Investing in and Growing Your Business

It may surprise you to know that large corporations also need financial advisors. Perhaps the process of corporation investment strategy is not as straightforward as the process used by your financial advisor to manage your investment portfolio, but it is equally critical to the financial success of the business.

Corporate investment staff and consultants focus on financial investment, investment securities and other methods to meet the financial growth planned by the corporate strategy. For most companies, revenue alone will not satisfy the financial investment requirements demanded for product research and development and competitive positioning. As the company grows, the investment must pay returns to keep the company healthy. 

When a company is large and stable enough to make a public offering, it can benefit from the investment dollars it receives by selling stock or interest in the company in small percentages. Small investors look at the historical achievements of the company or bet on the future of the company based on a new technology or business model. These investors pay for a stock or stocks and thereby provide investment dollars for the company to use in building new products and expanding its reach into international markets. Each investor takes a gamble that the company will grow and the stock they bought will be more valuable.

With third party financial investment there is an obligation for the company to report its financial health on a periodic basis, to a board of directors and to the shareholders. The board and shareholders can apply pressure to push a company in a particular direction in terms of the products and services it can sell, but in most cases, very few shareholders are large enough to exert this kind of pressure. For the most part, they depend on the knowledge and skill of the upper management team to make these decisions and trust that they will do what is best for the company and the shareholders.  

As your company grows, you must make a decision as to whether to remain a private company and make your own decisions as to where to invest your money and how to grow your company, or to go public and share all information and decisions with your larger shareholders and investors. Both decisions have their merits, but only you can decide what is best for your company.