Applying axiom that "There's a sucker born every minute," an industry developed to sell these worthless shells to unsuspecting private companies. You can own your worthless non-reporting shell for only US$150,000.

I interviewed one shell seller for a client. To my comment that shell company was facing delisting in August, his reply was, "but there is so much more you can do with a company about to be delisted."

My reply was "what more can I do with a company that's about to be delisted? There was a pause and then a click.

If you buy a non-reporting shell, you deserve failure that will certainly follow. There are a few things that can be done with non-reporting shells. But these are options for market professionals, not entrepreneurs building real companies.

To contact author: Visit Beowulf Investments website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] Or, visit Global Village Investment Club Website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]

Step III. Advertising for your investors costs money. You could be president of local country club and its members your investors. This might limit your investment marketing costs to a few Country Club dinners. You can run ads in local newspapers and your costs will be a hundred dollars or less. You can use a variety of creative marketing techniques and your costs may still remain below $1,000.

You can use a professional marketing group to help you find your investors. They'll charge anywhere from $15,000 to over $200,000 for their help.

In California, if you did everything yourself, your out-of-pocket costs could be as low as $6,500. If you have investor contacts, this is a good investment of your time and money. If you lack investor contacts, doing it yourself wastes your money. You need professional help.

The odds of honest Professional Help raising $200,000 for your company are about 1-in-4. On a statistical base, any professional payment over $50,000 is a mistake.

It costs money to raise money. Your goal is to find a beneficial ratio between costs and probability of raising risk capital. Because it offers greater investor liquidity, I think that taking your company public makes more sense than doing a SCOR offering. However, creating and funding a public company costs more than doing a SCOR offering. In same risk reward progression, buying a public blind pool costs more than taking your company public. But, you achieve near certainty that you will be rewarded by getting money in Blind Pool Treasury.

A successful business makes right decisions in a maze of risk reward steps. Until you understand risk reward ratio, you can't make an informed business decision.

To contact author: Visit Beowulf Investments website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] Or, visit Global Village Investment Club Website: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]