Feb. 12, 2025

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota Business Finance.

Mike Honerman has been working at his family business nearly his entire life – including childhood.

“My dad’s shop was my day care growing up,” said Honerman, the owner of Quality Wood & Metal Designs in Mitchell.

“I was working on a lathe when I was 5 or 6 years old, and I remember my grandma getting so upset as I stood at the machine with pieces of wood whirling around.”

The business was in his DNA, though. And so was military service.

In high school, Honerman followed father Vic’s lead and joined the South Dakota Army National Guard.

“I was a junior in high school when I went to basic training and completed it the summer before my senior year,” he said. “My dad was originally in the artillery unit, and then he went into the 665th Maintenance Company, which is what I did. That’s kind of our thing. We like fixing things.”

For Honerman, a summer camp with his unit even meant missing his high school graduation for a trip to Germany.

He served about four years and had started his career at a different lumber company until the family business called.

“Things got real tough in the 1980s, and the bank foreclosed on my dad,” he said. “I took the business over, but I was starting from scratch in many ways. We had a building full of machinery, and my dad went to work for a lumber company while I went to different furniture shows trying to sell the various things he’d built over the years.”

The effort paid off and led the business into manufacturing, thanks to its first major contract with retailer Ducks Unlimited. From there, a niche was formed.

Today, Quality Wood  & Metal Designs specializes in high-quality custom wood and metal solutions for retail stores, servicing major customers such as Cabela’s with fixtures, aisle end caps and shelving, fishing rod racks and gun racks.

Its Gun Warden product locks up firearms in retail stores and is used in 1,600 Walmart sites as well as Ace Hardware and Academy Sports + Outdoors locations.

“It’s in high demand,” Honerman said. “We also make a Home Guardian unit that a person can bolt into their own home, so you can see the guns but can’t get them out. We’ve got about 1 million guns under lock and key, and that’s my goal. To keep as many guns locked up as possible.”

The headquarters in Mitchell has been expanded five times, and the business has a 12,000-square-foot warehouse under construction.

While Honerman helps lead the 25-person team in the shop, his wife, Joann, handles the back-office operations. They’d worked with other lenders to support their growth but discovered Dakota Business Finance when they began working with First Dakota National Bank.

“Our banker was very understanding and exposed us to different things,” Joann Honerman said. “You don’t always know what’s out there, and he showed us a way to refinance and split the loan with Dakota Business Finance and make your payments go down.”

Using the U.S. Small Business Association 504 lending program through Dakota Business Finance, a qualifying business can access a loan that allows a bank to provide 50 percent conventional financing, while the SBA subordinates behind the bank’s loan. The blended interest rate that’s then offered often is a savings for the small-business owner.

“I just can’t say enough good things,” Joann Honerman said. “It was great.”

But it’s now even better.

While Dakota Business Finance still offers the 504 loan for all qualifying small-business owners, a new incentive for veterans is now available.

“We brought this idea to our board of directors last fall, and they agreed it was a good idea,” said Erik Barnes, senior vice president and loan officer.

“We often get calls from potential borrowers asking about special programs through the SBA for veteran-owned businesses, and unfortunately we didn’t have anything to direct them to that would give a special rate or help with a down payment or closing costs.”

So Dakota Business Finance decided to create such a program – and fund it locally.

“As long as 51 percent of the business is owned by a veteran, when you do your 504 loan through us, we’re going to issue a check for up to $3,000 to cover your closing costs,” Barnes said.

“It’s that simple, and it’s because the community showed a need for this type of program and we hated saying no.”

The offer will be reviewed based on demand, but so far there’s no cap, and it’s available to any qualifying borrower.

“It’s not a huge number, but we hope it can help bridge the gap and help a little,” Barnes said. “When you’re starting a business, every little bit helps.”

Travis Kuehl agrees.

The owner of Travis Electric Inc., he’s marking 20 years in business this year after seeing a need for more electrical contractors in the Sioux Falls area.

Photos courtesy 605 Magazine

“It’s far exceeded my expectations,” he said. “I had a very conservative growth model, trying to add one employee a year, and now I have 28, and we’re at year 20.”

At first, he funded the business with a $30,000 line of credit on his house. The original business location actually was his home in Hartford and a storage unit.

He since has expanded to an office at 1319 E. 39th St. N. in Sioux Falls, offering a wide range of residential and commercial services.

“We try to stay diverse,” he said. “We have a handful of our team who report to the office daily, we have a full-time estimator, and my wife supports the business as a special projects coordinator.”

Before business ownership, though, Kuehl served in the Minnesota Army National Guard, enlisting the day after his 17th birthday in 1991.

He wanted to serve but didn’t think doing it full time was a fit. Serving with the Guard allowed for help with his community college tuition as he gained technical skills.

“It just made a lot of sense to me to be a part-time soldier,” he said.

Fast-forward, and he was named Veteran-Owned Business of the Year by the South Dakota U.S. Small Business Administration office in 2017.

When it came time to grow his business, Kuehl was encouraged through a networking group to consider a 504 loan.

“I found the process had a few extra hoops to jump through, but it was very worth it,” he said. “I’ve encouraged lots of people to try it out since.”

Kuehl worked in partnership with his lender, Plains Commerce, and Dakota Business Finance.

“I was surprised just how easy it was, and they talked through all of it with me,” he said. “I still work with their team, and they’ve become allies in the business. They’ve referred me, they’ve hired us to do work, and they’ve become a very important part of our business.”

To learn more 

Dakota Business Finance can provide SBA 504 loans to borrowers anywhere in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, as well as a few counties in Nebraska.

To get started, click here.