July 2, 2024

This week’s Up-and-Comer is Cade Kuchel, an outside salesman at Auto Body Specialists.

Name: Cade Kuchel

Age: 22

Hometown: Okoboji, Iowa

What brought you to Sioux Falls?

Tech school at Southeast Technical College for collision repair and refinish.

What keeps you in Sioux Falls?

What keeps me in Sioux Falls is the vast opportunities for a young individual such as myself in a growing community.

What’s your favorite thing about your job?

My favorite part about my job is having the opportunity to work directly with our customers. I enjoy being able to assist and learn alongside with the customers we serve!

How did you get connected to your industry?

Throughout my younger years, I always had a major interest in vehicles and the process of repairing them. After my first week at Southeast Technical College, I knew this was the career I wanted to be in. I worked at a firetruck distributor for a few years during and after college, and this connected me to the industry even more. I then made the transition to Auto Body Specialties, which gave me the opportunity to build long-lasting work connections with over 60 shops in my territory!

Describe your workplace in three words.

Professional, reliable, collaborative.

What is something someone might be surprised to learn about you?

Someone might find it interesting that I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for four years!

What’s your favorite way to give back to your community?

My favorite way to give back to the community as a whole is through donation of products such as clothing and food or donation of time and services to local food banks and goodwill organizations. As for the community pertaining to my work, being local body shops, my favorite way to give back is to take our clients out for lunch, bringing them doughnuts, etc. I feel this shows how much we truly appreciate their business, and it feels good to give back to thank them for that business.

What’s one business you’d like to see in Sioux Falls that isn’t here now?

As an outdoorsman, I would like to see a few more outdoors-related outfitters. Scheels is a great example, but it would be awesome to have another option such as Cabela’s in the area.

If you had $1 million to start a business, what kind of business would it be?

If I had $1 million to start a business, I would start a paintless dent repair business. Although I would have $1 million start said company, I would preferably start very small. This would leave lots of room to save the rest for future growth and expansion!