Rebolt Rundown
The Rebolt Rundown is the definitive, no-fluff guide for home service business owners, delivering actionable marketing strategies and growth hacks designed to help them scale. Each episode features a high-achieving industry expert who breaks down the exact tactics required to move from the daily grind to a success story.
Rebolt Rundown
$20K to a $2M Pool Business - Cliff Burwell | Rebolt Rundown Ep. 5
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Cliff Burwell spent 12 years in the Army, got out with $20K, and built Blue Mountain Pool Care into a seven-figure pool service operation across the Phoenix East Valley.
In this episode we cover how he bought his first route of 25 pools at $85/month, the pricing mistakes most service businesses make early on, why he switched to a plus-chemicals model, how to hire and keep techs in a saturated market, door knocking strategies that actually work, and the ego problem that cost him half his client base.
Cliff also talks about what discipline really looks like as a business owner, why comfort is the enemy of growth, and his plan to double the business and move into pool remodeling over the next five years.
Comfortable is like where you die. The pool business is crazy. If I would have just kept my cool and my ego in check, I'd have double the pools I have right now.
SPEAKER_01Today we're with Cliff Burwell, owner of Blue Mountain Pool Care. From military service to self-made millionaire.
SPEAKER_00He has to be in Iraq and daydream about this shit.
SPEAKER_01He's bootstrapped his way to a seven-figure operation.
SPEAKER_00It's like Donald Trump, right? He got a million dollars from his dad, turned it into four billion. I got 20 grand, turned into a million dollar company.
SPEAKER_01But he's far from finished. In this episode, we unpack the experiences that shaped him, the lessons learned along the way, and the vision driving his next chapter of growth. Would you consider yourself successful? Uh, not yet, no. Now I say I'm on the way. Let's get into it. And we are live here with the Rebolt Rundown. I am here with Cliff Burwell, the owner and founder of Blue Mountain Pool Care. Cliff, thank you for joining us and uh flying out here to Southern California to join us.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for having me. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. All right, Cliff, let's go ahead and start um just level setting. This podcast is really geared for that early stage home service business owner that wants to get into the trades, a stage that you were probably at at one point and just starting out. Um and I think it would be helpful if you just told everybody the name of the business, but then also your guys' specialty, where you guys focus, and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00Right. Uh, name of the business is Blue Mountain Pool Care. Um, and we focus primarily on service and repair. Um, but basically we service the the greater East Valley of Phoenix, uh, which is about eight different cities. So we have tight routes in there. We work on washes and filter cleans and repair and maintenance weekly on the pool system. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Um, let's start from the very beginning, Cliff. So, like, you know, we talked obviously before this, you were in the military. Thank you for your service. Um, tell us like maybe like even before that. Like, were you entrepreneurial growing up? And then how did that phase into the military, your experience there, and then getting into the trades? Because there's gonna be a lot of folks that will watch this that uh had a similar experience or might be in the military right now and want to join the trades.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, um, I didn't have the real entrepreneurial spirit growing up. Um, I always wanted to be in the army. My dad was in the military, so it was like a family tradition. Uh his dad before him. So I always wanted to be in the army. That was my thing. Uh my middle brother, my little brother, he went to college and he's more of the entrepreneurial guy. You know, he has ideas and very disciplined and executes and has been great in that world. So he kind of helped me put the you know bug in my ear, uh, getting out of the military. I did 12 years. So it's almost, you know, pretty much a career. Um, and when you get out, you just have to figure out what you want to do. Do you go to school? What job do you want? What industry do you want to be on? Um, and I didn't think about starting a business and then talked to my brother about it. He said pools would be great, you know. And I was in Oregon at the time, so I got out of the Oregon Army National Guard um as a staff sergeant instructor at the infantry school there um 2016. Um shortly after we moved down, uh got married to my wife. We had three kids and um started the pool business, just uh worked for a pool company and learned the business from the ground up. Worked my way up through you know, pool service provider to cleaning the filters to helping out, getting extra work. Um once I stopped that, I went to another company and saw how they ran it. So I had two companies to have experience from where I could draw a company with, you know, eight, nine hundred pools, which is massive, and then a serve for a service business, and then a company with 150, 200 pools, a smaller side, um, and see how each of them run it, like a shop space, you know, office staff or no shop space from home, multiple text. See how different companies can run it and then follow the numbers and see what works for you. But it's been five years of uh learning as you go. And um I wouldn't change anything. I I think it's the best thing that's happened to me, my family. And uh, like I was telling you earlier, I just want everyone to kind of find their thing, no matter what it is, where they could be in charge of their life and their schedule. Because once you have that, it's you know, hard to put a price on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And when you were in the military, were you always kind of looking at what was going to happen after? And um, you know, was the trades even a thought for you?
SPEAKER_00The trades was it always, you know, I'm a grunt guy, so like infantry is in the soldier in the field, he's the frontline guy. So it's like I like being outside, I like working with my hands. Um, the trades, when I got out of the army a couple months there before we left Oregon, I was working for an HVAC company. So I was uh apprentice for a journeyman who's got he's got his own business now with a couple box trucks and he's killing it in Oregon. Um, but yeah, I was an apprentice doing the HVAC work, and that's all trade work. That's like ponywalls crawling under houses, up in attics, duck seal, setting those units. So it's a lot of hard work and it's like technical too. So a lot of people think you're just a laborer, you're moving stuff around, but you're brazing copper pipe, you're hooking up electrical, you're doing plumbing for condensate lines, like you're literally doing five, six trades. And that's why HVAC, they have the most money out of anybody. Like electricians, anybody, it's HVAC. Because in like Arizona where we're from, if your AC goes out, it like needs to be fixed like right away. Right. Not like in two days. So like they're gonna call somebody. And if you have a presence online, if you're good, it's like you're gonna clean up, you know, um, and no matter what state, but HVAC, if you're good at it and you know the business, yeah, and that's the thing, you have to be like, you can't just private equity can come in and buy companies, but you have to have the knowledge and experience of like my you know, my buddy is a journeyman, he started his own company, he did it for years before he started his. But once he started his, it was like off to like he knew everything. Yeah, he was the installer, he knew the price of stuff, like he's he's ready to roll. He doesn't he doesn't need anything, right? As opposed to starting with barely a little bit of knowledge, you're like barely a little bit going, it's gonna be a lot harder over road and a little bit longer. Yeah. Um, even for me in the pool business, like I told you starting out at $85 a month, including chemicals. Yeah. And now I'm $130 plus chems, minimum.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, bare minimum. Why did you choose the pool space? I know you said your brother said, you know, there are a lot of pools. You were coming from Oregon at the time, just coming out of the military and wanted to go down to Arizona. Right. But why pool services?
