Scott Silva got a job steering concrete-laden wheelbarrows at age 16 and started a local ready-mix company as a young man. He knew the concrete contracting business from the ground up.

In the past 10 years, Alzada Knickerbocker of independent bookseller The Avid Reader has seen her revenue cut in half. To help businesses like hers that suffered during the e-commerce boom, earlier this year lawmakers introduced the Assembly Bill X1 28, the so-called Amazon tax law.

When Sacramento-based Aerojet decided to convert part of a superfund site into a solar field, it sought bids from companies across the country. The project, after all, would be big — 35 acres ultimately generating six megawatts of power, making it one of the largest industrial solar projects in the country.

During the building boom, contractors had to keep a sharp eye on the rising cost of materials if they wanted to make a decent profit. From 2004 to 2008, double-digit increases were the norm for many products.

It was recently reported by the U.S. Department of Labor that worker productivity was down for the second quarter in a row. This downward trend does not surprise George Grinzewitsch, Jr.

Kevin Manzer gave up being a cop to clean carpets.

A  job well done will pay off in your  retirement plan.

If you’re in the sleep business or, more specifically, work for Sleep Train Mattress Centers or one of its two West Coast subsidiaries, that’s your mantra.

Hair rollers went the way of old-time beauty shops, but rollers of a different sort are in vogue at Bella Capelli Salone in downtown Yuba City, where owner Carol Milani sometimes styles hair in her skates.

Since founding Sierra Energy Corp. in 2004, Mike Hart has led the charge to make it a force in the world of renewable energy. This year, with a working gasification system to demonstrate for new investors, Hart is stepping aside as CEO.

Owner Ray Enos and some of his staff at Downtown Ford have witnessed two generations of employees’ families grow up under their noses.