By Amber Colley Strong lender relationships can be especially important for cyclical small businesses like in the swimming pool industry. Because cyclical business owners need to keep their business afloat during off-seasons, some may need to seek outside funding. Businesses have a variety of funding options, from online lenders to traditional lenders like banks. In…
Chances are, most of the pools you build or service don’t have waterfalls and multiple LED lights. They’re likely relatively simple pools built for people who actually want to use them: They don’tcare about bells and whistles; they just want a nice place for theirkids to play. But even people with simple pool setups live…
You used to see fancy water features like laminar jets or rock grottos only in commercial pools or public settings. But now more and more, homeowners are requesting these features in residential pools. “In the last five to nine years, a lot of that technology or that style of design has been brought down to…
Looking back What kind of a year 2015 was for you, and why? “Very slow with pool installations due to the weather. People don’t buy pools if it’s not hot enough to swim!” — Doreen ZettleBZ Pools & Decks Inc.Johnstown, Pa “Moderate growth, improved margins, lower operating costs, and higher net profits were slightly offset…
Photos by: Thomas Weinstein When Tim Murphy started his pool company in 1991, Maricopa County — which includes the Phoenix metro area — issued 8,000 pool permits. Presidential Pools and Spas at one time had 350 employees, 10 dump trucks and almost as many shotcrete rigs for its in-house crews. It built 2,200 pools in…
When Zodiac designs a product, Steve Gutai, director of technical sales and marketing at Zodiac Pool Systems, says it does so with three markets in mind: consumer, pool builder and service technician. The company’s new closed-combustion chamber heater, the Jandy JXi, which the company released this spring, benefits all three groups equally, Gutai says. “The…
Photos by: Robert Lipscomb Winky Vaughan grew up in the pool business: Her parents owned a swimming pool company in northern Virginia. When she graduated from Virginia Tech, she decided that she wanted to own her own pool company. In 1977, she and her husband Jim started National Pools of Roanoke. Soon, her parents —…
I got involved with the process of developing the Model Aquatic Health Code in 2005. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsored a workshop at the request of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. Since the ’90s they had seen an increase in pool-related illnesses. It was difficult to address because health…
You’ve been putting off replacing — or expanding — your service-vehicle fleet because of the economy. You’ve been diligent with maintenance and are pretty sure you can get by another season. You’ve had other things to spend money on. But maybe it’s just time: The old rig is on its last legs, theodometer has more…
When Zodiac looked at the variable-speed pumps offered by its Jandy brand, it knew there was a hole to fill when it came to replacement pumps. “We have a big variable-speed pump, which is the ePump,” says Mike Giddens, product manager at Zodiac. “But from a replacement pump standpoint, it’s not ideal because it’s bigger…
Photos by: Timor Raz Robert Blanda knows he is in good company. As the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals’ Certified Pool Builder of the Year for 2014, Blanda joins an elite group of eight previous winners. “I feel very honored,” Blanda says. Blanda, who owns Mill Bergen Pools in Brooklyn, N.Y., began his career…
Greg Fournier joined Hayward Industries four years ago, transitioning from the consumer-electronics industry to Hayward to help develop the company’s OmniLogic automated control system. Fournier, who says the elements of product design were similar across both industries, knew Hayward’s customers were asking for easier-to-use controls. “We wanted to make it simpler to buy, sell, configure…