SPEAKER_00Pool service is like the biggest, it's the biggest thing in Arizona. Pools and pest control. You know, scorpions down there, everyone wants their pests sprayed in the in the in the desert. And then pools. It's like every other house has a pool. Yeah. Um and so you're spread out. You want to find your area where you're gonna service and then focus on that area. Yeah. Um, it's a fairly saturated market, so the work has to speak for itself. It can't just go out there and be blasé blasé. You have to do a really good job and show that you care. And then that client's gonna tell other clients and it just builds until you get enough rolling. You get a hundred pools, you start getting, you hiring a tech, you're getting trucks, you're wrapping trucks, and then you start, all right, let me go to social media, let me get website people, let me start thinking what can help push me without me doing everything, because then you burn out. Yeah. You get to that phase where it's like, I for me, it's like five years in. I've been doing it January 2020, uh, five years, everything myself, all the clients, all the invoicing, all the quotes, all the problems, all the text, everything. And uh it's a special person that can deal with all that and outlet it affect your personal life or your family life or any of that stuff. So I think I hit my max and now I got an admin that helps with that, and and is that buffer for me where I can take time and think about things and solve situations and handle problems and go get new clients and go forward and not get stuck in the day-to-day the mundane of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so you originally worked at a larger pool service provider coming out of the military. Well, you were doing HVAC work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I applied on Indeed. Uh it was crazy. I applied on Indeed for this pool company just to pool service tech.
SPEAKER_01As like a technician. As a technician. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just to learn the business. Yeah. So they said, Yeah, come down. I came down, um, went there with a collared shirt, did an interview in front of the manager. Like, I like I look back at it now, I'm like, oh, it's a legit business. You know what I mean? Yeah. Compared to, like I said, it's a saturated market. There's a lot of companies out there that don't have a standard or an office or a warehouse or t-shirts, logos, wraps, none of that stuff. How large was this company? I would say, I would say 800 pools, eight, nine hundred pools.
SPEAKER_01I mean, employees-wise, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00Um, 12 techs, you know, four office staff, an owner, got, you know, water recycling truck, because that's big, you know, like the water's going away. Yeah. You know, especially in Arizona. And there's more people moving in, like from California, Washington, Pacific Northwest, everywhere. Um, more houses, more pools, less water. So, like, water recycling is gonna start getting big too. Yeah. Getting those trailers. And those trailers are spendy a couple hundred grand, you know, and then you gotta run them and have the membranes and like purify the water and do all that ozone stuff. So there's a lot that goes into it.
SPEAKER_01Uh and how long were you there and then um until you went off and started your own thing?
SPEAKER_00I think I was there uh eight, eight or nine months. Um, and then I went to my brother, knew someone who was doing a pool business who was, you know, a couple hundred pools, who's smaller. Okay. And so I went there before I stepped off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um learned the two differences.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And if I could, this is a storyline that I hear a lot in talking with owners is they work for a larger provider, they learn the systems processes, the business in and out, and then they go off and do their own thing. So maybe like if you could talk about your learnings during that time and then what made you take the jump to then go start your own thing? Why?
SPEAKER_00Um, well, basically, so I went from that company, the big one, to the small one. I worked my way up to cleaning filters. So they would just give me a list of filters. So I didn't have a route, I worked myself out of a route and started cleaning filters. So I would I cleaned hundreds. They give me a list of five or six and then addresses, and I'd just go clean filters all day long. And once I got done doing that, I'm like, this is decent money. It's more than cleaning the pools. Um, I was like, hey, can I do any repair work? Can I learn that side of it? They're like, we got a guy on salary for that. So it's kind of like, I don't have a route. I'm gonna clean these filters. They're paying this guy to do it. So that's when, you know, I moved off. And I was just having my first kid at the time. So it was kind of a stressful time. Getting out of the military, you don't have like that stable income. You're starting a new position. I think it was $13 an hour before tax. This is January 2020, so nothing. Um, and then yeah, like now it's like my text make four times what I made. Four times. And they take a truck home. And I did, you know what I mean? Like so I set you set it up how you want when you run your own business, but I was like to get out there and just learn from another company, a big company, and then maybe a smaller one, and then just make notes of each of them, be like, this is how I would do it, this is how I wouldn't do it, this is how I'd treat them, this is how I would, this is how I, you know, you know, basically, like you can't inspect what you don't check or tell them what you want to do. You know, like I need this done, I need that, and then never look up, never check on it, then they won't do it. You know, like leadership, that's like what I brought from the military part that's helped me is like like what would how would I feel? Like, because that's what's helped me is like I've been the guy in the truck, cleaning the pool, doing the labor. And so what makes what can I do to make my text job easier or they're enjoy the work. And I told them to I tell my guys, I'm like, hey, if you want to go off and do your own business, you know, I'll get you 20 pools, I'll give you a head start, you know, I'll be there when you call me. Because it's all about and uh connections, like I said, knowing people, making connections in the industry has doubled my business. And I came in with no knowledge. I'm just literally like dudes being mentors, giving me advice, people I can call. Um I'm part of a pool tech page called A Z Pool Techs, you know, which is a Facebook, but it's a big community of pool service providers, and it has so much information. Like for me, that was huge. Like I just went on there being like my own little 30 like brand new start now, and learned years of knowledge just online of just like people going through their mistakes and saying, Don't do this, don't do that. Like, watch out for these red flags. Yeah, this is what you should be charging, like you're way undercharging. So, like getting my prices right, how to deal with clients, how to talk about different issues and maintenance problems was massive for me.
SPEAKER_01So, so you ended up obviously leaving, starting your own, and maybe talk through because we hear this a lot. Like, how do you get your first set of clients? What did you do? You're so you were just having a kid, you had left the past job, now you're starting your own business. What did you do to just get that new business off the ground?
