Engineering + woodworking + design = Backwoods DCB

Heather Graves

Staff

November 11, 2024

LAND O’ LAKES – Her engineering background, his design/woodworking background – for Katie and Eric Paremski, it’s a match made for business success in Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

“My husband is very artistic,” she said. “I actually worked as an engineer on ships… my husband said ‘let’s mush (our skills) together.’”

The result, Katie said, was Backwoods DCB – which stands for dip-cut-burn.

“We get to do some really unique, fun projects that perhaps other people wouldn’t be able to do – which I think is a testament to my husband and me,” she said. “He has his strengths and I have my strengths, and they’re kind of on the opposite end. So when they come together, we can come up with something pretty cool that maybe people haven’t even really thought of.”

A bit of background

Originally from Rhode Island, Katie said she was working in Wisconsin with Lockheed Martin when she met Eric – who grew up in Three Lakes.

“I was their head test engineer for their hull mechanical and electrical systems, as well as weapon systems for them,” she said. 

Deciding to relocate to the Badger State, Katie said she took a job with a Central Wisconsin company that had her working on oil rigs in South Korea.

“I would bounce back and forth between there and Wisconsin – a month on, a month off,” she said.

When their five-year plan was put on fast forward – “we found out we were pregnant three months after we were married” – Katie said after a few months, they decided it was best for her to become a stay-at-home mom.

“That lasted two weeks,” she laughed. “I then went to the Vilas County Economic Development Corporation (VCEDC) and started their program.”

At the time, Katie said the VCEDC offered a 16-week course for budding entrepreneurs.

“It taught you how to write a business plan, how to come up with a business name, how to create your elevator pitch, how to present your business to banks and with marketing efforts – so it went through a little bit of everything,” she said.

It was in that course, Katie said, that the idea for Backwoods DCB started.

“My husband is a woodworker,” she said. “We had seen laser engravers, but they weren’t as popular then as they are now.”

Even before taking the VCEDC course and deciding to launch Backwoods DCB, Katie said they reached out to a laser engraving supplier to look into purchasing a system to “see how it worked.”

“We were originally going to get one just as a fun thing to do, and then maybe we would convert it into a business someday,” she said.

However, when their family of two became a family of three and the month-at-a-time traveling engineering job wasn’t conducive to a growing family, Katie said again, that “someday” plan was put in fast forward.

“It was something we planned on, but I guess it was, again, not necessarily in our immediate plans, but it was something we kind of had out in the distance,” she said.

Katie said things kind of took off from there.

Dip-cut-burn

At Backwoods DCB, Katie said woodworking, engineering and design all come together to create personalized gifts, home decor and custom designs.

“Tumblers are always popular – everybody wants their name on them or a logo,” she said. “We work with businesses and organizations to put their logos on things to make custom gifts for clients or customers.”

Katie said they also create several items for realtors.

“We also do crazier stuff, like panels for doors, where we do intricate 3D designs on them,” she said. “We’ve done railing for a loft space, where we cut big chunks out and make this very intricate crazy design on it. Those items usually have a wildlife scene, which we are in the Northwoods, so that is very common.”

The lake maps offered through Backwoods, Katie said, are different from others “you see that are layered.”

“We use epoxy or mirrors, and we make our lake maps that way,” she said.

Photos on wood, Katie said, are another popular product offer.

“People send us a photo, and we’ll engrave that photo onto wood,” she said.

A newer service Backwoods now offers, Katie said, is hydrographics and hydro-dipping. 

“We can dip motorcycle tanks and rims and ATV parts, snowmobile parts – we can pretty much dip anything,” she said. “We’ve even hydro-dipped shoes for kids.”

Though laser engraving is and has been the bulk of the business Backwoods does, Katie said “we are getting our feet wet in other areas.”

Adding hydrographic services – “which is something not readily available or offered up here” – Katie said was an opportunity for Backwoods to diversify its offerings.

