSS Do Not Save Energy

In today\’s energy climate more and more people have become motivated to accomplish what they can to become more energy efficient to conserve energy and money. Regrettably this same climate has encouraged some to take advantage of innocent consumers\’ desires to save energy and reduce operating expenses.

Vendors that advertise power factor improvement (kVAR correction) and transient voltage suppression to save energy are a good case in point of this bad trend. Recently we are seeing more and more of these businesses cropping up and we believe it is time to set the record straight.

First off, transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) plays an important part in improving power quality to guard sensitive equipment inside a facility. However, TVSS does not save energy. TVSS\’s are barely active an infinitesimal portion of a second to defend against voltage surges which only last for less than a millisecond. To actually decrease energy use the TVSS would need to essentially cut power consumption for an extended amount of time which is not what they are designed to do. Again, TVSS is essential to protect susceptible electrical equipment but consumers should steer clear of vendors promising, or even guaranteeing, a reduction in energy consumption.

And what about salespeople who maintain that increasing power factor will save 15% or 20% or 30% of energy consumption and resultant costs? This is false but also a bit trickier.

For homes, power factor correction does zero to save energy because the average home already has an average power factor of approximately 0.97 which is nearly the perfect power factor of 1 or unity. Additionally, the unit (called a capacitor) is installed at the homes main circuit breaker. According to IEEE 5.5.3.3 capacitors must be located at or near the individual inductive motor loads to decrease power system losses by reducing heat and distribution losses known as I2R losses.

So what about commercial and industrial facilities looking to use power factor correction to shrink energy expenditures? It is completely appropriate for a business that is incurring penalties or a kVA billing structure from the utility company to improve the facility\’s overall power factor by installing a capacitor bank at the main electrical service entrance or individual capacitors at or near the particular motor loads. Doing so will do away with the power factor penalties and/or reduce the kVA demand charges on the electric bill which can save considerable money and provide a significant ROI on the investment.

But what about power factor correction reducing kWh consumption? IEEE also tells us that at most I2R losses only account for 2 to 5% of the total load in a facility. Simple arithmetic tells us that it would be in opposition to the laws of physics to obtain the 15% to 30% energy reduction claimed by some vendors. Consider it. Even if your facility had 5% distribution losses and you could correct 100% of the predicament via power factor correction at every load (which can\’t be done) you would still save no more than 5% at most. No where close to the claims of some capacitor reps and manufacturers.

All that said, power factor correction when done appropriately will eliminate utility penalties and kVA demand charges, improve facility power quality, increase electrical system capacity, and save a modicum of energy when applied at the proper motor loads in an industrial facility.

So make an investment in transient voltage surge suppression and power factor correction when appropriate and necessary. But caveat emptor!

Save Money On Your Company\’s Energy Bill, visit Energy Edge Technologies site for strategies on saving a tremendous amount of capital on your Corporate Energy Bill or call 888-729-5722 Ext. 100.

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