Science Fiction

Small and mid-size companies looking to go public usually think IPO (Initial Public offering), but find it difficult to get an underwriter to look at them. They go out an engage a consultant that advises them to do a reverse merger and they usually jump into it head first without exploring the options.If you have read some of my previous articles you may find this repetitious, but I can?t emphasis enough the importance of selecting a good consultant. A consultant that is working for you and you alone, and does not have an interest in selling you a corporate shell and getting your company trading, so that they can sell their stock and move on to the next victim.What are the options?(1) An initial public offering (ipo) is the absolute best but the most difficult and most expensive but with the financing that is raised it will enable the company to be listed on one of the more visible markets. Such as Nasdaq Small Cap, or American Stock Exchange.And if your company is big enough it may qualify for the Nasdaq National Market System, which would make your company attractive to analyst and institutional investors.(2) A Reverse Merger is for the those small and mid-size companies that are aggressive and will like to grow quickly and find that by being a public company they can achieve those goal sooner. I will give you some of the benefits of being a public company later.In a reverse merger the privately held company purchases a publicly tradedcompany with substantially no assets (a ?shell?). The shell issues stock to the owners of the private company. The shell issues sufficient stock, usually 90-95% enough to effectively control the public company.The public company will normally change its name to the private company?s name and elect a new Board of Directors which will appoint the officers. The public corporation will usually have a base of shareholders sufficient to meet the 300 shareholders requirement for eventual admission to quotation on the NASDAQ Small Cap Market or the American Stock Exchange (if the private company?s financial condition substantiates either NASDAQ or AMEX requirements). Although some shells have as few as 35-50 shareholders and currently listed (or can apply for listing on the OTC Bulletin Board or the NQB Pink Sheets.(3) Regulation D (504) offering. Under the Securities Act of 1933, any offer to sell securities must either be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or meet and exemption.Regulation D provides three exemption from registration requirements, allowing some smaller companies to offer and sell their securities without having to register the securities with the SEC.While companies using a Regulation D exemption do not have to register their securities and usually do not have to file reports with the SEC. They must file what is known as form D.Under Regulation D (504) you are allowed to raise up to $1,000,000.00 In a twelve month period. Some of the characteristics of Regulation D are:Securities can be sold to an unlimited number of persons.General solicitation or advertising can be used to market this securities.These securities are freely traded and not ?restricted? which investors can sell their securities in the open market without registration.This securities are not exempt from the Securities Act of 1933 anti fraud provision.Benefit of going public: Your access to capital will increase, since you can contact more potential investors.Your company may become more widely known.You can obtain financing more easily in the future if investor interest in your company grows.Controlling shareholders such as the company?s officers or directors, may have a ready market for their shares at retirement.Your company may be able to attract and retain more highly qualified personnel if it can offer stock options, bonuses or other incentive with a known market value.Company can use stock for acquisition purposes.For additional information please visit: www.genesiscorporateadvisors.comJosephquinones@genesiscorporateadvisors.com

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Do you feel as if you live in the world of “I won’t think about this today, I’ll worry about it tomorrow” with your home based business? Are you afraid to begin? You don’t know what to do, therefore it is just easier not to think about it? Just maybe you are suffering from the Scarlett O’Hara syndrome! Don’t fall into this trap. Start your home based business today. Procrastination could cost you in the long run.It can be very confusing and overwhelming when starting a home business. But, putting it off until tomorrow is not the solution. If you follow some simple steps, starting a home base business can be less complicated.1. SET YOUR GOALS. If you don’t know where you want to go, you will never get there. Imagine where you would like your business to be this time next week, next month, even next year. Dream. Now do everything in your power to get there.2. SET TIME FOR YOUR BUSINESS. You must invest time into any business and this is also true with your home based business. It will not just magically happen. You can not expect a free ride. You must work at it. If you do not have the time to invest in your business, you will not succeed. Set aside ample time each day to really work your business and soon you will begin to reap the rewards.3. SET YOUR BUDGET. You are the only person that knows how much you can invest in your home based business. Do NOT get carried away in this area. It is very easy to “sign up” for everything you see. Start small if you have to. You do not want to start your home based business with the frustration of added expenses. Be certain you have the resources to cover the expenses you incur. Stay within your budget.4. BE REALISTIC. In all likelihood you won’t become a millionaire over night. Gosh, wouldn’t that be wonderful. But you can be pretty certain that won’t happen. Don’t let this discourage you or make you decide to put off building your business until “tomorrow”. It takes time to build any business. The sooner you begin, the sooner you will reach you goal!5. KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS. Just because you aren’t a computer whiz, doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of learning. There is help available. Search the web. Ask questions. We have found people willing to build web sites for FREE! If you aren’t comfortable or unsure of how to do something, by all means ask for assistance.6. JOIN FORUMS You will find some very helpful information. Other entrepreneurs, just as yourself, are always eager and willing to help in any way they can. You will find so many friendly, helpful people! Get ideas and advice from some of the best on-line “gurus” in the forums. Don’t hesitate to ask your questions. Remember everyone had to start at ground zero.7. LAUGH AT YOURSELF. It sure beats crying. In all likelihood you will make some BIG mistakes. Laugh about it. You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last. Learn from your errors. Don’t quit. When you do have your successful business, you will also have gained a storehouse of knowledge and advice for the people following after you.It is time to fire Ms. O’Hara from your business. Think about your home based business TODAY. Get out there TODAY. Get started today. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Others are doing it and you can, too, TODAY.Copyright (c) 2005 Hank and Dot Stevens

