Top City Small Business Awards | Curb Appeal Power Wash
How did you get to where you are today with your business?
JAKE: I learned what hard work was growing up on a small farm and serving in the United States Army Reserves. When I worked in restaurant management, I learned that most people aren’t that good at cleaning. I also learned how to serve others as a pastor. I found out you can serve others with hard work, cleaning and making a business. By teaching and mentoring others how to do the same, you can feel great making a living.
What motivated you to open your business in the Topeka area and how has the community impacted your growth and trajectory?
Topeka is my home. I met and married my high school sweetheart here 23 years ago, and since then our two wonderful children, Alex and Emma, have grown to love Topeka as their home, as well.
Our customers are the best in the Midwest. We continue to focus on their needs, and they continue to call on us for their cleaning projects, Christmas lights and gutter or gutter guard needs.
As we’ve grown from just me to a team of 13 employees, we have been fortunate to be awarded grant reimbursements as we add equipment to serve our community. This assistance from GO Topeka has been valuable, along with the networking opportunities and educational resources.
What sets you apart from other businesses in your industry?
Our vision, our standards and our technicians. Our vision is to glorify God by collectively using our unique gifts and talents to serve others. We continue to focus on the needs of others, and we do this by using the right soaps and the right techniques to get the right results.
Our team has a guiding principle — “wash on” — that became our slogan, and our technicians are champions at it. Even when the situation may not be ideal, we have been given a talent and called to a mission, so wash on. We operate in the background, helping our customers reach their cleaning goals so that they look like the superhero. Other companies try to copy our techniques, but we wash on. We continue to focus on our vision to serve others, and we’re still the highest-rated and most-awarded pressure washing company in Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan.
What did it mean to you and your team to be a finalist in the Veteran-Owned Business category of the Small Business Awards?
I learned our guiding principle from serving in the U.S. Army Reserves: “You never get ahead by doing the minimum.” As we began to solve more problems for residential and commercial customers, we started adding wash technicians to serve our customers’ needs.
We would send wash crews from Wichita to Kansas City to clean up parks and playgrounds, parking garages and commercial properties. We learned by working long days in all temperatures to complete our customers’ goals that our guiding principle of “wash on” became a badge of honor. Today, we have a team of 13 people in our home office and in our wash crews to serve the needs of our customers. From wash technicians, Christmas lights installers and gutter installers, we remain steadfast in our resolve to “wash on,” affirming our dedication to excellence and service to the community.
Serving others is what we do, and my past experiences have helped me serve more people. I am fortunate to live in a city that encourages small businesses to grow and provides opportunities to do so. I didn’t enlist to be recognized, but I am thankful that our team makes a difference in our community and is worth recognizing. Thank you.
