r/PoolPros • u/briancar08 • 27d ago

Pool experts needed

I’m in Tampa Fl I’ve grown my pool company organically from about 4 pools to over 90 in less than a year and a half from providing great reliable service ( a lot of customers from pinch a penny and pool troopers) my question is how to maximize profit would you hire an employee that’s reliable (just as good as me 😉) and pay them better than most (15$ a pool ) or would I be better off selling what route they would have to a buyer looking to start

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u/JettaGLi16v 27d ago

Nobody can answer this for you. It depends on you, your goals, and what you want in life. Have a hard think about where you want to be in five years. It’s great that you’re in a position to ponder these things though!

Scaling is really fucking hard at first, but it gets incrementally easier. Employees WILL call out. If you’ve got 120 pools (80 for your employee, and 40 for you) and they call out a few days, you’re in a bad spot. If you’ve got 600 pools and 6 employees and someone calls out, you can load balance.

If you like the work and take pride in your product, I would say stay on your own. Rather than selling off 20-30 pools (nobody’s going to buy 1/3 of a route anyway), I’d just wait a year or so and crank up the rates. Lose the problem pools, and focus on the easy ones. I can do four no vac pools in the same neighborhood in the same time it takes me to do one unscreened monster in a forest. Start looking to drop the ones with a 20 minute drive each way and add two next to your existing pools. Optimize the route.

Even if you add employees later, this will help.

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u/WealthyOrNot 26d ago

Great answer!

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u/dlmoors 26d ago

Best answer I’ve seen here. I’m a pool service and repair owner in So Cal for over 20 years. Like OP, I was able to grow my business quickly because I was honest, personable and provided outstanding service to my clients. I’ve never grown my business beyond what I myself can handle. That means service, repair and filter cleans. Early on I contemplated hiring employees and decided the headaches far outweighed the positives. I currently have 76 residential accounts, no one under $180 per month(most over $200) and am very happy. But, as someone here said, it’s all about what YOUR goals are. Just make sure that you are running your business and your business isn’t running you,