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?The most perfectly designed package in use.?Above statement was made by Raymond Loewy on the six and half -ounce bottle of coca-cola folks in Atlanta (coca-cola base) obviously felt that the coke bottle was there greatest strength. They used that in every add and even trade marked it.But every strength has a inherent weakness Guerrilla marketer know that.It was mix of Economic situation and shrewd use of Guerilla tactics in early thirties, which help the minnows of cola war raise their head above the water line. In the great depression, cash was scantly available.Pepsi cola?s key marketing approach was the 12- ounce bottle that would sell for same nicked that would buy only six and half ounce of coca-cola. It was a brilliant strategy executed in a spectacular way it hit the mark, especially with the young cola, kids went for quantity rather than quality. Pepsi use this old saying and hit the bull?s eye. It was a perfect guerrilla attack. With limited budget coca-cola spent around $15 million in that year while Pepsi went with 12 ounce bottle with a $600,000 ad budget.Now coke was in fix. They can?t go for each bottle capacity increase without scraping a billion dollar and their greatest strength the six and half ounce bottle.Guerrilla knows how to exploit the situation. Even a over whelming competitor strength. Pepsi know it would be difficult for coke to turn back and attack is a swift action and they will have a big time gap between the reaction, a year or two.Then the last nail in the coffin with Pepsi generation. Coca-cola was 100 years old brand people use to recognize them with coke brand older people were keener to drink coke. A younger person always has a tendency to rebel against old way doing things and living. Pepsi turned on the heat with Pepsi generation. In 1964, the idea found wings with a classic, ?Come alive, you are in the Pepsi generation.?Pepsi new strategy was to position not itself but the competition, ?out of step, out of touch, and out of date.?Along with that this approach target the youth whose natural tendency was rivalry with old generation. Pepsi also use music, which was traditional weapon of teenager to show their rebellion approach. Younger generation started to attach themselves with Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie. Result was a reduced coke leadership from 2.5 to 1 to 1.25 to 1 and eventually under able leadership of John Shcoulley Pepsi toppled coke from its leadership.Think again what was coke strength??.actually?

