Eyes On The Enterprise

By Kerrissa Vaughn

The road from Main Street to Wall Street is rough and only sometimes worth the trip. Selling private company shares on a public stock market—called an Initial Public Offering (IPO)—requires significant planning and financing. Filing registration documents with U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and preparing an investment prospectus can take up to four months. Legal and accounting fees accrued during the preparation process can easily surpass $1 million depending on the company’s size, according to Poyner & Spruill LLP, a North Carolina-based law firm specializing in IPOs.

By Jake Singleton

There was a time when cash was king. Credit was reserved only for businesses. People didn’t pay at the pump. And paying for products, good or services at a store was nothing like the scene is those Visa Checkcard commercials were everyone is queued up, happily paying for their products with plastic, until some thoughtless shopper pulls out a check book or has the audacity to reach for cash, causing the charge fest to come to a screeching halt.

By Kerrissa Vaughn

Lineeka Oliveras, African-American, and her husband Tony, Hispanic, postponed creating an estate plan to cover the immediate needs of their four children. 

“After our second child, I really started thinking about what would happen if something happened to both of us, says full-time student, Lineeka Oliveras. “I’m diabetic and my husband has certain stuff going on. We have illnesses that could be terminal. The children are young and we are young. I found a place that would draw up a will . . . but every time we have the money something comes up.”

By Rochelle Spencer

Kai Smith believes in the value of business etiquette. As an ex-convict who now earns six figures as the President/CEO of his own consulting company, Smith credits the etiquette classes he paid for after his prison release for his turnaround.

“Those classes made a tremendous impact on my life,” Smith says. “They taught me how to not only respect myself more and interact with people in a manner which was ultimately effective — they also taught me my true self worth.”