How Does Your Mid-Market Business Stack Up?

By Generational Equity

05/16/2017

The National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University recently issued a glowing report on the economic outlook for U.S. mid-sized companies. How does your business stack up in this market?

CEOs, CFOs and other C-suite leaders from 1,000 companies were surveyed and reported robust hiring and spending in every industrial segment except wholesale trade. Some highlights include:

• Employment: 51% of businesses surveyed added staff this year while only 1 in 10 downsized.
• Economic confidence: Executives reported the most confidence in the economy since the report first began in 2012.
• Spending: Two-thirds of companies report plans to invest money back into their business.
• Revenue: 74% of businesses reported revenue growth in 1Q17, with 6 out of 10 leaders expecting that to continue during the rest of the year.
• Jobs: 42% of companies added jobs in 1Q17 compared to 34% in 1Q16.
• M&A activity: In the last 12 months, 25% of middle market companies made an acquisition, with the largest middle-market companies seeing the most growth through M&A activity.

Those surveyed felt their biggest internal challenges in 2017 would be how to efficiently manage and maintain growth and how to manage, retain and find talent. External challenges centered on the political climate, regulations, healthcare costs and a changing marketplace.

The report provides additional detail on the state markets of California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Texas, and the industrial segments of construction, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, retail and wholesale trade.

The National Center for the Middle Market studies the 200,000 businesses in the U.S. considered the middle market. These companies range from $10 million to $1 billion in revenue and employ approximately 48 million people.

To learn more, get the complete report for free.

By Jessica Johns Pool.

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