SPEAKER_00Uh, so I told you my brother is an entrepreneur, he's got uh several businesses, and he's always been that go-getter, door knocker, uh, mindset. So, like I said, when I moved down here, we were starting over, um, and I had no experience. And really, I was getting a VA compensation check from the military for my time in the military. So it was a small amount, and it was just enough. And I was thinking the same thing that most people think is like, how do I get my first clients? Like, how am I gonna go about that? And there's a lot of stuff online now where you can buy pool routes and you can do stuff like that and do your due diligence and look into like this thing making money, or is it just a side gig or whatever it is? Um but my brother helped me um buy the first route. It was 25 pools, uh January 2020. And from there it's it's like Donald Trump, right? He got a million dollars from his dad and turned it into four billion. I got 20 grand and turned it into a million dollar company. Yeah, but it's that's what it is. Like some guys have to work a full-time job and then do it on the side and build up. And those guys I have the utmost respect for. If someone um didn't get a loan from family or a bank and and do it like that and just built it up from their side, like those are the guys that always get my taut to the hat. Yeah what I mean. Yeah. Because for me, I've I look at myself like yeah, I am a success. You know, we've done a lot, we've grown a lot. Um, but having that initial of someone who has a business mind like my brother, of someone who knows a contract, to like, hey, here's a contract, like here's 20 grand. It's for me, it was everything. Like that was I'm like, dude, I cannot mess this up. Like, this is gonna set me up for like, and and I had that same mindset to like I want to triple this money, right? I want you know what I mean. I want to just kill this thing. And looking back at it now, I'm like, yeah, that's yeah, he was huge. He was huge. Getting that little bump was massive, but you know, you could go to a bank and get a loan, like 15, 20 grand, you can get 20 pools, yeah, you know, and just start from there and just do due diligence. Like ours was 85, including Cam's. Like I just we just got it to get going, yeah. Get a route and get going. And if I could go back and do it again, like I don't buy routes, I sell them. So I'll sell routes and make money on, but I won't buy them because I get them too easy, you know, yeah through the marketing and everything else. Like I'm not gonna pay. It's really hard to pay for a route when you get them when you're getting two or three clients a week. You're not it's like, how much do you want? 50 grand? Yeah for like, and then it's like you're you're getting other clients that aren't your clients. Right. So they know how Arwin works, they don't know how Cliff works, you know how how we operate. And so without like contracts or stuff or you know, stuff in place, it's like, hey, you could sell that route and lose 10 of them people, and unless it's in the contract that, like, hey, I'm good, I'm not paying for those, you know, if they jump within like 90 days because they don't like the way we do it. Yeah. You know, there's so much that goes into buying and purchasing routes, but that's another way where guys get pretty big pretty quick.
SPEAKER_01So let's say somebody doesn't have, let's say, the ability to buy a route or can't for some reason go get financing to then buy a route. Oh, dude, I would just door knock.
SPEAKER_00If I, if I if I go back and like, okay, you don't have uh a lucky little brother, then I would go door knock. Like what is it? So now I not just like literally I like I do it now. I'll drive around and do quotes and I'll just go on my phone and I'll go on maps and I'll go in the same like neighborhoods we have pools in, or where I'm doing a quote and I'll just look at maps and I'll look at who has pools and I'll go, this one does like skip that one. I'll park the truck and I'll get my ass out with the door hanger and go out there and door hang those pools because it's like we're in the neighborhood already doing service, and that's like that's the best part for a home service is like I got three clients on the street, I just turned it into six. Yeah, that's no windshield time. That text there, like his day just got way shorter because half of his day is on the same street. Like, yeah, there's you just constantly in the pool service business, it's tightening the routes. Like, I have a pretty big spread because I want a thousand pools, so that I'm not quiet about it. But the guys who make real good money got 300 pools in one city, right? Like tight, no windshield time. They've curated it perfect, they have their pricing down. They've and it takes years to do that. Like, that's not like I've been in this five years, 85 to 130 plus. Like, imagine dudes 10, 15 years in, they that's the 800s. Like they lock it in. Yeah, you that you just tight the shot group gets tighter and tighter. It's just always getting tighter. You're always watching the numbers and what's coming in, what's going out. Um, and then in the industry with pools, it's always new manufacturers. There's automation, there's ozone, there's salt systems. There's always something new coming out for a client that's like, hey, I want that. I want this heater. I want to, it's Airbnbs are massive, like people need stuff working all the time. They want stuff on their phone. They want to be able to monitor it when they're not there. They don't want, you know, the Airbnb guests touching stuff. So there's a lot that goes into it and it's constantly evolving. And that's kind of my job too, is just to be on top of it and then talk to the techs and the repair guy, make sure everyone has the knowledge.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I'm curious, like the door knocking tips, tricks, what to do there, because we see a lot of the time folks come into the trades, and I've heard this before is like just go out and just figure out how to get your first set of customers. If that's door knocking, if that's mailers, if that's going to the local grocery store and tabling for whatever it is, just like figure it out. So what um if someone's going out and door knocking as an example, how like what would you advise them to do?
SPEAKER_00Uh door knocking, I did it with my brother when we first started. Yeah. Because I'll do the hangers, you know? And it's still to me to knock is like, unless you're like a sales guy and it's just you got to drill it into you, it's like you're bothering, you're like, you're for me, it's like you're bothering somebody, you know? Yeah. It's like, what do you want? You know, if someone knocks at my door and it's like past three o'clock in the afternoon or something, and I'm like, what hangar me for dinner? Like, what is it? Who do they want? You know what I mean? Um, but if you get past that, like anybody at sales, if you get past the rejection, past no one answering, like I think I went with my other brother too. We met twice. Um, and we went and just door hanged, didn't even knock. And I got two clients off of door hangers for like two hours in Sun Lakes, which is a retirement community. And I go, wow, I didn't even knock and we got to. So it is, if you get one or two and you just put in that little bit of effort, it can compound. And it, if I did it every day, you know, that'd be a goal of mine is to be like, all right, I'll just be the sales guy. Cause it's hard to hire, you can't hire a sales guy like in solar or some other business to go buy to go sell pools. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like it's saturated market. You have to and you have to be able to pay them to do that. Like a sales guy, it's like, how much, you know, a hundred bucks isn't gonna do it. You need to give them a thousand dollars per account and that counts a thousand dollars. Yeah. So it's like, what are you gonna do? Just go knock and I have the knowledge. So if you have the knowledge and you go out there and knock and you look at the pool, like I say, if I can get in a backyard with a client, like 90% close. If I can get in the yard and talk to them about the pool and equipment and answer any questions they have, it's gonna get a close. Interesting. Um so yeah, I would say that's it's been a good experience. It's just you have to do it uh all the time.
SPEAKER_01And at um what point? So you had bought the first route. Um, and then at what point? Well, one from a systems and like software standpoint, what did you have integrated at the business at the very beginning? If anything, we see a lot of the time nothing with the notebook. Guys are pen and paper, right?
SPEAKER_00Pen and paper. Well, I still have that notebook.
SPEAKER_01I still have the and what were you tracking on the notebook?
