Editor's note: The Free Press plans to feature a local business each week that has used the services of Grand Junction's Business Incubator Center. During the recession, the Incubator has seen an increase in people seeking to start their own b

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Like many a small businessman, Kyle Berger started his custom cabinetry business in a two-car garage.

Three years later, in 2007, he moved his business to the Grand Junction Business Incubator Center campus, 2591 B 3/4 Road, where he now operates out of a 6,000-square-foot shop.

“Everything” about the Incubator suits him, he said.

“I love the gals up front. They help with marketing, bookkeeping. The Incubator is amazing,” Berger said.

The nonprofit Incubator for entrepreneurs and provides free business consulting, a variety of low-cost business classes, and rental space for new and expanding businesses in Mesa County.

Berger, 34, designs and builds custom cabinets, architectural millworking and trim.

Berger learned the craft by working in various cabinetry shops over the years. His friend and fellow wood-worker, Tim Lincoln of Palisade, has been an invaluable mentor over the years, he said.

Berger works with “anything from alder to zebra wood,” he said. “Oaks, walnuts, hickories, re-claims — you name it.”

He's currently carving a decorative front on a fire mantle for a house in Vail that used to belong to President Gerald Ford.

The small businessman has survived the economic downturn, and managed to retain his five employees by cutting operation costs. He closed an additional 2,000 square feet he was renting at the Incubator. He hopes to take it back at some point.

“We had to drop prices. It's been challenging,” Berger said.

Since 2008, he and other Western Slope cabinet businesses have been forced to compete with Salt Lake City and Denver shops seeking ski town customers found in Vail, Telluride and Crested Butte — an important source of business for Berger.

The out-of-towners were undercutting local craftsmen's prices by half, Berger said.

“They were doing it for the cost of goods,” Berger said. “Most of those are out of business now. They put themselves under.”

Another factor affecting business is competition from China.

“What's weird, woodworking is an American tradition. But now everything's being outsourced through China,” Berger said.

“China destroyed the American furniture market. They're starting to make waves in the cabinet world, too.”

Timeless Millworks is hanging in there, though.

Berger recently completed a job in Washington, D.C.

A women who attended the Incubator holiday open house last month (she was visiting her sister in Grand Junction) met Berger and hired him to build her cabinets.

“We built it here, shipped the job to Virginia, and she flew me and (employee) Brandon to do the install in an old colonial home 10 minutes from the White House,” Berger said.

Berger briefly dabbled in door-making but decided against it after three major door companies in Denver closed due to competition from Mexico and China.

“It's a tough market for them,” Berger said.

“Our market is different. It's like selling art. We're trying to get in our customers' minds to build their dream. Each piece is so involved. It's hard to put a price on that.”