Twenty years ago, you used to say to your customers, ‘You can choose whatever color you want as long as it’s white or blue.’ Stick around the industry long enough, and you’ll hear some variation of this. Though there was a time where those were the only two colors available, most pools still seem to…
Preparedness is the way of the successful businessperson, whether it be for risky situations, the off-season or even an unexpected influx of customers. Activity starts around February for Nicholas Pools, Inc. in New Jersey, though it’s part-time work in the beginning. “We begin preparing for construction — submit permits, get mark outs, order pool kits…
Today, at least one in 10 retail dollars are spent online; in 2001, internet purchases accounted for just 1 percent of total retail sales. e-commerce grew by 14.6 percent in 2015 alone. Statistics could run the length of this article, but pool builders, suppliers and service providers don’t need data to understand how the internet…
When Hayward hired Bob Hughes in 2007, its Rhode Island plant was out of space. Since then, it has almost doubled production there without expanding. How Hayward has accomplished this is a lesson in manufacturing efficiency and creativity, coupled with a commitment to improvement from the organization’s top leaders to its factory workers. In 2004,…
Although building a pool in someone’s backyard is no easy task, the world’s most massive water-based superstructures test the earthly possibilities of engineering and construction. From seemingly insurmountable design challenges to a complicated web of international laws and regulations, the minds behind the world’s most ambitious projects must find solutions to match their ideas. OdySea:…
Pool construction in the United States is a $12 billion industry. According to global research firm IBISWorld, pool builders rely “much more heavily on the skill and knowledge of trained employees than the productive capabilities of machinery or technology.” At no time is this more true than during the estimation process. Although exciting new technology…
If you ask five companies that do regular pool service and cleaning how they pay their technicians, you’ll likely get five different answers. the location, number of accounts and the gallons of water they’re responsible for each week all come into play. “I’ve tried all of it,” says Jack Manilla, owner of Portofino Pool Services…
You’ve done the job; the customer is delighted — they say, “Send me the bill.” You do. You wait for payment… you send a second reminder — and still await payment. Then a third notice is mailed…and a fourth.Phone calls to the customer are not returned. Collection letters are sent certified, return receipt. Each comes…
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…
Let’s say you walk into an auto dealer to buy a new car. You find the model, color and features you want, and the price is right. They even have the very model you want in stock; it just needs to be prepped for delivery. You can’t wait! You can already smell that shiny leather…
The U.S. government continues to report a bag of mixed blessings on new-home starts. While starts have shown modest upticks across different communities and regions month-over-month, it is mostly a sluggish industry compared with year-to-year. According to the New Residential Construction Report from April, new housing starts trail 2014 numbers. David Crowe, chief economist for…
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…