The long term benefits of being publicly traded are numerous and can include: improved liquidity, higher company value, the ability to make acquisitions or attract and retain employees with the newly public company stock and greater access to capital at a lower cost.
In addition, having public trading status allows a company the ability to make acquisitions with its stock, since publicly traded stock is viewed as currency for mergers and acquisitions. Moreover, public trading status often leads to a higher price for a later offering of a company’s securities.
There are many market places you may consider going public in the world. However, in the USA, even a small business can still go public.
There are four main ways a company can "go public" in the USA.