From The Daily News A nursery in Midtown whose owner likes to jump at opportunities will spread its green thumb to two new locations in time for planting season this year. By temporarily taking over two well-known sites of now-closed nurseries, Mike Earnest, owner of Midtown Nursery at 2120 Central Ave. at Cooper Street, hopes to cross-promote his permanent location. Earnest, a native Memphian who opened his Central Avenue location in March last year, signed a lease for the vacant Stringer’s Garden Center at 2794 Poplar Ave. for the months of March through June. Moves, switches The popular nursery building … Read more

From Business Week: There are eager buyers for small and midsized companies whose owners have powered through the recession and expect to see demand rebound this year. That’s according to Bill Roman, the managing director of the Boston office of Harris Williams, which advises middle-market companies on mergers and acquisitions and focuses on sales in the $25 million-to-$1 billion range. While business sales fell dramatically in 2009, Roman says Harris Williams is seeing deals pick up in 2010. With few business assets in supply and high buyer demand, valuations for high-quality companies have held surprisingly steady, he tells Smart Answers … Read more

One of the conversations we have with new clients or potential clients early on is to discuss the range of likely buyers for their business.  We ask them for their insight and it is usually very helpful.  We talk about all of the kinds of potential buyers – competitors, suppliers, customers, national companies, companies serving a neighboring geographic area and so forth.  Oftentimes, this conversation leads to who they do not want to sell their business to.  I find this to be a very interesting topic. Why would someone trying to sell his or her business rule out a qualified … Read more