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…
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…
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…