PLANNING
DURING
CORONAVIRUS
For young business
owners, the time is right
to put together a savings
and investment plan
BY Steven Yoder
t’s a story repeated a thousand ways. Amber
Rosen, 37, started Breakroom Fitness in 2015
to bring exercise to the workplace. She designs
fitness and wellness programs for companies and
employs almost 30 part-time instructors. The
Sacramento-based company had been doing well:
Revenue grew from $40,000 in 2016 to about $300,000
last year. Then came the coronavirus shutdown. “We
pretty much lost every single contract in about two
days,” she says.
Lorena Martinez, 34, and her husband Alfonso
Martinez, 37, own The Colour Bar, a hair salon with
locations in East Sacramento and Midtown Sacramento.
They started in 2010 with one staff person, doubling
in size every couple of years, and as of March, had 22
employees. On March 17, Sacramento County issued
an advisory that only employees performing essential
duties should physically come to work. The next day, the
Martinezes shut down and laid off all but three staff.
Josh Rubin, 37, learned from the 2008 recession. He
started his company, Post Modern Marketing, in 2010
after losing two jobs in that downturn and deciding he
couldn’t depend on others for an income. In 2018, PMM
was ranked the fourth fastest-growing company in the
Sacramento region by the Sacramento Business Journal,
and as of March, had 15 staff in four locations. This was
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