The American Express Survey of Mid-Sized Companies surveyed 500 finance executives from companies whose annual revenues fell between $10 million and $1 billion. Interviews were conducted online in late June and early July 2015. Respondents were asked about their feelings on the economy, their plans for the next twelve months, and their strategies for growth.
Hiring picks up
Over half of companies plan to hire full-time staff, with 52% planning to hire only full-timers, and 18% planning to hire both full-time and part-time employees. Nineteen percent plan to hire part-timers only. And 60% of respondents said they already have more folks on staff now than they did a year ago.
The increase in staff is mostly due to increased business volume. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said that was their main reason for hiring. Thirty-six percent said they’d been trying to find the right people for open positions for some time, and had finally done so. Another 30% said they hire more people because they need seasonal help, or are restructuring their company, and 34% were starting a new business.
Expanding business costs money
Almost everyone—99%—said they were planning to grow their business over the next year, and 31% said it was the company’s number-one priority in the next year. But 91% said that they expect cash flow to be a concern as they expand their businesses. The biggest worry is the cost of investing in infrastructure, with 24% naming that as their top concern about growth. However, 72% said that their company has already secured at least some of the needed capital to support growth.
Strategies for growing their businesses include reaching new customers (31%), investing in infrastructure, such as new technology and operations (27%), keeping their current customers and nurturing those relationships (15%), securing more capital and increasing cash flow (14%), and luring high-quality talent to work on their team (12%).
Travel is a good investment
Although company travel can be pricey, finance managers felt it was nearly always worth the expense. Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents said investing in travel has helped their company secure new clients.
Read Also Related News
-
20 May
Bankrate has recently conducted a survey of U.S. consumers’ payment habits amid the coronavirus. According to it, the number of Americans paying for grocery purchases with credit cards increased significantly in April and reached 46%....
-
13 May
The coronavirus pandemic has caused significant damage to the economy of the country and the whole world. No wonder that spending habits of Americans have also undergone some changes. For example, since the borders of many countries has...
-
24 Jul
Recently U.S. News & World Report - a multi-platform publisher of news and information, conducted an online credit card debt survey with more than 1,000 adult respondents. It turned out that a huge number of American cardholders were...
Customer Questions
-
There are special credit cards that allow consolidation of other cards’ debts - the balance transfer credit cards. These cards usually come with a 0% intro APR on balance transfer offer. The zero introductory period varies, but as a rule it is between six months and two years. So you can find a credit card with...
-
The easiest way to find out if you have credit accounts under your name is to request a copy of all your three credit reports: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The reports contain information about active credit accounts, its issuers, and the information about credit accounts balances. If you want to protect yourself...
-
To set a PIN on your credit card, you should call the credit card issuer at the number on the back of your credit card and request your PIN. After that, the issuer will mail to you your PIN. In the meantime, if you need cash, you can go to a bank office and present your credit card and picture ID.
-
The overall process of getting a credit card can take up to 30 business days. To know the status of your credit card applications you should contact the credit card issuer. A quick online search for the bank or credit card issuer's name should turn up a customer service phone number or email address. Banks and credit card...