When asked about Blue Moon Pools, owner Lupe Mariscal always goes back to the beginning — long before the company existed, and before he even had a full-time job. 

“I started before I was 15,” Mariscal says. “I would go with my brothers who were working for a builder up in the San Fernando Valley, and I learned to be a laborer and how to build pools.” By 16 or 17, he had started working full-time in the pool industry.

Those early years laid the groundwork for leadership. By the early 1980s, Mariscal and his brother joined a company then called All Concrete, where he became the manager. A decade later he moved to San Diego and started working for a plastering company as a foreman. 

The Blue Moon opportunity

The turning point came in 2000, when Mariscal met Richard Smith, who had recently purchased Blue Moon Pools after selling his pool service business. “Richard bought the company along with a couple of trucks and three employees, so Blue Moon was really small,” Mariscal recalls. The business struggled, and Smith made a bold offer: “He decided to offer me 30% of the company if I could make the business grow because without somebody like me, he was losing.”

But change didn’t come easily. “[Smith] said he wanted me to run his business, but the employees didn’t like that idea, and they decided to resign.” Mariscal accepted the challenge: “I started training my own helpers to become foremen.”

Becoming an owner

By 2003, the turnaround was taking shape. When Mariscal first joined, the company only had a couple of remodels on the books. To keep things afloat, he juggled sales, production, training new employees — and often the physical labor himself. 

Soon, business began increasing. When Mariscal asked Smith where things stood, Smith confirmed the business was profitable. “He said, ‘You deserve the 30%,’ so he signed over 300 shares of the company, and that’s how I became a part owner of Blue Moon,” Mariscal says.

Even the 2008 recession didn’t slow momentum. “There was a recession, but with Blue Moon, I guess we didn’t feel it because we were concentrating on just working and trying to figure out how to generate business,” Mariscal says.

After Smith died in 2012, Mariscal purchased the remaining 70% from Smith’s wife. “Since then, we’ve continued growing,” he says. “In 2012, we had grown to 15 employees already, and now we have over 35.”

Building on discipline and quality

Mariscal is most proud of doing things the right way. Running a fully legitimate business isn’t always easy, he admits, but it’s a point of pride. “Everything that we do here at Blue Moon is legit, which is not easy to do,” he explains. “I can be proud of myself that I can say that loud. I pay for everything that is needed — insurance, workman’s comp, everything.”

Beyond the paperwork, Mariscal believes what sets Blue Moon apart is its culture and craftsmanship. Having built the company from the ground up, he has personally trained his team with a focus on discipline, respect and humility. “I started the company pretty much from the bottom, so everybody in the company has been learning from me, and one of the things that I always [stress] is good discipline,” he says. He adds that employees are expected to show appreciation to clients as well: “We show respect to the homeowners, and I tell [employees] to thank the homeowners for giving us the opportunity. Part of it is being humble.”

That same attention extends to the business’s operations. Procedures and consistency, both in the office and on the jobsite, are treated as seriously as craftsmanship. “Our crew procedures and office procedures are very important,” Mariscal says. “We do quality work. We do our best.” He also prioritizes using premium materials, even when they come at a higher cost. “Even though we pay more for [quality materials], we still buy them so that we can deliver a good product,” he says.

Mariscal’s daughter and vice president, Cynthia, says her father’s leadership and vision drive the company forward. “He has a really good eye for detail, and he is always thinking of new ideas,” she says. “He’s very innovative.”

Services and specialty finishes

Blue Moon keeps every step in-house — from concrete and tile to complete renovations — a structure Mariscal says ensures quality and accountability.

On the finish side, he notes a differentiator between Blue Moon and competitors. “We’re a Wet Edge certified applicator, and we do this polish product that pretty much nobody else is doing in our area,” Mariscal explains. 

That distinction has fueled steady demand. “We keep on getting calls from builders that they or their customers want us to come and do this kind of finish on their pool,” he says.

And there is even more collaboration with Wet Edge around the corner. “Right now I’m pretty excited because Wet Edge made special colors for us that will be called the Blue Moon series,” Mariscal says. 

Powered by the Hispanic community

For Mariscal, success also comes from the people behind the work. “Pretty much 80% of the personnel that I have is Latino,” Mariscal says. “They’re honest, well-disciplined and work as a team.”

For others hoping to build careers, he emphasizes fundamentals. “First, make a solid foundation and start training personnel from the bottom, teaching them [to work as if] it were their home,” Mariscal says. 

Customer service is another key focus. “We have to train people how to treat a customer,” he says.

He also recommends pursuing opportunities to increase industry knowledge. “Joining educational programs is very important — it’s the key to success,” he says.

That commitment extends beyond Blue Moon. Mariscal serves on the National Plasterers Council, where he is a board member and has sat on the education committee for five years. 

“They announced me as the chairman for Hispanic education for the NPC,” he says. “We are going to start teaching classes in Spanish at the NPC Conference. We’re working on translating a lot of the literature into Spanish and seeing how we can bring more people into the program. The NPC is putting trust in me, so I’m hopeful I can make something happen.”

Family-oriented future

With Cynthia running operations and his daughter Jessie back on the team, Mariscal is confident about the future. “Now with both of them on my side, I’m going to be able to cover a little bit more with the builders and make the company grow so that maybe one day I can retire,” he says with a laugh. When that day comes, he already knows the plan: “If I ever sell it, it’s going be to them.”

The company’s growth is best illustrated in one stark before-and-after. “When Richard bought the company, he only had nine jobs — for the year,” Mariscal says. “And now we’re dealing with approximately 600 or 700.” The growth, like the company, has been steady, disciplined and — as he puts it — “legit.”

Blue Moon Pools

Lupe Mariscal

San Diego, California