SPEAKER_00Oh, just put like their name, address, like their rate. What rate I had them at and uh what systems they had, what you know, pumps, filters, um, any kind of dog stuff. I could just write any information down, but it was literally a notepad. Yeah. And then it went from that to collecting checks and cash and timer boxes to QuickBooks. Still, I it's still one guy that pays with a check and he's like 99. So I'm like, whatever, I'll meet with the tech, you know, when I see him and grab that check, you know, and it's we do it for him. Like, I'll be sad when Bob goes, you know. That's another thing. When you're a client's for years and you're in their yard every week, like people get divorced, people pass away. You're like, Wait, I never heard from him. He's not wow, he's not texting me back about the dogs, or this payment's not been made, or update the payment method or whatever. And then so and so's daughter or sister calls, hey, he's gone, he had a heart attack, whatever. It's just like, whoa, I just talked to that dude last week. Yeah. So I've had probably four or five, you know, just like crazy stuff where you talk to people and then one day they're not there. Oh my god. And it's kind of crazy because you build relationships, like I was telling you, the pool business is crazy. You're in a client's yard weekly. There's no other business that's in a client's yard weekly. So there's a lot that can go wrong, and there's a lot that you need to be on your Ps and Q's, how you deal with clients and be professional and have the logo shirt. We have hats, we have wraps. Like my guys know that, like, hey, you're an extension of me out there, you know. Yeah. Um, because if anything happens, I will be the first to hear about it, you know. Yeah. Because they do know Cliff, you know, like ultimately I'm doing the quotes, they're meeting with me. Right. Um, and then the tech goes and services the pool and gets on the schedule and everything like that.
SPEAKER_01And so at what point after buying the route? So you were pen and paper, just like, you know, uh figuring it out in the early day. At what point did you feel like, okay, now this is the next step in the business and I need to start upgrading? Uh, when did you like get there and how did you I would say it happened quick.
SPEAKER_00Um, because January 2020, think about it, it's when COVID kicked off. So it was like 85 for that route. A guy was charging 85, including chems. So then it didn't take more than a month or two to realize, oh, this guy's not making any money, right? And I'm not gonna make any money doing this. And then I start talking to other people at the supply shops and and other guys on pool techs and stuff. And I'm like, they're like, what are you charging? Like, bro, are you kidding me right now? And then so it's slowly gone up. It was a hundred including cams, a hundred plus, one twenty plus, one thirty plus. And now I'm 130 plus like minimum for, and that's to pay the techs and to have the insurance and to do the job right. You know, it's just the cost of running something, yeah, will always go up. And then that's the hard part as a business owner, is like you got to pass that cost on a little bit to the to the client so they know what value they're getting and what they're paying for, and us to be there. Like if you text your pool company or email them and you don't hear back for like three days, you're like, oh, it's no big deal. I guess it's not a fire, like the pool's not overfilling. But if you text or email your pool company and they get back to you within 24 hours or the same day, it's like probably pay a little bit more for that because you know someone's there that if it was an emergency, they're gonna take care of it. So, like, never we haven't lost, I haven't lost that. Like getting back to people, speed is everything. Yeah. And if I've more times than I can count um before I got an admin and I was just getting start to get burnt out, or it was like, what? What quote? When was this? You know, or it just didn't, or it just slipped my mind and it just starts to go. You know, it gets to a level where it's too much. Um, but the focus is like, hey, I missed that call. I'm calling like right away. Yeah. It's like really hard. Some family stuff, whatever you don't pick up, but like I've there's been plenty of times I didn't pick up the phone and they left a voicemail and then I call and they're like, oh, we gotta take care of. Like within like a half an hour. Yeah. I'm like, whoa, bro, half an hour, like they're done taking care of. Someone hooked them up, you know? So it's quick picking up the phone call, calling them back, texting people, emailing them back. Um, that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_01And and at what point did you uh introduce like a true kind of um like website into the business, Google Business Profile? You start thinking about these sort of things because early stage, it's like figure it out, just get business. But then when did you uh introduce that? And then also where did you go to at that point to get it?
SPEAKER_00Um I'm trying to think if QuickBooks was yeah, I think it was a few months into it. Me and my brother found QuickBooks. Um, and then we've been using QuickBooks ever since. And now we have Skimmer, which is a CRM that we use to do all of our tracking the pools and payment and all that stuff. But it's been from a notebook to QuickBooks was the biggest thing. And then QuickBooks over. It's gonna like everything just evolves to get better and better and be more simplified to have everything in one place. Um, but I would say, yeah, that first six months I was on QuickBooks from that notebook. And then from there, it's like night and day difference. You can actually do quotes and send everything and have all the information there. Um, yeah, I'd say like six months after I started, I got QuickBooks pretty quick.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then also, this is something that I hear a lot is like hiring in the trades is difficult. Finding the right technicians is difficult. At what point did you bring in the first person? Um, how did you find them? What were you looking for?