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In sales, you can work one of two ways. You can either do the things you should do or you can do the things you want to do. Sometimes these are one in the same, but more often they are at odds with one another. However, this article isn?t about doing the right things, it?s about showing you what things to avoid. If you can figure out how to control each of these 7 things on a daily basis, you?ll be well on you way to selling success.Eternal EmailEternal email can occur several different ways. The most common of these is checking your email every five minutes in eager anticipation of something new. Another way to waste your day with email is by relying on it for long messages or conversations that last longer than a few sentences.To control your email instead of the other way around, set aside two or three scheduled times a day to check it. Also, never have a conversation over email that could ever be misinterpreted because of the rigidity of writing instead of speaking. Embrace your telephone for communication with your clients, prospects, and colleagues. In the age of information overload, a friendly voice on the other end of the phone can greatly separate you from your competitors who are taking hours of their client?s time with excessive emails.Personal Phone CallsHow many people do you know at your office that take at least a dozen personal phone calls a day? I bet at least one or two people came to your mind almost immediately. Do you know why? Because taking personal phone calls is one of the most distracting and unprofessional things you can do in a corporate environment and is immensely irritating to co-workers. If you?re concerned with productivity, this should be one of your most irritating pet peeves.If you don?t think that taking personal phone calls at work is such a bad thing, then you may be the very person at the office that everyone is complaining about.In sales, if you?re having problems with personal phone calls, I recommend putting a little note on the receiver of your phone that says ?Can this Wait Until Later?? Most of the time, when you take a personal call at work, it?s because you think it has to happen right now. Ask yourself this question before taking any personal phone calls at the office and you?ll quickly start to take less time each day with distraction.Unplanned Internet ResearchA killer for sales people is surfing the internet for hours at a time and justifying it as prospect research. Should you do research every day on your clients and prospects? Of course you should, but only if it doesn?t interfere with your more important tasks such as meeting with clients, following up with prospects, and asking for referral business.The key to overcoming unplanned internet research, as well as many of these other distractions, is planning your day the night before. Lay aside a reasonable amount of time each day for research (probably between 30 minutes to an hour) and make sure you don?t go outside of that time the next day. Try to keep this philosophy for your sales research, only do research that you plan to act on in the next 24 hours. That will prevent you from doing any research that you might forget before having the opportunity to use it.Running Personal Errands on Your Sales RouteWhether it?s dry cleaning, grocery shopping, buying shoes, or anything else, keep your personal errands out of your business life. Why? Because you have a limited number of hours each day to sell and you can?t afford to spend that time on things that aren?t making you any money.In sales, everything should be weighed according to its opportunity cost. You probably remember this from your economics class in college. Basically, opportunity cost means the cost of something in terms of an opportunity foregone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity). Whether the cost is time, safety, or money, nothing is ever totally free. So when you?re picking up your dry cleaning during time that you could be making phone calls, the opportunity cost of doing that is the amount of money you would be making if you were making calls instead of picking up your dry cleaning. Measure everything in sales by looking at the opportunity cost and you?ll find that making decisions about what to do first becomes much easier.Running Your Day Without a PlanIf there?s anything on this list that probably kills more sales people that any other, it?s trying to function without a daily plan. Study the life of any successful sales person throughout history and you?ll quickly see that planning is a common thread that runs through all of their careers.The worst thing I?ve seen that happens to dozens of sales people is that they manage their day according to how they feel. When this happens, you can work for an entire day without ever accomplishing anything significant. Don?t let this happen to you, make a plan and follow it every day.Some of the things you should plan into each and every day are new prospect development activities, follow up activities, research, and planning. Everything that moves a sale from beginning to end should be planned into every day.Long Term Marketing During Work HoursThis one may not hit home if you?re not responsible for the branding and marketing of your product on a more national or long term basis. But for those of you that are selling for a small business, or own a business, this one is just for you.Long term marketing includes writing articles or books, working on your web site, putting together marketing material, and any other similar activity during business hours. If you?re in the very first steps of developing your business model then this material has to be created before you can really selling, but for those of you that just aren?t convinced that your marketing material is top quality, or your brand positioning needs a little work, you?ve got a constant temptation to do this during work hours and it will kill your sales if you give in to it.You?ve got to strike while the iron?s hot and that mean selling during normal business hours and working on long term projects after or before business hours. If you think that sounds too difficult for you, guess what, you?re in the wrong profession. When you decided to go into sales, you agreed to a whole different lifestyle than your computer programmer friends.Non-Business Work During Business HoursThis is the catch-all for all those other things that you do at work that don?t make yourself or your company any profits. This includes paying bills, reviewing your 401K, balancing your checkbook, writing poems to your girlfriend, playing video games, watching movies, and so on. All of these things have a time and a place in life, but it?s not at the office when you need to be selling. If you find yourself gravitating to these activities every day, I recommend getting some professional help. A great way to start would be to sign up for my Nacke Gazette where you?ll find encouragement and success tips in your inbox every couple of weeks.Overcoming non-productive activities in sales is probably something you?ll struggle with your entire career. By being mindful of what you?re doing and fighting against distraction, you?ll see greater and greater success throughout the years.

