Hi, I’m Brandon Vaughn, owner of All-Clean Window Service and All-Clean SoftWash in beautiful Troutdale, OR (about 15 minutes from Multnomah Falls).
My father started All-Clean in 1978 as a window cleaning business – literally just him and a helper for 34 years. For 14 of those years – I was his helper. I started working full time washing windows, cleaning gutters and pressure washing at the age of 13. I homeschooled through high school and 40 hours a week, I worked my butt off!
I learned many valuable lessons working alongside my dad. I learned the value of hard work, and of being a servant – and the importance of treating your customers like royalty. There was a reason my Dad had a loyal following of customers – in fact, we still clean windows for some of our original customers, their children and their grandchildren, now 38 years later.
In 2012, my Dad was diagnosed with heart disease and was told he could no longer work physically. He had no retirement plan or savings.I stepped in and offered to buy my Dad’s business, and help him grow it so that he could retire. So now I owned a 34 year old business, with 1 employee and a promise to my Dad that I would grow it big enough to enable him to retire – now what??
3 things were key in helping me get to the place where we are now – education, humility, and community. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and soaked up every business book I could read, made valuable friends and mentors in various industries, and learned to not be afraid of taking risks and of losing.
All-Clean is now a 6-truck company, with 15 employees, and I have lived up to my promise of taking care of my parents in their retirement. We have enjoyed great success and I owe the majority of that success to the friends and mentors I’ve made along the way (many of you reading this now). If you have the humility to try something new, be uncomfortable, serve others, and not be afraid to share when you’ve lost – you will succeed. Of course, you still have to work your butt off!
I am running for the UAMCC Board of Directors because I am passionate about 3 things –
- Helping others grow their business through the amazing education and community that the UAMCC offers.
- Young entrepreneurship. Cultivating the next generation of young entrepreneurs through programs geared toward our future leaders, is very important to me.
- Expanding the UAMCC’s presence on the West Coast. There is a void of memberships over here and I want to fix that. Having BOD members that are spread out is important.
Although my business life has been crazy these past couple weeks with 6 new hires (General manager, sales manager and 4 technicians) and a 4-day long tradeshow (got 72 estimate requests!), I am “off-the-wand” and have more freedom and flexibility than most.
I would like to earn your vote and have the privilege to serve you and the UAMCC to the best of my ability.
Best regards,