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New Pool Maintenance Business!!!!! SUGGESTIONS???

Pzach530

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South Lake Tahoe, CA
I'm currently in the process of starting up a pool and spa maintenance company. It's my first company, and I have someone mentoring me who really knows his stuff. Does anyone have any suggestions for a first time business owner. Do's and don'ts??? :smx9:
 
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EasyMoney_in_NC

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I have no experience in your business, but I would just say follow commonly held business practices (do right by the customer, be fair and honest etc....). On a side note, you'll enjoy this: I talked to a guy recently on a completely unrelated topic and it came up that he too was starting a spa service company in my area. He's coming in from another area where he said he went from 100K to 6 mil in revenue within just a couple short years. No one is apparently do spa repair (either as warranty work or after) so it seems as if the business is an un-tapped industry, and ripe with work!

Good luck with it :thumbsup:
 

australianinvestor

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Wow, so many do's and don'ts :)

I'll try to give you some very general ones from my own experience:

- Know your exit plan. Why are you building this business? Is it to build up for a year or two and then sell? Automate it, and hold it for cash flow? Know how it fits into your ultimate plan, or you'll be cleaning pools and managing staff for the next indefinite period of your life, with no idea when it's going to end.
- Don't get caught up in planning and analysing instead of doing. Planning has its place, but do it, FINISH it and get going with the stuff that really needs to be done.
- Learn how to keep financial records - organised and correct. Saves money and headaches, and helps you make better decisions
- Learn how to budget
- Learn how to read and UNDERSTAND financial statements - critical for making good management decisions
- Keep the plan simple - complications increase expense, and increase the likelihood of failure
- Get an accountant, bookkeeper, and lawyer. Take their advice, and make your own decisions. Fire them and get better ones if they don't work out.
- Make your mistakes small. Don't bet the farm on something which isn't certain
- Limit risk. Structure things so the worst case scenario is still an acceptable outcome, if possible.
- Get insurances. Public liability, insurance for your staff, income protection insurance, loan repayment insurance etc.
- Understand that marketing is not just advertising.
- DO MARKETING. DO MARKETING. DO MARKETING. DO MARKETING.
- There are cheap and free ways to advertise, but ensure you don't look cheap
- Advertising is not an expense, it is an investment in future income
- Really understand the competition, inside out, and keep an eye on them.
- Develop multiple services and products you can offer. The right mix of products and services can do wonders (no understatement, just short on time to elaborate).
- Use discriminatory pricing - charge more in more affluent suburbs than in others (ensure service warrants the extra price) if appropriate, or charge less for multiple purchases (eg: 25% off the second, 50% off the third. etc)
- Don't engage in price wars, and don't compete on price. Don't price yourself low (in most cases). Justify your higher price.
- If you are predominantly a service firm, find some products to sell as an add-on to the service and another revenue stream

and one that I cannot overstate the importance of:

- Find a sustainable competitive advantage. I wrote a post on that somewhere here. Check it out (click my name and search my old posts).

and some miscellaneous ideas:

I don't know the name of the office in your part of the world, but if your government requires development applications or permits for pools, awesome! Go buy a BIG map (6 feet by 3 feet or so) of the entire area you intend to service from the government department which is reponsible for property surveys (it shows property boundaries and streets, we call it a Cadastral map, I think), and ask the place that issues the permits for a list of all properties in the same area with pools. Also ask once a quarter for new pool permit application addresses. Build a database of potential customers.

If this doesn't work, perhaps use Google Earth and painstakingly find pools in your area.

Maybe offer different packages for different people: the "lifestyle" package for the pool owner who spends a lot of time in and around the pool, etc.

Find all the spa dealers, and give them a free service coupon to give away with each spa they sell as a freebie, to be used in the first month from the sale date (make it a "post-installation service"). Go to the customer, make sure everything is working right, and sign them up for a service program each quarter/6 mths etc.

Get the spa sales people to add on a service agreement for one year for $x (small commission to them, and the amount is probably financed by the purchaser so is not an immediate cash expense), after all, the customer wants their big investment to be protected and work well so they can enjoy it, right?

Maybe find a place which makes small metal buckets, have your business name and number embossed onto them and use them as champagne bucket promo gifts.



I hope this is useful - I'm running late for a date with my pillow (she's hot - curves in just the right places, very soft, and smells wonderful, like fabric softener!).

Nighty night!

Daniel.
 

