Alumni Stories
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Jamal Hinkle and Jason Mishler Team Up to Transform Homes
Written by Blake Froistad
Home ownership is an exciting opportunity and brings with it many benefits ranging from equity and net worth, to more space to entertain and a place to call your own. But with every "gain" in life comes more responsibility. When you cross the threshold from renter to owner, expect to incur more maintenance and responsibility when things break. Advice from a 2 year home owner: before you start doing the fun stuff like floors and bathrooms, take care of the little maintenance items first. Speaking from experience, my first order of business when we moved in was redoing all the floors. They came out great, but a heavy downpour on clogged gutters warped our front entryway and I wish I would've cleaned the gutters before installing nice floors. If you're reading this as a homeowner and your heart rate is steadily increasing because you don't know when your gutters were cleaned or the exterior of your home is looking a little tired, you might want to get in touch with Jamal (2013) and Jason (2014).
Jamal Hinkle (left), Jason Mishler (right) and their business partner Nick Barnstead
Before they became business partners, Jason and Jamal struck up a friendship on the baseball field way back in their Valor years. Although they were a year apart in graduation year, they stayed connected through college and beyond. After graduating from Valor in 2013, Jamal attended Colorado Mesa before joining the Marines as an Infantry Assault Man where he served for 4 years. Jason on the other hand graduated from Valor in 2014, and studied business at Colorado State. After Jamal finished his service, he moved back to Colorado from Utah and settled down in Windsor with his wife. After graduating from CSU, Jason settled down in Fort Collins and with a little help from another Valor alum, Nick Merten (2014), Jason will tie the knot with his wife this next summer.
Now let's talk business. Both Jamal and Jason both work full-time jobs, Jamal with Chevron and Jason in tech sales. However, they got the itch to start something of their own, but wrestled with what that might be for quite some time. After watching a YouTube video about window cleaning and pressure washing, Jason put the thinking aside and sprang into action. While out playing a round of golf, Jamal, Jason and their friend Nick decided to jump feet first into a home services company.
Jason doing an exterior window cleaning job. They offer exterior and interior window cleaning.
BrightSide Home Services specializes in window cleaning, pressure washing, and gutter cleaning. This cohesive approach can make a drastic improvement to the curb appeal of a home. But also, as I learned, has a preventative maintenance aspect by ensuring water drains away from your house, and extends the life of your windows by removing dirt and other debris. Their pressure washing is also a hot ticket item if you live near a construction site, or felt the effects of all the thunderstorms we had this last spring and summer.
Reflecting on what it's like being a business owner, Jason said, "The biggest hurdle to get over is being ok with not knowing everything, you just have to start. I was sitting on ideas for a year, as long as you like what you're doing, and I get to be outside, work with my best friends, and I love the sales aspect of knocking on doors." But it's not just the money making aspect that Jamal and Jason enjoy, "We experienced a lot of growth right away and have been able to bring on more employees. Once we hired people, it became less about revenue growth and more about supporting our employees and treating them well." This philosophy is certainly paying off for them as they now cover Fort Collins, Windsor, Loveland and Greeley with plans to expand South by next spring and summer. If you'd like to get in touch with Jamal and Jason about their services, email them directly support@brightsidehomeservices.com. Be sure to check out their Instagram page to see the benefit of their full range of services.
If you're on the fence about going off on your own and starting a business, here's some advice that Jason got from his father in law: "God only opens up certain doors in your life. I wish I would have walked through them instead of looking through the peephole."
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