SPEAKER_00That's another lucky one because the guy who helped me build my hundred pools, Chris, shout out, he's awesome. Um, he worked at that first big company that I was at, and he was the helper there. So he was helping the owner and helping the repair guy. He was kind of like floating around doing what he wanted. The older guy, really cool guy, fun to talk to. And I would just, you know, talk to him when I was there loading up cams or do whatever, built a relationship. And then once I was ready to go off that second company, and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna step off. We're gonna get this route. I'm just gonna go do it. Um, I said, hey, when I had enough pools, like 50, 70, I was getting to be too much. I said, hey man, uh, this is why I could pay you. If you're ready, I think it'd be awesome. We could blow this thing up, and then we can go more and more. Um, he's like, let's do it. I'm done. So he stepped out. He was there for a few years and he just stepped away. And him, that was a huge catalyst, like just good people. Like him helping me was massive. Yeah. Um, and then get to that hundred pools and push past and then hire the replace him because he left and went to do a brewery with his buddy, Milwaukee. So he like got my company going. Like, I've always well, oh, Chris is awesome. And then got my hundred and then took off, hired somebody else. Um, Dellon's been with me like four years now, which is for it for a pool tech, it's crazy. That's another thing, too. And this business, like it's saturated. If you go to companies and like, hey, raise your hand, someone who's been here longer than a year. Yeah. You'll have like two people, like the office guy and the owner and somebody else. Yeah. But it what you want is like who's been here longer than two years. Like, when you have people that stick around, um, I just treat them like I'd want to be treated because that was that tech. I think the problem is that you get too far away from cleaning the pool and doing the work. Yeah. And then you're like, dude, it's not hard. Like, what are you talking about? It's like, well, then you go do it. You go do it in 110. Yeah. And go do a 40,000-gallon pool and it'd be sweating, like dripping off your face, and then blast the AC, and then go to the next one and drink water and don't get heat exhaustion. And uh yeah, it's just it's a lot, and it is, it's younger guys, 20s, typically. My guys are in their 20s, yeah, mid to early. Like I'm 38. Like I go clean a pool now. Yeah. It tears me up. Oh, my shoulders, the core, everything. I'm like, it is hard work when you got that pole and it's long and you're leaning over and you gotta skim everything out. So people that can work hard, um, like trustworthy is the biggest thing. If like they lie to me, can't have that like at all. It's like immediate done. Um, because yeah, trustworthiness and showing up, like being dependable. Like I've been so lucky, dude. In five years, I haven't had anybody calling sick. Wow. And if they have, they were like done. I just fired them right there. Cause they can't, because in the pool service business, you can't be like, oh, I'm not gonna come in today. Well, then who's gonna do your pools? Like me? Yeah, I'm gonna get in the truck and go do your pools? Cool. Well then don't come in tomorrow. Yeah. Because that like unless in the hospital, like I'm a military guy, I'm like so. It's like broken leg, sick surgery, something going on where you cannot come to work. I get it. Like everyone's human. Of course. But if you're just like, oh, I went brown bottle flu and went drinking or whatever, and you're like, I this someone will cover it, wrong oh. You know, like that, maybe at a big, big company where they can revolve the doors and have guys float around and cover routes. Um, but the way that I run it is like everyone's I tell them like we're a team, you know, like if they need someone needs to cover something, we cover down. Like I'll go cover down, guys will cover down and they know that that's there, but it never needs to happen. Yeah. Because they don't call in sick. They like I said, if you set up the company right and your guys right and treat them how you want to be treated, you know, they're not working that 40-hour work week. This is the pool business, and this is Arizona. Every service business is a little different. Yeah. Um, but if you can get a full-time paycheck on a 25-hour work week with no commuting, people don't understand that. Right. And they're like, oh, it's just a pool boy. I'm like, pool boys make 50 grand a year. Yeah. And they work 25 hours a week and they take a company truck home. Yeah. So there's a lot that goes into it um with the tax. And like I said, when I say 50 grand, like how you make it not even 20, right? That's like crazy. That's what I mean in five years, how it's jumped. Yeah. And how the everything has gone up.
SPEAKER_01But and how do you approach um being in the uh the homeowner's uh home, right? It's a very di I mean, this is all what the trades is, is you're going into somebody's home. What are the principles?
SPEAKER_00Is like when people come over to like my house to do something, like anybody, yeah, and they don't put like the booties on their on their shoes. Like we take off our shoes at the house. You got little kids crawling around.
SPEAKER_01They're like a uh Blue Mountain, this is the protocol every time you go in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, if we're like we text ahead for clients if they have dogs, so they know that we're coming and we give them a service day. So between six and noon on that specific day, we'll be there, like always, which is awesome. People love that. They know Blue Mountain's gonna be there between six and noon, and it's gonna be the same day every single week. Um, but yeah, if most of the time we don't have to interact with the clients, like pest control, my pest control guy will come up, knock on the door. Hey, anything you want us to hit, collared shirt, and they run it. I like, I like that's solid company, you know. For us, it's the same thing. It's like we're ready there to engage the client and talk to them, but we're going through the side gate, we're going straight to the pool, we're going to the equipment, or like doing that work of it. Um, and then, you know, shh the sliding door will open. A client will come out or hey Joyce, hey, how's it going? Hey, you know, and then you start talking about the pool. And it really is um watching how you conduct yourself. Like my guys, they wear hat, wear a shirt, a company truck. Maybe they may have tattoos or they're a little, you know, a rougher look to them, yeah, but very professional.
SPEAKER_01Now, how important is the branding when you're going to these homes?
SPEAKER_00It's huge because I see guys that don't have the branding. Um, like I get calls on the trucks all the time. Hey, I just saw your truck. Hey, I just saw a truck in the neighborhood. Or and sometimes it'll take a year or two in a neighborhood, be like, hey, I've seen your truck here at Rob's place, like two doors down, for like a year. So I think we're ready. Like literally, we'll wait a year and make sure that truck's there every single week. Like, these guys don't miss a beat. Yeah. And then boom, I got it. So, like wrapping the trucks was was huge. That's one of the big lists. Brand recognition is um social media pushing it, but having the trucks on the road. When I see wrap trucks, and I'm like, guys got it going on, you know, because it's just once you get one, two, three, four, and you just start rolling them, um it's that free advertising for you. It's that it's that um that brand recognition that you finally want.
SPEAKER_01And what about so on that's like the servicing piece? Obviously, you want to have great branding. It sounds like you guys just go straight to the back. It's not like pest control where Yeah, we don't have to knock on the door. Right. What about the quoting process though?
SPEAKER_00Do you have like So for the quoting, I will um so basically like a lead will come in. You guys will send me the lead, right? And I'll just go straight there, I'll text a client, I'll call them most of the time because it's faster on a call than a text. Um, like one came in the other day, I have it on my meta glasses, but I was like by the storage unit about to drop the trailer off, and the lead comes in, and I'm like, what? I take it. It's like three minutes away from me. I'm like, damn, I can get this now before he dropped the trailer off and go home. So it was a cool thing. Hit the quote. I mean, the guy went online and typed in pool service, you know, Chandler. And five minutes later, I was at his front door. That's crazy. I just thought about that. I'm like, that's I love that. Like, that's like as a business owner and as a you know, as a service business, you're like, that's awesome. I can't imagine like sitting on my couch and be like, uh, get a quote on the pool. And then five minutes later, like a dude's in the truck with the uniform walking through your pool. Yeah, like you're like, okay. And that's what I mean. Like, I'm gonna close if I'm there and the client's there, and like even if the client's not there, because they'll be like, hey, I'm not home till four. And I'm like, well, I'm not gonna be there at four either. So I, you know, um, is there dogs on the property? No, cool. I'll just go to the back, you know, and then I'll text you when I get there. I'll look at the equipment, I'll test the water, and then I'll give you a call and I'll go over everything, go over a service package. And so a lot of times I don't even talk to the like I have clients I've never met or in person. Very interesting. Um, only talk to them on email or the phone or something.
SPEAKER_01So you when you quote, you'll just go through, look at everything in the back, and then after the fact, you'll give the owner give them a call.