Continuing to expand

Initially, Katie said Backwoods DCB was started in a room in their basement.

“Then, I started taking over the entire basement,” she said.

Katie – who handles most things with the business, as “Eric helps out when he can” – said eventually it became clear the business had run out of space.

“When we were pregnant with our second a couple of years ago, my husband was like, ‘you need to get the business out of the house,’” she said.

That, Katie said, led to the recent purchase of two buildings – one in Land O’ Lakes and the second – which she said is actually located directly behind – in Michigan.

“I always give people the Land O’ Lakes address (4222 County Highway D), because we are literally the building right behind it – take two steps and you’re at our other building, and now you’re in Michigan,” she said. “One is a 6,500-square-foot shop, and then the other is an approximately 3,000-square-foot office. It was an office space, but we’re completely remodeling it. It’s going to be a brand new showroom. We’ve already started to demo on the inside.”

Though “fabulous,” Katie said the 6,500-square-foot building is “huge, super tall and inefficient” as a showroom – which is what prompted the purchase of the second building.

“We just finished the storeroom, and the new addition that we had put in the back building last October – and then everything kind of shifted,” she said. “At one point, we were only going to purchase the one (larger) building, and then we were given the opportunity to be able to purchase both.”

Had they known this other building would have been a possibility, Katie said they likely would have waited to put in the showroom, but “that’s okay – it has worked out well showing our customers what we offer.”

“It all happened, I think, the way it was supposed to, but now we need another couple of months of tearing down walls – which is a nice stress reliever,” she laughed. “It looks like a hot mess now, but we’re starting to see potential with rooms opening up and things like that.”

After the holiday rush, Katie said they plan to pause new orders for a handful of months so they can focus on the demo, remodel and showroom move.

“I’m really hoping by the end of the winter that we have the front showroom open,” she said. “It’s going to triple in size from what we currently have, and it’s going to allow us to be able to showcase a lot more of the hydro-dipping and things like that, that we just don’t have the space for in the small showroom that we have now. So we’re kind of excited about it.”

‘The freedom it allows’

Katie said she enjoys being a small business owner for the freedom it affords her to be with family.

“My daughter is super heavy into hockey – and when I say heavily, I mean it is her entire life, which means it’s our entire life,” she laughed. “So, all year round, we are pretty much constantly running amok like lunatics.”

Owning Backwoods DCB, Katie said, allows her the freedom to travel where she needs to for her daughter, and “not panic about getting time off.”

Having the ability to schedule work around her family, she said, is a great aspect of owning your own business.

“They say (raising kids) feels like it takes forever, but you blink and they’re gone,” she said. “It gives us that time. And for us, that is super important.”

Being able to collaborate with Eric on projects, Katie said, is another fun part of owning Backwoods DCB.

“With some of our projects, I think we even surprise ourselves,” she said. “It’s not like we are solving world problems, but sometimes what we are able to come up with makes clients and customers so happy. And for us, that’s super gratifying.”

Opening and running the business in the Northwoods, Katie said, is a good fit.

“We have our little lives up here and it fits what we’re looking for, for our kids and their future,” she said. “If we had this business somewhere else, it would potentially look different.”

Katie said Backwoods’ business is a 60-40 split – 60% non-local customers and 40% local customers.

“We are hoping that by opening the new showroom and having a little bit more direct connection with the locals – having them be able to step into our world a little bit, that that will shift a little and at least get to 50-50,” she said. “That’s our hope.”

Having the new buildings, Katie said, will offer more opportunities for that direct contact.

“When you’re working out of your house, you don’t want people coming through your house all the time,” she said. “And then when you’re in a building that is, at least at the beginning, inconspicuous, and kind of in Michigan versus Wisconsin – even though it’s one step over – it can cause some apprehension.”

Katie said when customers and potential clients have an opportunity to see and touch some of Backwoods DCB’s products, “I think that is going to change.”

For more on Backwoods DCB, visit dipcutburn.com.