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A telephone answering service business is relatively inexpensive and is a home based business that you can operate without having to leave the comfort of your home. It offers great money making potential and is one the easiest to operate.Any business that relies on the telephone is a potential customer. However, your target market will most likely be small businesses and professionals with a busy schedule that relies on incoming telephone calls yet cannot take these calls themselves during certain periods of the day.Some of the best prospective customers to target are small businesses and/or professionals that operate long or odd hours. Examples of such professionals and/or businesses are repair service businesses such as plumbers and electricians.The needs of an answering service business will vary from one business to another. Most answering services only receive incoming calls on behalf of the businesses or professionals for whom they are working. There are some answering services that offer services beyond this, such as doing some administrative tasks and/or making outbound calls. A business may want or need to have a telephone answering service handle the telephone calls that it receives during a certain period of the day or 24 hours a day. You should choose in advance, the hours that your business will operate and the services that you will provide. This will help you better determine the needs of your business.Setting up Your BusinessIf you will be operating a telephone answering service business by yourself, it may best to solicit the business of businesses and/or professionals that need such a service during only certain time of the day. For example, you can choose to have your hours of operation be from 8AM to 6PM. This will allow you to more easily operate your home business by yourself.You should also choose in advance the number of clients and the services that your business will be providing for them. If all that you will be doing is receiving inbound calls, this will make it easier to handle the responsibilities of more than one business at a time. If your business will be providing the number of clients that you will take on and the services that you will offer will determine how you will set up your home based business.Phone LinesThe way most home based business telephone answering services are set up, is for there to be a separate phone line for each for each client. Each telephone is then marked with the company name to help you identify which client phone line is ringing.Having separate phone lines installed should run you $100 to $200 each. There will also be an additional monthly charge of roughly $35 to $40. You can buy the telephones at a local store. If you intend to expand your home based business into a small business, you will want to lease a switchboard and possibly move to a small office. This allows you to take on a higher volume of calls and therefore more clients. For the purpose of this article however, only the aspect of starting and operating a home based business telephone answering will be discussed.SwitchboardsAn alternative to having multiple phone lines installed, is to lease a switchboard from your phone company. You will want to carefully consider the location of the switchboard. Once a switchboard is set up, it can be costly to move due to the penalty fees that phone companies will charge to relocate the service. If you plan to have someone else to help you receive phones calls, this may be a better option for you than having multiple phone lines.Telephone switchboards can handle more than 100 incoming calls. You only need to activate the actual number of lines that you will be using. The number of phone lines allows you more control and flexibility over your home based business. The number of lines lets you have another operator take incoming as well. Most, if not all phone companies that lease switchboards offer classes on how to use them.Obtaining Clients for your Telephone Answering Service BusinessAny business or professional that uses the phone for business purposes might have a need for an answering service and is a potential client. These businesses and/or professionals can include salespeople, repair services such as electricians and plumbers, on call businesses such as towing services, home based businesses, small businesses such as a doctors office, businesses and organizations that want and/or need surveys taken. You can find these businesses in your local yellow pages, your local newspaper and the classifieds to name a few places.Once you obtain your first client, obtaining more becomes a lot easier. Positive word of mouth may be the form of advertising once you become established. You can ask your current client for referrals to others who may have a need for an answering service. You can offer incentives such as paying a referral fee for prospects that become clients.Pricing your ServiceWhen you are determining the price you will charge for your the services of your home based business, you will need to factor in your business expenses. Determine what your total business expenses for twelve months would be. Divide this number by twelve. The revenue that your home business earns you will have to exceed this number in order to make a profit.The rates that you will charge should be no less than $20 a month. For example, this price may include a standard number of phone calls that you business will receive. The standard number may be 20, 30, 50 incoming phone calls. You may charge your client .25, .50 or .75 for every phone call received after that. Find out what is being charged by similar businesses in your area by calling and asking rates.Putting together a ContractYou can have an attorney work with you to put together a contract or use a standard contract form. Using a standard contract form works just fine in most cases. However, I recommend working with an attorney to put together different forms depending on the services that you will be providing for various companies.You will want to have your contract to have a minimum time requirement such as 6 months, with an option to renew at the end of the expiration of the contract.Have enough Supplies to Conduct BusinessHave enough supplies to do business. Supplies such as pencils, pens, paper, index cards, etc. Buy these items in bulk when possible to save money. You will also need a ledger notebook to record revenue and expenses and at least one calendar to write down dates and to schedule your time.

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I’ve just spent 3 hours surfing the web and found 47 different Internet Marketing courses. I read every single sales page and decided not to buy ANY of them.Why?Because they teach Internet Marketing; a how-to eBook or course that teaches you everything you need to know, most selling for under $40. Now I ask you……How could someone sell an eBook with EVERYTHING you need to know about Internet Marketing for under $40?Easy, they omit the details, and the details are where the money is.It’s time you focused on the details and started producing quality products.It’s no secret that real profits come only after you create your own quality product. But YOU must focus on the details.How do you focus on the details?Simple…the key lies in specialization.Any Jim, Dick, or Harry can write an eBook and sell it on the Net. If Jim decides to write an eBook on Internet Marketing, I doubt he will have much success.Lets analyze what Jim must do.Jim considers himself to be an Internet Marketing expert. He knows every aspect of Internet Business and decides to write an eBook. Now, Jim must decide what to write about, since he knows Internet Marketing is too broad a topic.He decides that he is an expert on building an opt-in email list, something he knows is essential to his success. But Jim does not stop there……He knows that specialization is the key and he must take his idea one step further!He decides that he has had great success building his email list using only free methods.What a great infoproduct! He will write an eBook teaching people to build their email lists using only free methods. This is where Jim does a triumphant dance and takes a nap.Little does Jim know?he’s not done yet!When he wakes up he realizes that he can specialize one step further. What is the most effective free method he uses? He e-mails high traffic website owners and makes deals with them that allows him to place his pop-up on their website.Now Jim is finally finished, and he has specialized enough that he has a completely unique idea, one that deals with the details instead of general ideas.Jim’s eBook now has a much better chance of succeeding than if he decided to write a general eBook on Internet Marketing.Jim discovered the key to eBook success, which lies in Specialization. When you think of an idea for an infoproduct, always specialize as much as you can. Narrow the idea as much as possible.It’s time YOU used Jim as an inspiration.If Jim can do it, anyone can.

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