SPEAKER_00And if they're there, I'll I'll meet, shake hands. Hey, Cliff, blue mouth pool care. Yeah. So what's going on with the pool? You know, and then have them tell me, like, hey, oh, this last guy really did meh. Yeah, whatever, the pool's out of issues or the pool's brand new. Like, please take care of it. Like, it just got refurnished, it's brand new equipment. So everyone kind of get that backstory on the pool. And then for us as a service company, it's like I'm there because my guys are going to be cleaning it. I don't want them going to a yard that's like full of dog poop or like trash or people don't care about it. Cause that's another thing too. It's like we want these pools, we want all the work, like that's our goal is to get as many clients right and do a good job. Um, but you can't focus on doing a good job and and give that level of service if you're focused on not stepping in and something or you know what I mean? Like it's just you're you're focused on the backyard or something that's or a dog that's just going crazy, you know, because we tell people, hey, we'll be there in 15 minutes if they have a dog, so that dog's up, you know, because if you have a dog barking for like 15 minutes while you're cleaning a pool, you're like, even if it's a little one, you're like, dude, come get the dog inside, you know. Um, but yeah, I would say it really 70% of the time talk to a client. I would say 30% don't talk to them at all. Just go back to the yard and do the business.
SPEAKER_01And um, I'd love to know marketing-wise. Uh, we kind of talked after about six months, you started to put effort into the website and that sort of thing. Um, but maybe talk about your experience with like different marketing providers, what people in the trades should look for in the right person, um, group, agency, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, it's hard to find. Uh for us, it's like putting money into a black hole if you don't have the information and you don't know what you're doing, you know? So um just looking around like the website, QuickBooks. Once that was done, it was like, okay, Facebook, social media, like Instagram, like all this stuff that we have to do, they can get overwhelming. So that's when it's like, or I gotta find a company who at least can like monitor the website and like there if I need anything or I need to send, I need to update a picture, or can I add this service area to the web page or all that stuff? Um, that will help tighten like the shock group. Like I said, it helps everything come together. Um, when you just have all these ideas and you're doing it all yourself and you don't, you're like, dude, I'm just focused on the client and getting the client and doing the work, you know. And then once you have the work getting done and the clients are coming in, then you focus on like where are the clients coming from, where should I put the money and energy? Um, that's a that's a big piece. Like I didn't the QuickBooks to the CRM to we've had, you know, skimmer three or four different things uh to end up where we are now with you guys. Yeah. So um, yeah, I a little bit of a trial and error, but at least there's a lot of stuff online now where you can go look, like your website, you can go see exactly what they do, what they offer, um, as opposed to just going out there blind and like making a Google business profile and like trying to do the verified thing without anybody helping you, because then it is a black hole. You know, if you have no experience in it, it's it's rough.
SPEAKER_01What would you say are like the bare minimum, like the basics of if I am uh coming into the trades and um I want to, I don't know, get my website set up, my Google business, but like what is an absolute must-have early on? Um from your experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say uh people with a brand, you know, that's it's like growing at kind of the same rate, right? Because you have that brand that you're trying to build. Um and if it's just you, you don't even have anybody yet, you know? So that's that's the tough part too, is like I did it without like the website for a few months. Like, like just getting to that piece um can feel like daunting, right? Yeah. Um, but getting the website and then figuring out who can help manage it and help grow it, uh, grow the reach. Because that was my problem. I made the website, the Facebook, the Instagram, and then left it and post randomly here and there where it doesn't work like that. Yeah. You know, it's like an algorithm. You have to feed that thing like constantly, like anything. Um but yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01It's no, that's that's helpful. Just like the basic brand, along with, you know, maybe a basic website early on, get that first set of cohort or that first cohort of customers and then kind of go from there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because that that first client base, if they know your brand and your name, your name and your brand is is everything. Word of mouth. And then once, and then you know, like in any service business, like you have like a one-star review or you have people that you have to deal with that are just cannot be you cannot make them happy. Yeah, there's nothing, there's almost nothing you could do um to make them happy. And then you have to learn how to work around that. Yeah, it's like the people part of the business. Like as much as it is a service business to clean the pool, it's like it's a people business. Because if you don't get along with the client, the client doesn't think that you're taking care of their pool or the best interest or doing a good job, then it just goes downhill from there.
SPEAKER_01How do you deal with bad clients?
SPEAKER_00Um, I take with I take a minute now before I get a call and someone's pissed or they start yelling at you, or whatever it is, it's kind of crazy. The service business is crazy. Um I would just, because I'm that military guy, I'm like, oh, a fight. Let's go. I love it. You know, that's you get me fired up. And I like I can hear people like my, you know, I'll hear my heart will start thumping. I'm like, ooh, maybe I gotta go in the garage and Mui Thai kick this heavy bag a couple times, and then I'll call her back. Because it's like sometimes people come in and they just throw it all on you, and I go, wait, did you forget about the two years of every single week we were there with everything perfect? And all the times I texted you back and called you back on the weekend and whenever it was to make sure your stuff was squared. But we forgot all that because of some little thing that's just blown your mind. You know what I mean? And I just like the last year, I've slowly been better at like, hey, this truck's broke down, like it's gonna be, you know, 1200 bucks, like whatever, cool, get it on the road. Like, I just it it slowly stopped to let stuff affect me like that because they're so like being positive is everything, you know, like that negative dole, that negative energy is like that one, it's crazy. And other guys as service businesses will just laugh when we talk about it too, because it you could have three clients take up all your head space. Yeah, like three or four.
SPEAKER_01What yeah, no, that makes sense. And and in that same vein of thought, like what characteristics do you feel like are needed to be a successful tradesman, an owner in this space? What do you think?
SPEAKER_00It's like a thick skin, like that's like I have to work on that is the thick skin. Um and like for me, the hardest thing for me was like a respect, like I'm in the military, so everything's respect. If I feel that was the that's what's that's what's kind of like been my hindrance to be honest, my biggest one is that because I have like so much self-respect. They respect like I just demand it and I give other people. So if I get disrespect, I I don't care about the money, I don't care about anything done to me, done. I don't want to see you again. So when a client's completely disrespectful or whatever, then it's like I've had the rebuttal on the review. I don't, I'm not gonna do that anymore. It's like I've like anything you mature through life, um and now I've just like okay. Was I in the wrong? Was the tech in the wrong? I try to look at every single angle. I slow down and I go, okay, they're working for me. Cliff's working for me. This is what happened. Um, I'd be a little pissed. Yeah. All right, Roger, I get it. Okay. And I, hey, you know, I'm sorry. Let me give you a discount for the service for this month for this. You know, like we were on the wrong here. I apologize for that. And I've done that. And I'm cool with it. I could admit, you know, like, hey, we're gonna take the heat. I I'm pa I'm sorry, but when there's nothing that we did wrong and is still going at it, it's like, you know, uh, you know, best of luck. Because I've had people, another thing too, you can't let you get jaded is uh I've had people I've had for three and a half years. This just happened last weekend. I had this client for three and a half years and he jumped for $10. He said, My neighbor's guy does it for $140, including Chem's. Go, I can't compete with that. He's like, Yeah, all right, you know, I appreciate all the years, Cliff. You've been great. And I'm like, when people start jumping on you for $10, $15, it makes it like, because then you you can't let it jade you on the really good clients that like give your text $100 on Christmas. Like my text to get like, you know, a thousand dollars in cash from Christmas cards from doing all year, every single week, doing a good job so that Christmas comes around, you might get a little something. You know what I mean? Do you ever turn down clients just because you're definitely yeah, and I do that more now than uh like that's the biggest, like like I said, how good three clients can take all of your headspace. Wow. How important is it's not worth the money ever.
