Ryan Pyatt is building his empire one business at a time.
The Batavia native and resident just purchased his third company, and he sees no end in sight with his life motto firmly in place.
“Leave a legacy. Life is what you make it,” he said during an interview Thursday. “Everybody has the opportunity to accomplish (their goals) if they’re motivated and disciplined. I really want this thing to blow up.”
This “thing” happens to be WNY Pressure Wash, in its fourth year and 800 customers strong. Pyatt bought out Batavia Exterior and Roof Clean and rolled it and a few hundred base customers into WNY Pressure Wash, at 8145 East Main St. He plans to reach out to those customers and notify them of the change in ownership. The 10-year-old company was competition for him, so buying it “was a big move for us,” Pyatt said.
“We definitely want to continue to grow,” the 28-year-old entrepreneur said. “Our goal is to be the largest exterior pressure washing company in this area. Growth is one of the major things … I just really want to be the premiere pressure washing company.”
Not exactly a newcomer to the pressure washing field, Pyatt worked for Sparkle Wash since he was 17, and then purchased the company four years ago. For three of those years, he went with the name RNP Services using his own initials. But the evolving student of marketing and branding decided it was time to name it what it was: a pressure washing company. That, and more extensive advertising on Facebook, Angie’s List, and other home services websites, gave him the boost he was looking for, he said.
Pyatt, a 2011 Batavia High School graduate, admits that his time spent in obtaining an associate’s degree in business at Southern New Hampshire University didn’t give him as much foundation as did practical, hands-on experience.
“People ask me what my hobby is, and I say ‘I like to acquire businesses,’” he said, adding that it’s not even so much about the money. “How can I take a failing business and continue to grow it.”
He and fiancée Natalie Cervone bought Great Kutz, in Valu Plaza, in November 2020. Cervone runs the salon while Pyatt concentrates on his other ventures. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, he said, as there is a learning curve with business ownership.
In other words, there was “a lot of trial and error,” he said.
“We made mistakes, that’s inevitable,” he said. “Finding out why those mistakes happen, and if you can learn and grow from them, that’s the name of the game.”
It was while providing services to home and commercial property owners that prompted Pyatt to pursue other career avenues. During those services, he’d hear people say that they wanted to sell their places but didn’t have a real estate agent. So Pyatt became an agent at Keller Williams in Batavia. Pressure washing and property sales seemed a natural fit to him.
“I’m getting your property ready, so I might as well finish it for you,” he said.
WNY Pressure Wash offers an array of services, from washing building exteriors, sidewalks, and driveways to back decks, roofs, garden pavers, and gutters. There are soft washes for roofs and other more delicate materials, and pressure washes that spit out 5-1/2 gallons per minute. He couldn’t come up with a most difficult job to date but named the oddest request so far: tombstones.
Pyatt has become a bit of a gunk connoisseur — blogging on the site about the benefits of pressure washing and potential damage that can result from leaving roof algae and artillery fungus alone. Artillery fungus comes out as tiny black dots near the bottom of siding; it’s a wood-decaying fungus that, like algae, can cause long-term damage to your home’s exterior, his blog states.
As he has become more versed in the entrepreneurial world, Pyatt came across a belief that there are three levels a business owner should reach for 30 feet is completely hands-on, when Pyatt was actually out there pressure washing people’s homes; 300 feet is about being in the office maintaining the day-to-day needs; and 3,000 feet is overseeing the business as a whole, taking care of the financial end of matters and customer acquisition. He alternates between 300 and 3,000 feet, he said, as profits have been continuously reinvested for the business with eight staff, four vans, two trailers, seven washing units, a building with a full bay for repairs, two offices, and an employee break room.
The keys to success are providing a quality job, good customer service, and communication, he said.
“That’s what we pride ourselves on -- quality,” he said.
He is offering 10 percent off gutter and roof cleaning services for new customers, valid until Oct. 31. For more information, go to wnypressurewash.com or call 585-888-WASH (9274).
Photo by James Burns. Ryan Pyatt checks out a pressure washer at his site on East Main Street, Batavia.
