Cubical comeback

When he makes his pitch to new clients, Steve Freedman often walks them from his company's Hillsborough Avenue showroom to the connecting warehouse, where he shows them a cubicle he bought from a used furniture dealer. Cutting away a pretty new layer of fabric, Freedman shows customers the mold and deterioration that lies beneath the surface.

Buying a refurbished cubicle is like buying “a 20-year-old pair of shoes that you bought from someone with athlete's foot,” says Freedman, CEO and president of Freedman's Office Furniture & Supplies.

Although used furniture still makes up about 10% of his sales, Freedman's pitch reveals his answer to the recession: To make more money off fewer sales, he decided to cut out the middle man and make it himself.