SPEAKER_01How important is doing that, would you say?
SPEAKER_00It's massive. Because if I if I can focus, this is this is how big of a problem it is. And if it's not my problem, it's the admin or the office person's problem, but you're just passing the buck. Because then they don't know what they're not the owner, they don't know all the history. I have three years of history. That's the thing, that's like a locked trap with these people. I have five years of service records. Like I have everything, every um voicemail. I save shitty voicemails from people that want to threaten me. Like I have everything. This is my business. Like it's personal, you know. It's like it's gonna be around for a long time. It's a legacy thing. My boys will run it someday. That's my goal. Um, so and I can't hide anywhere. I'm public facing, I'm on Google. Like I'm everywhere. You go look at the reviews. And maybe I have two one stars, but look at the 105 stars. Yeah, you know, and then you can kind of see, oh, those two might be a little loopy. You start reading them, you know. But um, see, there I go going backwards a little bit. Yeah. Um, it's been a good experience. I've learned so much in five years. I'm excited for the next five years. Yeah. Like the next five years will be even way crazier than this. Like where I've come in five years from you know, 20 pools, 85 including cans, to hundreds of pools, 130 minimum. Right. But not even getting into the repair side of the of that. Um the upside's just massive. There's that's the one thing about pools. There's you can make as much as you want to work. You can make as much as you want to work.
SPEAKER_01How do you systemize it all? So you get to a point to where we see this a lot, like owners are doing everything themselves, and then they start like delegating slowly out of like pain because they have so much. How did you systemize? And it sounds like that's the point at which you're at today where you're not you are working on the business, not in the business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I had uh my army buddy operations guy come in and help me out with that a few months ago. Basically got a quote set up where they have a client portal, like they're putting a payment method on file, cleaned up, cleaned up the books, like went through my uh commercial accounts that are net 30 and stuff like that, and went through invoices that weren't billed out, right, and stuff, and did a lot of stuff in the scenes too, which I have no idea how like I was missing that much, you know, which is crazy. But you know, when you get up there and you get hundreds of clients, it's not that hard to miss one or two little things. Yeah, you know what I mean? And then it can turn into something bigger. You're like, I can't believe I forgot that quote, or I forgot this or that. And then it's slowly like, all right, you're sending out these texts, you're sending out these uh emails, these batch emails to all the clients. And then they slowly start knowing that number and talking to him. And if I'm talking to a client and it's like, hey, they're like hitting me up like I'm the pool guy, then I go, hey, you know, um, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have Craig, he's gonna help you out and he's gonna talk you through this. And if you have any questions, you know, text the office, like the service email you get the report to, reply to that. It goes to the office, they'll respond. Um, you know, and if anything past that, just let me know, you know. But it's kind of like you have to get that little that because I'm there for the quote. They know me for a couple of days, I send them to the office, they get everything uploaded, they get put in the system. Yeah. And then from that point, I want to move on to the next hunt. You know what I mean? If I get stuck there talking to them for weeks and weeks, it's like give them something that's not really gonna be gonna be there for the and then they'll be because that's what's the problem is like I was doing all the pools up to a hundred pools, like everyone knows Cliff, they don't know anybody else. But now it's like they hear me on the phone, or maybe they don't even see me. They just know Dylan or they know Ryan or Tony, they know the tech there. So that's the whole part of them being an extension of me, where I don't have any. If they have to switch routes or a tech has to go in a different pool, they they don't notice that someone's gone. That's the goal. Right. It's like it doesn't matter. Like, oh, Dylan's not here, like because I miss him because I talked to him, but the pool still looks great. Yeah, cool. I could switch like the same standard to get the job done and do it right. Um, and then like always just there's a camera in every yard. That's like like that right there, just being like, someone's watching you. You're like, okay, cool, I'm not gonna make mistakes. That's that's enough deterrent, or I feel like that helps me out enough. You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, very cool, very cool. And it sounds like you kind of have that like plug and pay play modular system at this point. On the flip side, I'm curious. Uh, with the marketing, obviously, you do that through us. Uh, I hear, well, we know a lot in the space how important speed to lead is in terms of like, hey, a lead comes through. You talked about it earlier. But um like what would you emphasize there? Like, what are the things that you do that really help turn a lead into an actual paying customer?
SPEAKER_00Uh well, the speed, like number one is just getting to talk to them right away, uh, getting on the property right away is fast. Um, but then like also it's like the leash, you know, it's like if I didn't see that thing come in, if I wasn't checking it, then it could have been like 15, 20 minutes, could have been gone, you know. Um, so being on top of it, seeing the updates come in, the speed of it, um, and then having the knowledge to talk, like once you get the lead, like then it's game on. Cause then it's like, all right, what do you know? When can you get here? What is your price? Try not to talk about price right over the phone, you know, because then it's like, or sometimes it's good because it like cuts it off so you don't waste 15 minutes. You know, sometimes like, oh, I'm not gonna do that. Okay, cool. But that lead from getting it to just being fast, and like fast is everything, you know, like especially with leads, like no matter what business, like any kind of business, if you're there first, you got a good chance. And then if you got a uniform or you know what you're talking about or you your time in the trade, then it's like 90% there. Yeah, then just don't say anything stupid, right?
SPEAKER_01That's all it is with that point. Yep. And we hear that a lot, obviously. And um, so uh tell us about now the the current stage of the business, and then I want to hear uh more about the future plans. What where where's to next, right? You've been doing this for five years, systemized a lot of it. It sounds like you got like 300 some pools now at this point, maybe a little more. Um, what's the current state and where are you going?
