First Response Exterior Detailing (commonly known as F.R.E.D.) was conceived in 2012 after a year or so of debating the name and deciding on just what services would be rendered. The business idea (exterior detailing) was founded by Josh and Jeni Mae; both had full time jobs in 2010 and knew that they wanted to start a family very soon. Their daughter was born in February of 2011. For most of Jersie’s first eighteen months, Josh would get off shift from firefighting, come home to do a quick pass on with Jeni Mae about diaper changes, needs for feeding, etc so Jeni Mae could get to work. In late 2011, they found out that they were going to be having a boy. It was time to get the business rolling before baby number two came along as both Josh and Jeni Mae had a strong desire to have at least one parent always home with the kids: Jeni Mae would become a stay-at-home mom. Josh had held several detailing-type jobs since age 16 (none quite like the business he was about to start) but knew he had more than enough experience in detailing and had a perfectionist mind set. Starting off small and perfecting each skill, the business began to grow. For the first three years Josh was working full time at the fire department and anywhere from 35-50 hours a week doing roofs, gutters, windows and pressure washing followed by custom Christmas lights in November and December. In October of 2014 their family was complete with the addition of their third child (a beautiful boy). At two months and 1 day old, Josh and Jeni Mae had returned home from a date night to find their third child had passed away in his sleep. Absolute Devastation, Pain, Denial and a feeling of Failure almost led to closing the doors on FRED; there were enough stressors without owning a business. Although it was extremely difficult, Josh knew the importance of needing to continue on. He continued detailing and came up with a solution to allow for more family time while still being able to grow the business; FRED would hire a trusted employee. Without losing any of the perfection that goes in to each customers’ job, FRED could now better handle the workload and continue to meet and exceed each customers’ expectations. Josh says, “When I field a phone call, email, website inquiry, Facebook message, Instagram comment or text message, most customers already know exactly how we do our processes and come to us based off their family or friend’s strong recommendation. People have fallen in love with the way we clean roofs & gutters, as well as our custom Christmas lights.”
(Josh, Jersie, Jaeger & Jeni Mae)
(Josh & Ben)
Everyone Loves Ben! Ben has worked for FRED since 2016 and is also a firefighter. Trustworthy, confident and punctual are a few of Ben’s best qualities and he is a pleasure to have on the FRED team. Ben is Licensed, Bonded, Insured and is also our lead detailer.
