Burnt Offerings? It's understandable to be bedazzled by the riches you see in other companies' IPOs. But before you follow their lead, make sure your company is cut out for going public.

Oh, what might have been...were it not for an initial publicoffering. Strange as this may sound, in many cases, it's true.You hear it all the time: "Going public is an incredible drainon management's time," but such a warning often getspassed off as just another dollop of prudent yet obvious advicethat, like all other prudent advice, is forgotten in the quest forIPO riches. Yet the fact remains: When entrepreneurs are forced totake their eyes off business operations to deal with theintricacies of an IPO, it can have disastrous effects for allinvolved.

Art Beroff, a principal of Beroff Associates in Howard Beach,New York, helps companies raise capital and go public.