Servicing Orange Park Fl, and the surrounding areas
About Us
Proper Exterior Cleaning was founded in October of 2018.
The owner, Austin Pratt, 25, grew up in Northeast Florida. He was born at Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville into a military family and lived in the East Intercoastal area until he was 5. In 2005, he moved to Orange Park, Florida, into the newly built Oakleaf Plantation. Austin attended Argyle Elementary, Oakleaf Village Elementary, Oakleaf Junior High, and graduated from Oakleaf High School in 2017.
Throughout his early years, Austin was an avid fisherman who enjoyed outdoor activities and tinkering with things. In high school, he was part of the Varsity Golf and Tennis Teams, always seeking new experiences and challenges.
Around the age of 16, Austin realized he didn’t want to follow the conventional path that everyone else seemed to be on. He strongly disliked school and felt it was a waste of valuable time. Through various social examples, he came to believe that college was not the only route to success. He observed that the outcomes he saw from college graduates in his life did not align with his passions and dreams, reinforcing his desire to carve out his own unique path.
While in high school, Austin worked at a handful of entry-level jobs, including Chick-Fil-A, a seafood restaurant, and even a pizza restaurant. These first jobs got his feet wet in the service industry, where he began to truly understand the difference between serving and providing excellent customer service.
In his sophomore year of high school, Austin started on the path to an entrepreneurial adventure by forming his first company, Pratt & CO, which offered various handyman-type services. He began by doing odd jobs for neighbors and friends. Word of mouth regarding the quality of his work, professionalism, and going above and beyond at a fair price kept him quite busy. These traits were a rarity in someone so young.
After graduating from high school, Austin realized that his handyman business was not yet providing a full-time income. Seeking additional employment, he decided to apply at the Publix Warehouse, where a friend was working.
Austin applied and was interviewed at the regional Publix Distribution warehouse. One story he told is that as the interviewing manager was giving him a tour of the facility, several different employees stopped and asked the manager if that was a new manager they were hiring. Austin gives his mom credit for reminding him to always make a good first impression; and never dress for the job, but dress for the interview. Austin was hired into a lower-level position but was liked by management due to his work ethic and dedication, and moved around the warehouse pretty quickly. This would also serve as a downfall. Austin quickly learned about corporate policies and procedures, labor-intensive jobs, reporting to several different managers at the same time, company politics, and other processes he had never been exposed to while working for himself or in the few part-time jobs held throughout high school.
Looking back now, Austin sees this experience as an essential stepping stone that affirmed his desire to pursue a path outside of the long-term corporate world. This job was necessary to help him continue his journey toward success, showing him that true fulfillment lay in following his own entrepreneurial dreams. Austin ended up getting fired a month later. In Austin’s opinion, the reasons were valid for a seasoned employee, but for one who had only been there six months and was constantly being trained in a different department by a different manager, he felt there should have been a little more flexibility. He erred by not clocking in or out when leaving one department for another – multiple times. As an interesting side note, a few weeks after Austin was let go, the entire policy was changed regarding clocking in and out. Austin would never have been let go under the modified changes, so maybe it was fate after all.
Austin took his last paycheck, about $1,000, and traded in his car for a cheap truck. He purchased a Powerhorse 3400 PSI @ 2.7 GPM pressure washer, a 16" surface cleaner, and some chemicals, and took this as a chance to find success. After reaching out to friends, their business partners, and strangers, he slowly started gaining more customers and realized this business might be something worth sticking to. After just three months in business, Austin had completed slightly over $5,000 in sales! He continued investing his profits into the business and began purchasing commercial equipment, a trailer, and was well on his way to becoming a respected and sought-after businessman in the community.
The New Year came, and Austin focused on learning how to grow his business. He sought out mentors, offered discounts, researched and met leaders in the community, and realized that the most important part of business was making people happy by doing a good job. To this day, he has done very little advertising and has gained most of his business through word of mouth. Whether it was a client sharing his name with a friend, someone posting on social media about a great job, or his phenomenal customer service, the business grew from residential to commercial to property management companies, and it just keeps going.
Austin dedicated himself to building a respected brand known for high-quality work rather than competing on price. He focused on two key principles: delivering quality work and exceptional customer service. Austin realized that many companies did not have before-and-after photos of their work, references, equipment, or industry knowledge.
Austin knew he could use all of that to his advantage. As a tech-savvy guy, he began posting before-and-after photos on social media, provided tips for homeowners (selecting a company to perform pressure washing services or simply what to do as a DIY project for the homeowner), all of which garnered a lot of attention and resulted in increased business.
It was a shot in the dark to do something Austin loved, hoping it would be enough to provide him with income and a career. If you ask Austin what part of his business he loves the most, he will answer, “Interacting with the public.” He loves helping people, giving them advice, sharing his knowledge, and he is lucky enough to be able to clean their home or property while doing so.
When Austin was younger, he loved pressure washing. He would help clean the house, driveway, sidewalk, fence—anything he could just to use that “cool” little electric pressure washer. He claims the best part was watching all the grime and nastiness fall off. The joy he experienced as a child with the pressure washer is what helped him decide which business to start. He felt that if he was going to do something every day, it ought to be something he has enjoyed his whole life.