Pool builders and service professionals on the western and southern coasts of the country have it good: because of moderate year-round temperatures, every season is busy season. Come November in the Midwest or Northeast, however, business starts to wane and, by the following march, pool pros are anxious for grass to start poking through the…
There was a time when fun in a swimming pool centered on small, inflatable devices like inner tubes, diving boards or standard-issue slides. These are pretty basic and pretty mundane by today’s standards, however. For commercial pools owned or operated by apartment complexes, home owners’ associations, cities, and hotels or YMCAs, the fun quotient has…
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…
If you’re responsible for pool maintenance and management for a municipal or commercial aquatic facility, particularly in freeze-thaw locales across the United States and Canada, you’re probably uncomfortably aware of the annual ritual of repairing peeling plaster, cracks and leaks, all in anticipation of another summer of heavy use. And after the winter of discontent…
For my first three years at Horner Equipment, now HornerXpress, I was a partner. But in 1975, I bought out the other partner and became the 100 percent business owner. When I first started here, we had three employees; right now, we have 430. It’s been 43 years. I’ve always believed in continuous improvement. If…
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…
photography by Paul Caliwagan It wasn’t that long ago that Jessica and Ed Coyner could’ve used a little help themselves. The couple, both of whom had worked in the swimming pool industry, decided to start their own company in January 2008. “Awesome timing, right?” says Jessica Coyner. Their company, Signature Pools, operates out of Chesapeake,…
You want your pool service to grow, but any small-business owner knows how it can be to find time to devote to company expansion. Brett Lloyd Abbott is president and chief strategist of MYM Austin, Inc., which specializes in serving the marketing, advertising and business-growth needs of the swimming pool construction and service industry. Growing…
My parents founded Johnson Pools in 1977. We started out as a custom concrete, block wall, vinyl-liner pool builder and slowly grew. Back in the ’80s, people wanted freeform pools, so we moved away from concrete walls and start doing steel walls. In the late ’90s to the 2000s, people went into debt up to…
As a new pool season gets underway, most savvy business owners are deciding how best to spend their marketing and advertisingdollars. So while you consider radio, TV, billboards, AdWords and other advertising opportunities, don’t forget about the low-costhidden leads that may be right under your nose. When it comes to new pool leads, for every…
Nonbillable time is the single highest cost of doing business in your service department. On average, the typical service tech only bills out about half their time each day. How is this possible? Let’s look at some numbers: VacationLet’s assume the tech gets two weeks of paid vacation a year. Vacation totals 80 hours a…