Mark Jones, 31

Mark Jones told himself that he was young and smart enough to figure out how to maintain his own backyard swimming pool. It took him a full summer, he says, to understand the basics: He made a lot of mistakes and asked a lot of questions at the local pool store.

In 2017, Jones’ neighbor asked him who serviced his swimming pool. “I told him I did,” Jones says. “He said he would pay me what he was paying the last guy and [that] I didn’t have to worry about buying chemicals because he would provide them. I didn’t have to think twice. DEAL! And the rest is history.”

Still a one-man-show, Jones’ ambitions for his business include building pools and opening a local pool store within five years to bring jobs to people in his community. Right now, he says, the area where he services pools and lives doesn’t have a local pool store. “I have to travel more than 30 minutes,” he says, “just to pick up chemicals.”