Anyone who has worked in pool service long enough has probably experienced it: A customer notices damage, staining or another issue and immediately assumes the water chemistry is to blame — and that the service company is responsible.
Like many entrepreneurs in the pool industry, Jonah Gonzales started with a side gig — waiting tables, doing manual labor and playing music — just trying to make ends meet in south Texas.
For Jonah Gonzales, the pool industry is both a livelihood and a legacy. In 2012, after years of struggling as a single father, he accepted an offer from his longtime neighbor and mentor, Rick, who owned AllPro Pools. “For years he had been telling me that whenever I was ready to start a [pool] career, he would teach me everything,” Gonzales says. He began as a technician, moving into repairs, and after five years was ready to branch out on his own. Rick gave him his first 10 pools, and Blue Whale Pool & Spa was born.