U.S. Middle Market Leaders Express Preferences re: Spending, Debt, and Fiscal Cliff  The National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) recently (early December 2012) conducted a survey of 1,000 U.S. middle market business leaders across all industry sectors and geographic regions to gauge their preferences for the outcome of the negotiations.  Here's what they found:   ...

Competitive Intelligence is Key to Smart Acquisitions Part of growth is acquisition.  To do smart acquisitions, you need insight into a business owner’s thoughts—specifically, her concerns vis-à-vis selling the businesses. These are not questions with simple yes or no answers; it’s more critical to figure out what an owner thought was missing in previous acquisition overtures. What, aside from price, will i ...