Share Price, that is. It’s all about joining the big boys and girls. And not being perceived as a “penny stock”. It’s called “uplisting”.

Right now, most of the players in the stock market treat iConsumer Corp. as a second-class citizen. Until we’re treated as a first-class citizen, our stock price, as well as the ease of buying and selling our stock, will suffer.

A $4 per share stock price is both a true goal AND a metaphor for a lot of things that have to happen to get us treated as a first-class citizen. The more complicated way to talk about it is to say we want to “uplist“.

Some background: We file fewer SEC required reports than “big” public companies, because we rely on exemptions under SEC Regulation A. That saves us a LOT of money and headaches. Somewhere around $100,000 – $250,000 each year. In theory, that shouldn’t make us a second-class citizen, because we ARE complying with all of the SEC’s applicable rules. But theory and practice don’t always intersect.

Our attorney was testifying in Washington about this very thing recently.

We’re also considered a penny stock, mostly because our stock price is below $1. And also, sort of, because we’re traded on the OTC Market, which is a market, not an exchange. NASDAQ and NYSE are exchanges. While there are advantages to being listed on an exchange, it is much more expensive than being quoted on the OTC QB Market.

We could fix the stock price thing easily by doing a “reverse split“, but that’s really only window dressing, and a bit frowned upon. The better way is to have the market actually value our stock at more than $1. That would go a long, long way to making us a first-class citizen. But for some brokerages, even that won’t be enough. Robinhood in particular.

Some brokerages try to make it easy on themselves by saying that ANY stock that trades on the OTC is a penny stock. The rules that stock brokerages must follow make it harder for them to allow their customers to trade certain stocks. No matter how good or bad it is, no matter the stock price. Robinhood is one of those that says “OTC stocks are bad”.

There are some other real advantages to uplisting. We expect that it’ll be easier to buy and sell our stock, and THAT should translate into a higher stock price. We won’t uplist until we can afford it though. And the things that will help our stock price move to $4 should also mean that we can afford the additional expense of being a fully-reporting (not taking advantage of filing exemptions) public company.

At the end of the day, being a penny stock, quoted on the OTC or listed on an exchange, all matter much, much less than the fundamentals. Those fundamentals? Do a lot of people use iConsumer to Shop, Earn, and Learn? Do we generate oodles of cash? How fast are we growing? How much money will we need to raise? For the first three fundamentals, more is better. For the last, less is better. Much better.

Our stock price, and how easily our stock is bought and sold DO matter in how quickly and successfully we’ll get those oodles of people to shop.

In other words, success breeds success. Now, go shop. And then suggest to a friend or two that using iConsumer is a good thing so they can go Shop Like A Shark, too!