How HPWS Services Won a $100,000 Resort Contract With a One-Line Email

How did a blueprint designer start a pressure washing company in Flint, Texas?

Matt Mizzles was sitting behind three computer screens designing blueprints for a construction company and wanted to work with his hands. In 2017 he bought a pressure washer and started cleaning houses. Before long he asked himself why, if he could do residential, he could not do commercial.

For about three years he worked seven days a week, with newborns at home. Haleigh, his wife, remembered it plainly: “Me and the kids did not see him for the first couple years of the business. It was really hard.”

The turning point came about five years before the episode, when HPWS Services landed a large contract at a resort. Matt took it as the sign to go full time and told Haleigh he had a year to figure it out. She later joined the business. Today she handles admin and customers, he runs the crews, and they squeeze in lunch dates while the kids are at school.

How did HPWS Services land a $100,000 commercial contract?

With one short email. Matt had been sending long messages about how reputable the company was and everything it could do, and getting no response. Then he found the right person at the resort and sent a single question, asking whether there were any pressure washing projects out for bid. The reply was that there were 26 buildings to come look at. That became a $100,000 contract.

His process for finding commercial work in the early days:

• Keep a list. While driving, he added every building that needed some kind of service to a note on his phone.
• Call on a schedule. Every Friday he sat down and made about 50 phone calls. Two or three estimates sent was a good day.
• Research before dialing. He searched LinkedIn for operations managers and read the company’s team page, so he could ask the receptionist for a person by name.
• Keep the email short. “These people are busy at work and they don’t want to sit there and read,” he said.

The mindset, as they put it, is “how can I help you without being a salesman?”

Why is HPWS Services now mostly commercial?

Because one contract kept leading to the next service. Matt put the mix at about 60 percent commercial and 40 percent residential.

At the resort he kept getting asked whether he could handle other things. In 2021 he restructured the business, added parking lot striping, and bought a large general contracting insurance policy. That opened the door to the UT Health system in Tyler, where HPWS now has a full-time crew working Monday through Friday. The company has become a property maintenance business, and the long-term plan is full property management for commercial clients.

The residential side grows without door knocking. Their area has many gated communities, and Matt said he has knocked on two doors in nine years. They have also phased out yard signs in favor of digital marketing.

Why did they choose to grow slowly and without debt?

So the business could survive its own mistakes. “We’ve never taken out one business loan,” Matt said. Equipment was bought with money the business had earned: land a good job, buy a piece of equipment, repeat.

He started with a Home Depot pressure washer and a pump-up sprayer, and about a year in he realized that taking every job was not the same as making money. He began breaking down his numbers, learned that time and equipment drive profit, went to trainings, and only then went after bigger projects.

He has seen the opposite approach: a new owner pays for an expensive course, buys a $30,000 or $40,000 trailer, gets overwhelmed, and sells it while still owing on it. Haleigh added that many local operators quit at the point where they need insurance, employees and workers’ comp, because they never planned for it.

How do they keep customers happy enough to leave five-star reviews?

By building the relationship before talking about the work. Matt coached Haleigh early on not to open with the job. Notice the dog, the house, the bass boat.

The rest of the routine:

• Matt does not leave until the customer is satisfied, and they walk the property together.
• Before the invoice goes out, he tells them HPWS will come back and fix anything it missed.
• Haleigh follows up personally afterward.
• For Christmas light customers, which she calls her baby, she keeps a note of the year each one started. When they rebook she writes back that the company cannot wait to serve them for the fifth or sixth year.

The point, they said, is to let customers know they care and are not just there to collect money.

What would they tell someone starting a home service business?

Matt’s advice was to be honest about what kind of person you are. If you need a paycheck every week, know that about yourself. If you have the drive, keep pushing: “Without effort, persistence, and faith, it’s not going to work.”

Haleigh’s was patience. Do not get caught up in making millions overnight, give yourself room to grow, and keep learning. After eight or nine years, she said, they still learn something every day.