White8

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Great post AustralianInvestor +++

I have a few more more suggestions to add:

* Keep up with the latest trends and products for the industry.
* Don't buy equipment for the sake of having the newest, coolest equipment but rather buy what you need.
* Don't neglect the customer to spend time learning to use the latest gadget that really brings nothing to the business.
* Create monthly financial statements as well as the annual and learn to benchmark, spot trends, and track any seasonality your business has and make changes quickly if you spot a problem.
* Don't waste time in the truck running all over town. Schedule your days for geographic areas.
* If you are a maintenance company use service contracts to stabilize cash flow.
* As you grow, work your suppliers for better prices on product.
* Give you business card to local realtors and give them a "spiff" for any sales they generate for you.
 
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LightHouse

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the nice thing is you can gather alot of potential residential clients by using google maps. may not be up to date with the newest images but it will get you started in your area for pools and outdoor spas!
 

CarrieW

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I dont have a business but heres something I learned at my last j.o.b.

some customers arent worth having no matter what. some people are miserable and will never be satisfied reguardless of what you do for them.

a satisfied customer may get you a few referrals or even become a great reference. an unsatisfied customer will tell everyone and anyone how horrible you are.

My ex boss could spend 5 minutes with a potential customer and size them up. He told quite a few people he was sorry and he couldnt help them they needed to take their business elsewhere... the few he was unsure of and gave the benifit of the doubt were nightmares lol.

best of luck

excellent post australianinvestor rep +++
 

Hoop

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A friend of mine runs a pool maintenance biz in the Phoenix area. Some points he has made over the year:

- Pool Repairs are the high margin product/service, so become or hire a knowledgeable technician so that you can capitalize on this.
- You can build up your clientele, then sell the routes to other "I wanna be in the Pool Biz" folks. This works great if you are an effective lead generator/closer.
-Likewise, you can purchase your route from others to get started..generate some cash flow while you figure out your marketing/sales cycle.
- You can easily get sucked into "working in" vs "working on" your biz if your not careful.

-Hoop
 
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U

User62861

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I've done logo, business card and website for the same type of company from Arizona a year ago.

The owner INSISTED on website having all social media links...and I mean ALL, from Yelp to Pinterest.

The guy has never uploaded a single post on any of his SM accounts.

Don't do this! Be where your clients are, on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin and Yelp (not sure how good Yelp is doing lately).
 

Johnny boy

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I have a lawn care maintenance company.

-Recurring services only
-Contracts only. 12 months and all months are the same price so revenue is consistent.
-Credit cards on file charged automatically through quickbooks. QB will help you with taxes later.
-Only two plans offered to customers to keep simplicity.
-Routes and customer notes kept on housecall pro. You can upload a schedule and assign a crew to it and have them access it on an ipad that is kept in a truck. You can also track employees with GPS on the app.


next thing...

-Good website that looks professional
-be able to gather customer information on it so you can follow up with them when its convenient for you. I use forms, autoresponders and scheduling software to make this automatic for me.


next thing...

-start with craigslist ads
-then create a google my business page so you're found on search results
-then yelp
-then home adviser. It really is worth paying for if you're going to sign customers up for contracts over time

Set a very high hourly rate as your goal, and figure out how to make it happen without telling customer's the hourly rate. Build your business around doing the most efficient, highest priced work that is removed of the typical issues of service businesses. You need to quantify the hidden costs of your business model and change it to benefit you. That's why we charge upfront, take credit cards, only contracts and recurring services. Cash flow is wonderful. Being in control of the money is wonderful. Being able to trust you'll have money coming in is wonderful. Not wasting time bidding jobs all day is wonderful.

If you set up the right groundwork, you will save yourself lots of unnecessary work. Always keep your goal in mind to put as much money in your pocket as possible and spend as little as possible. I suggest doing the work yourself until you have a good schedule built up, then hire one worker who you can trust to take care of the work and you can be his backup. You can spend your free time doing anything else. But if you have inefficient systems and a poor business model, you'll have smaller margins, less free time, harder work for your worker to get done, too much paperwork, etc...

My only concern for you is demand. As long as people are in need for your services, you're good. Nobody can find a good lawn care company around here in Washington. People will call, leave messages, call again, find my work email online and send me a message, etc.. They NEED someone. It makes a big difference. You'll get to charge higher prices and have demanding terms like contracts with no cancellations. But if you have little demand and nobody is busting down your door to get their pools maintained regularly, you will have lots of trouble. Just like me trying to grow my business in December. You can't fight demand.
 
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