Getting Salty

Getting Salty

Servicing a salt pool? You can now. The newly designed Powerclean Salt Ultra by Georgia-based CMP lets users ditch the acid to clean chlorine generator cell plates. In early 2019, when CMP acquired Saline Generating Systems and some of its employees, the team wanted to work out some kinks in one of the popular SGS…

Protecting Precious Lives

Protecting Precious Lives

A pool fence would have saved Joshua and Christian DeMello.  In January 2010, the 13-month-old twins drowned when they escaped from their grandparents’ house and fell into an unsecured pool.  There were no alarms or fences. Their mother found them in the pool.  “Today, I believe in multiple layers of prevention,” says their father, Paul…

To Automate or Not?

To Automate or Not?

As entrepreneurs, running an efficient business is key to smooth operations — especially when dealing with hundreds of customers. While managing a pool business, there’s a number of tasks to be done, including inventory, marketing, scheduling and everything in between. Some days it may seem like nothing is getting done if you do it all…

Go Big Or Go Home

Go Big Or Go Home

Jack Manilla, CEO of Portofino Pools, lives and breathes sports. “I’m an avid NFL fan,” says Manilla, who grew up hearing sports on a portable radio in western Pennsylvania. He remembers his dad simultaneously listening to the radio while reading the sports page. “Sports got in my brain,” he says. For pool professionals who also…

Are Your Customers Happy?

Are Your Customers Happy?

How many times have you groaned after receiving a customer survey? Chances are good you probably did. It’s likely even less appealing to send one on your pool company’s behalf. Don’t let it be, says Travis Leonard, CEO of A&G Concrete Pools, Inc., in Fort Pierce, Florida. While slightly time consuming, it’s a game changer…

New to the Commercial Pool Biz?

New to the Commercial Pool Biz?

How do you build trust to gain commercial accounts? Even for brand-new contractors, establishing credibility with clients has never been easier with online training, review websites and more. Don Cesarone, Jr., vice president of the commercial division of Van Kirk and Sons, Inc., says that while states have mandatory training for commercial pool operators, contractors…

New App for Pool Service

New App for Pool Service

If it weren’t for the monthly invoices customers receive, most would never know a pool technician had come around. Arizona entrepreneur Herman Gunther figured there had to be a better way for pool technicians to notify customers about pool servicing. Flimsy invoices fluttering across lawns, against pool pumps or soaked in pool water weren’t quite…