Doby Fleeman can feel the ground shifting. He can almost hear the low rumble of engines.

“The steamrollers are on the move,” says Fleeman, manager of the Davis Ace Hardware Co. “It’s like we’re on tectonic plates. There’s a change in the wind.”

Beutler Air Conditioning and Plumbing may be a poster-business for the rise and fall — and re-birth — of Sacramento’s economy. Rick Wylie, president of Beutler, says the 65-year-old Sacramento company was probably saved by its diversification, partially into green energy models.

For more than a decade Meg Arnold has been actively supporting technology commercialization and entrepreneurship throughout the Capital Region.

When Kelly Sassman started giving Pilates instruction at her Sacramento studio 12 years ago, people couldn’t even pronounce the name of the fitness program.

Tony Mickela doesn’t consider his weekly massage an act of decadent pampering. The 67-year-old retired Sacramento educator instead views the therapy, which he has been receiving for the past 10 years, as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle and his effort to keep an array of health problems at bay.

Nathan Johnston has contemplated his own death several times over.

While browsing in a shop in 2009, 6-year-old Allison Prestwich saw a candle made by the Tyler Candle Co., and she wondered aloud if it was named after her younger brother.

When it comes to financial planning, Cesar Lopez knows his stuff. He can write up an annuity, help with investment and tax strategies and give advice on insurance needs. Just don’t ask him to fix his own computer.

When Albert and Frances Lundberg fled the Dust Bowl-ravaged cornfields of Nebraska in 1937 to settle in the greener pastures of the northern Sacramento Valley, they did so with hope for the future.

Stan Atkinson could be described as a homebody these days. It’s not that he doesn’t like to go out occasionally, but Atkinson, like many other aging Americans, would prefer to stay in his home as long as possible.

The Capital Region’s commercial real estate market in the past five years has shifted from a system dominated by a few big brokers to a diverse pool of smaller offices and team players. As post-recession business gains steam, that market is being eyed for its unplowed territory.

Andrew Nelson was raised in the horse-dotted hinterlands of Sacramento, served in the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan and Iraq, attended community college in Rocklin and is set to attend a prestigious four-year university in hopes of becoming a teacher and education administrator.

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.

With the real estate market in the tank, many investors are thinking twice about real estate investment trusts, or REITs. And that suits Jim Johnson just fine.

If you own, operate, lease or lease to a business that serves the public, the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to you, and you are legally obligated to follow its facility-access guidelines. Here are tips for becoming compliant, protecting yourself against a complaint or lawsuit and getting all the business you can through your doors:

When it comes to the issue of accessibility, Sacramento businessman Tony Lutfi knows the drill.

Kevin Straw can restore a car to its original state. He can fix a dent, smooth rough spots, put on a fresh coat of paint and make a clunker look new.

But over the next couple years, Straw will have to learn the ropes of another craft, using unfamiliar tools to restore his business, fix the dents inflicted by a legal attack, smooth over the rough spots of his shop’s accessibility to wheelchairs and paint blue stripes in the parking lot.

Kevin Straw can restore a car to its original state. He can fix a dent, smooth rough spots, put on a fresh coat of paint and make a clunker look new.

But over the next couple years, Straw will have to learn the ropes of another craft, using unfamiliar tools to restore his business, fix the dents inflicted by a legal attack, smooth over the rough spots of his shop’s accessibility to wheelchairs and paint blue stripes in the parking lot.

Like many of the hundreds of Rancho Cordova business people going about their daily routines, Kyle Lam wasn’t aware the city was looking for the wispy trails of toxic waste dumped long ago.

As legislators duke it out in the Capitol and college regents slash services and raise fees, Adam Thongsavat is viewing education in California a bit differently. Namely, the UC Davis senior has been watching the growing line of students waiting for free food.

The scenes of twisted metal, splintered wood, crumbling brick and flooded streets are still vivid to Kit Miyamoto, a Sacramento-based engineer who follows earthquake destruction around the world. But he’s not just seeing these images in Haiti, Chile or Japan.

After a jarring sell-off and resulting glut, there’s just one word for today’s municipal bond market: precarious.

The only thing certain in the world of California workers’ compensation insurance right now, is that it’s uncertain.

Many outsiders watching the Capital Region legal scene may feel like they need a scorecard to keep track of attorneys. But, save for a few notable shifts and a historic closure, local lawyers are following suit of other businesses in a recession: hunkering down and staying put.

The past couple years have been brutal on workers: furloughs, salary freezes, layoffs and budget cuts. It’s enough to give the most loyal employee a case of the business blahs and a sense of restlessness as the recession lifts.

While small specialty businesses in the Sacramento area are closing their doors in droves these days, Jon Holloway’s family-operated travel store is still sailing along, albeit in choppier waters.