With the help of a neighbor contractor, Travis Electric was started out of Travis and Wendy Kuehl’s garage in Hartford in May 2005.
“As a young family man, we had three kids, and my neighbor was a general contractor. I worked for a larger company in town. My town, and my neighbor would consistently tell me about opportunities had for me and different projects he needed an electrician on.”
From Hartford, Travis Electric grew into Sioux Falls with projects ranging from across the state of South Dakota to Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.
“We didn’t have any grand illusions of being a big electrical contractor or having a lot of employees,” remembered Travis. “I had a very simple growth plan of adding one employee a year, and we’ve exceeded that here over the last few years. We’re up to 30 employees.”
EXPERIENCED ELECTRICIAN
Travis has over 25 years of experience, beginning as a licensed electrician in 1994, and founding Travis Electric, Inc. in 2005.

Now based in Sioux Falls, Travis Electric covers a wide range of area, serving many communities in multiple states.
“Hartford was a great place to start our business, and Sioux Falls and the surrounding area have been a great place to grow it,” said Travis. “We’ve done projects as far west as Custer, as far east as Decorah, Iowa to Minneapolis. When you see the GPS where all the vans are located over the course of the day, it covers a pretty big area.”
From the start, Travis Electric has been motivated by family, supported by an encouraging team of staff, Travis says.
“As a whole, we try to hire employees who are respectful of our customers and genuinely care about the product they put out there,” he said. “They tend to be family oriented, much like Wendy and I are towards our business and with our own family.”
With multiple cross-trained and certified employees, Travis Electric works with fiber optics, data cable installation, and low voltage network connections.
WIRED FOR AN UPGRADE
Travis Electric does new builds, remodels, and repairs on both commercial and residential projects.


Along with investing in the growth of his own business and the knowledge of his employees, Travis says he gives back to the community in whatever ways he can.
“We try to advertise locally—support our local chamber, support our local churches and other nonprofits like youth sports programs,” he explained. “I really appreciate the community and support.”
Wendy started working in the family business starting in 2021 after working at Sanford Health for 20 years. As projects coordinator, she has been creating initiatives to prioritize the newest technology, ensuring efficiency for customers.
“One of our big initiatives is going more paperless and continuing to become more efficient for our guys. They have mobile apps for their service call tickets and clocking in and out of those makes our transparency to the customer more clear.” – wendy kuehl
“We’ve introduced a lot of new technologies over the past three years,” she said. “It’s been inspiring seeing the impact we’ve had, because we’ve done a lot of projects in the community.”
Both Travis and Wendy commented on their priority to keep an authentic sense of identity while growing the company, ensuring genuine solutions to the community they serve.
“Our main goals for the present are to maintain who we are and our identity as we grow and keep that connection with our customers,” said Travis. “I still try to be very forward-facing with our customers.”



“I TRY TO GET OUT AND STILL MAINTAIN THE FRONT, FACE TO FACE EXPERIENCES WITH OUR CUSTOMERS, BECAUSE I REALLY VALUE THEIR BUSINESS AND THAT RELATIONSHIP. WE’RE IN A VERY RELATIONSHIP BASED BUSINESS. IT CAN’T ALWAYS JUST BE ABOUT THE BOTTOM DOLLAR.” – Travis Kuehl

Along with taking care of customer needs, Travis talked about the importance of taking care of his team of employees.
“We try to provide a work-life balance. I don’t make people work on the weekends,” he said. “I really want to stress they have separation from work and maintain their identity.”
Travis says he doesn’t take for granted the work he’s able to get done and the community he serves.
“I THINK THE TRADES MOST OF THE TIME EXPECT GUYS TO WORK FROM SUN UP TILL SUNDOWN. THAT’S NOT AN EXPECTATION I HAVE. I ALWAYS ASK MY TEAM TO WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER.” – Travis Kuehl
“I just feel really grateful for having the opportunity to plug away day in and day out. I feel very fortunate for all the good people involved and the great customers,” he said. “I think we put a quality product out.”
As he sees how projects turn out and watches the team and his business grow, Travis reflects on the passion he has for what he does for a living.
“I honestly really love what I do. I enjoy being an electrician. I enjoy meeting with customers. I enjoy finding a solution to their problem,” he said. “I enjoy seeing the finished product, and I enjoy seeing my staff start as apprentices and continue in the trade, becoming journeyman, and then foreman, while leading projects and having apprentices under them, creating this family.”
For more information, visit TRAVISELECTRIC.COM+