Baker Street Office Furnishings Corp.

Address: 359 W. Baker St.

At a glance: A full-service office furniture commercial dealer of new, used and refurbished merchandise

Employees: Eight

When was the company founded

? 1987

Biggest accomplishment in the past 12 months: Being able to stay extremely busy in a sluggish economy. We have a great group of clients. We come up with cost-effective ways of doing business. A lot of people have good used furniture but want a new color, and we have the ability to refurbish and it doesn’t end up in a landfill.

What was your biggest mistake in operating this business? Forecasting the number of people to hire is difficult, but everybody goes through that, I’m sure.

What are the key challenges facing your business or industry? The economy is a huge factor. We buy a lot of used furniture while making sure we don’t overpurchase. We also recently changed our name from Tri R Office Services. Because of that, you have to keep your new name in front of people, and an eye on the type of media you’re using is a challenge.

What is your strategy for staying ahead of your competition? By seeking out new opportunities and staying abreast of clients’ needs.

What resources have you found most helpful in running a business? A lot of reading and trying to keep up-to-date on all the trends going on in the business world today.

What are your growth projections for the next five years? The hope is to continue to have sales increase 20 percent each year while maintaining profitability.

What is one thing about your business that people might not be aware of? A lot of people don’t know about electrostatic painting and how durable it can be, and we offer it. The painting process uses the particle-attracting property of electrostatic charges, and a direct current of about 100,000 volts is applied to a grid of wires through which the paint is sprayed to charge each particle. It can be used on file cabinets, desks, bookshelves and similar furniture.

If you weren’t running this business, what would you be doing? I used to play baseball in college, so playing second base for a Major League team would be cool.