Middle-Market Private Business Owners Confident in U.S. Economy

Despite the picture that several traditional media outlets portray about the economy, there have been several signs that the U.S. economy is recovering and even growing in 2011. Private business owners and equity firms alike are confident that it is recovering.

In May of 2011, the U.S. economy added 54,000 jobs. While the job growth slowed from the first few months of the year, the country still added more jobs. Our current recession is the worst in U.S. history since the Great Depression, so we will have hiccups along the way. Comparing this recovery to the Great Depression's will put this into perspective.

Another key economic indicator to look at is discretionary item sales. U.S. wine sales, for example, are a perfect key economic indicator to analyze for signs of economic growth. Domestic wine sales increased in 2010 and U.S. exports grew considerably last year, both signs that the people are willing to spend more money on discretionary items.

Middle-market business owners will also be happy to see that Riverside Company, a Cleveland-based equity firm, expressed confidence in the U.S. economy when they acquired Alliance1, a freight hauling company, for their platform company Express Courier. While some might perceive this as a slow time in the economic cycle, Riverside has a strong grasp of the private business growth that middle market businesses can see in the future. 

Pricewaterhouse Coopers has even identified the current economic climate as a sellers' market during their most recent round of M&A activity analysis released June 8, 2011.Things are looking up for private business owners of middle market businesses.

Carl Doerksen of Generational Equity says that this conclusion is intuitive if you think about about the excess of cash that is floating around the market. With layoffs and cutbacks, businesses have an estimated $1.9 trillion in cash. Again, all of this is great news for middle market business owners.