When I first bought the magazine, I had grand ideas for new products and changes I wanted to make right away. About five months into ownership, though, I realized they were unrealistic in the timeframe I had envisioned. I’ve since realized that changes in business, at least in ours, look more like this: Create goal,…
In 2018 we wrote an article about running a stress test on your business (January/February 2018 “How Low Can You Go”). That article posited that if sales stopped or slowed tremendously, there were certain actions you’d need to take to survive. The last couple of years have shown us that threats to small business are…
Anyone in the pool industry knows the importance of design in making an appealing product. If you can’t put your finger on why PoolPro feels a little different this issue, it’s all thanks to our art director, Brittany Alloway. We’re keeping the same overall structure, but Brittany cut the clutter and made the magazine more…
Megan KendrickEditor in chief Megan grew up in North Dakota but escaped the cold to attend college in Phoenix. She went on to get her master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and got her first post-graduate job at Bigfish Publications in 2008. In 2018 she bought PoolPro and SpaRetailer from Bigfish and started Kendrick Content….
I’ve been to a lot of trade shows — and after a while, they all start to run together. Exhibiting is a ton of work, even for a small booth like ours. In the past, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with trade shows: I love to be there and see everyone, and I have some…
Remember when we were supposed to have a commercial issue last year, but instead there was a pandemic and everything we planned went out the window? Yeah….me too. So instead of 2020 being our inaugural commercial edition, we are launching it in 2021. For a few years, I’ve been tossing around the idea of becoming…
Thanks to all who took our survey on the state of the service industry. They can be a drag to fill out, but that information helps us better serve you, our advertisers and the industry as a whole as we try to make sense of the pandemic’s affect on business now and down the road….
When most of you read this, the 2021 pool season will be about to kick off in earnest. There are so many unknowns this year: Will this pandemic go away? Will you be able to get the products you need? Will your costs go up dramatically? Will a natural disaster hit your community? We cover…
If you’re like me, you never felt caught up in 2020. Every time I thought things were about to get back on track, something would happen. School was open. School was closed. The babysitter had to quarantine. There was an ice storm. And I had it easy compared to many. But when I look back…
Unfiltered Megan Kendrick E.4 In this special mini-episode, we sit down with Megan Kendrick of SpaRetailer, PoolPro and The SpaRetailer Podcast. Megan turns the tables and interviews the two Johns who just attended The 2021 Pool and Spa Show in Atlantic City. How do you attend a virtual show? Listen to the episode to find…
For many, we’ve never looked forward to a new year as much as 2021. The problems of 2020 did not magically go away upon the Times Square ball drop, but a new year represents a clean slate. Even if it’s just symbolic, I’ll take it. That being said, I think most anticipate 2021 looking quite…
What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I had a weeks-old baby and never would have imagined sending my kindergartener to school wearing a mask. I’ll admit that I don’t love change. I like plans and stability. A year as unpredictable as 2020 was not easy for me to navigate. But what…