Investor Relations

I recently wasted three months getting to know an investor relations contact as it takes a few months before you’re ready to give up equity in someone else’s company to a stranger for services to be rendered in the future. The process is to first talk on the phone to the IR consultant and make nice talk. At this time you want to just let them talk because 90% of what they say is complete BS and 10% of it is what they wish they could do but up until now have never been able to.

I spent hours talking to this guy. He sounded so convincing, sure he’d dodge the questions about process and ‘how to’ but I figured we’d eventually get to that. We eventually met in New York, at our first meeting he picked the restaurant, he ordered lunch, I bought. He was so smooth with his tactics and his con was so polished. He was an older gentleman with a very specific and well manicured professional pedigree, pure fiction of course but I found myself wanting to believe that this guy was telling the truth. He told me how much he loved the company I was taking public and how he believed in what we were doing and how the company’s expansion was going to make such a great story post public to attract investors and create the market on and on.
Read more »

Of handling finance, keeping in touch with top notch people in the industry and clear communication to the public, sure the investor relations is not an easy thing to handle. Communication is central to the execution of the multiple activities involved with investor relations.

Officers involved with it should be on toes with the current and upcoming issues of various departments in an organization. This sparks the necessity to interact with people from various sections of the organization including financial officers, legal advisor and even the Chairman or President of the company. Moreover, the communication is not a single day’s affair. Constant and timely communication is involved in meeting the demands of investor relations most effectively.

When so many people, that too of such high merit are to be involved in a conversation,  the meetings need to be crisp and clear. Face to face meetings under such circumstances is highly impossible since it will eat up a lot of time and energy of all parties involved. Meetings through audio and video conferencing services work most effectively in a situation like this. With conference call meetings, the time involved in preparation can be avoided and the information can be exchanged at the earliest. Video and audio aids should be able to accomplish the communication required to be made in this case.

These audio and visual aids can also be used effectively for intra organization communication. For example, imminent release of quarterly corporate earnings can be best propagated through audio, video and web conferencing services, in this case web being the best mode.
Read more »

Every day, hundreds of so-called experts are quoted in the newspapers, on the radio, on news-oriented Web sites and on television. Yet advertising in these same media costs thousands of dollars. We never seem to question the budget line for advertising expenses, yet we often balk at adding a line for public relations services. How often do you hear fellow business owners say, “There’s no direct line between public relations and increased sales”?

Well, they’re wrong. Ask any manufacturer, entertainment executive, restauranteur, innkeeper or book publisher how important product reviews are, and they’ll tell you there is a direct line to purchases.

When you read a review for a new restaurant, or note a nice pair of unusual earrings in a holiday gift guide, or observe Kate Winslet wearing the latest fashion designs, you’re seeing the direct results of public relations. Sales skyrocket.

For service industries, however, that “line” to sales is indeed murkier. The power of public relations is built in a layering effect, in which each mention in the press heightens your visibility, adding another layer of credibility to your company. This credibility in turn creates a desire among viewers and listeners to pay attention to you. In effect, you’ve been sanctioned by a trustworthy, objective third party.

If the New York Times calls on someone for an opinion, he must be good. Hey, the Wall Street Journal is quoting this guy too. And now he’s on CNN. He must be very good. He must be important, a leader in the industry.

Chances are good, you’re already an expert in your industry. You just haven’t been positioned as such to the writers, editors and producers who need experts to comment on issues and stories of the day.
Read more »