SPEAKER_00Um so right now it's like I'm one in, one out, I'm not totally out of it. I still have admin, but I'm still doing the quotes, I'm still doing the repairs, I'm still in it that way. Um the next the next five years, I think will be like the biggest. Because with the amount of knowledge and time in any trade, the amount of time and knowledge that you get, you can just you can double. You can literally double or triple. It's just the effort. Because before you're putting effort in with no knowledge, and now you're putting effort in with knowledge and experience. It's like you can wipe people out. And I've seen, like I said, in the pool service business, I've seen the guys that don't take it seriously, and I've seen the guys that take it seriously and do the um posting every day and buy the new Tacomas and wrap them with the $3,000 wraps and do the real deal. Um, and that's the serious, like you have guys that are holding that line, and then you see the bottom bar down here, you're like, wow, there's not a lot of people in that middle anymore. Someone we want it done for a hundred bucks, or they want a professional company, and we're all within like 20, 30 bucks, and then it's game, like I said, it's game on. You got to have the nice wrap, look good, clean uniform, good hat, and and talk well and know what you're talking about. Yeah. Um building, I think, would be in the next five years, building, remodeling. Yeah. Have the service side, but then being able to serve our own clients. Because right now I sub all that work out. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands of dollars I sub out yearly. So, like, say if I have 250, 300 clients, uh, people remodel their pools every 10 years, resurface at least, you're gonna about every 10 years. So just think about that. Yeah. And an average resurface is 10 grand. So, and then if you're subbing that work out, depending on who your subs are, because they all there's very few people in-house that do the pool builds and remodels. It's all subbed out through other companies. It's just the the contractor on site going through with the homeowner and be like, hey, what do we want this backyard to look like? Like where do you want the pergola? Like, do you want a spa? Do you want it raised? How many LED lights? Um, and then you're supervising. Yeah. But you're be you that way, you're with the client that you've been with for years. Like that, that for me is exciting because it's going to be a whole other avenue for us to go down. Because we already know the pool intimately by being there every week. We're servicing it, we know the equipment, but now we can talk to the client about remodeling. We know the yard, we know the equipment, we know the issues they had before. So for me, I think the next five years, that'll be my big focus is building, remodeling, um, and have the service side locked in and and growing.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. And and after that, sounds like you that you want to pass this down to your kids.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That two boys. Yeah, I think that and they're redheads too. So we'll see how that works out in Arizona. But uh, yeah, that is my goal. Of course, maybe they want nothing to do with the pools. Yeah. Which in that case we'll we'll cross. We'll deal with it when I get there. But that's a that's a ways away. Like I said, in the next five years, I think it we're gonna double. I think we'll double in the next five years and and I'll be building.
SPEAKER_01Love it. And so what um would be the single biggest mistake you felt like you made, and then also the single best decision you feel like you've made in the past five years?
SPEAKER_00Single biggest mistake uh is my ego. As that is the number one. Like, if I showed you my active clients and I showed you my list of inactive, they'd be two armies of equal size. And I'm not kidding. I'll show you the number one I'm done. Because I've I that that that respect thing. Like if I get disrespected, I'm done. Like there's no amount of money that can bring me back to you, you know? And I let that get, and it was just, you know, stupid little dislike I just had too much ego. I was in the army, I was deployed, I I was in charge of troops and men. Like, now I'm coming to this, now I'm getting talked to like this. Uh that's not gonna work for me. But then I figured, hey, if I would have just kept my cool and my ego in check and thought of this as like how I feed my family, dude, I'd have double the pulls I have right now. And that's my biggest regret, and that's what I always tell everybody is like just get out of your own way, your own ego. Like it's a business. Everyone's in their own type of business and everyone has to do it. You can't just sit there and not do anything, it's gonna go down. Yeah. Like, even my business, like if we did nothing, it's not gonna maintain. Like if my admin guy or I do my repair, we just start dropping the ball, it goes down. Like it's called a fire sale. That's what most of these pool guys, if they lose two, three guys, if something catastrophic happens, they're selling off a couple hundred pools to like the highest bidder within like a month. Wow. Because it doesn't take long to get backed up on one day of service, which is 15 pools on one tech. You get two techs out, there's 30 pools, two different cities. Um just yeah. You have to keep you have to keep everything locked in, and it's always that if if you don't keep your techs happy and keep the time the clients happy, and then focus those two things and then growing the business, um your ego gets in the way, you get bogged down, yeah, and uh it goes nowhere fast.
SPEAKER_01So what about and no, it totally makes sense, and then what about the single best decision you feel like you made in the business?
SPEAKER_00Best decision I made, um we made. Um plus chemicals. So that was huge. There's a guy in Scottsville that does pools. His name's Michael Rodarte, but he did he's like a niche pool guy. He's a single poller, but he does commercial work and he's really good. He's like really technical. And he would post on that Facebook page, like, hey man, if you guys aren't plus chems, you're throwing money out the window. Like every pool's different. Like Airbnbs are gonna use $50 a month, and the pool on the golf course that snowboards that no one lives there is gonna use 10 or less. So every pool has to pay for it's just fairy pool pays for what they use. And I was doing the 100 including, dude's doing 130 including, and just missing all that money and just eating it. Because then if your techs aren't good on chemicals and balancing, they're gonna be throwing money in that thing and you're trying to get the balance right. And you're like, wait a minute, I spent 80 bucks on chems on this pool. What am I actually charging them? And then after you pay the tech and you're like, what's the number I'm making on this pool? Like, oh, I uh they may, I may have paid them to clean this pool. Like it can get out of control quick. Yeah. So plus chems was massive for me. Like that, that was that was probably the biggest changer was having um the ability to go plus chems and the backing of that guy being like, dude, just do it. Yeah. Because he might lose two or three. And every time I raise prices, like I still have that little like, oh God, who's gonna go? But if it's two or three out of a few hundred, who cares? And that way you know you're on point. Like if it's ten dollar raise and the guy's like, yeah, no, I'm not. It's ridiculous. Like you're asking too much, Cliff. Like, right, no way. Yeah. I'm like, hey, you know, all fair because I feel I'm underpriced anyway. So we're in the same boat, bye-bye. You know, like it's just like you can't let the ego get in it, but I've had very little pushback. Every time I've done a raise, which is annually, like every March before the spring, before the craziness happens, and people want to drain their pool and get ready for the summer. I do a price raise. And I don't do it like throughout all the clients, I do it per pool because I know each pool. So I can go look and be like, how many minutes are they at that pool? Yeah. Let me look at the service notes. That pool's massive. What are we charging them? Wow. We like because I bring them on at a rate to get them. And like I said, I've like 120, 130 plus, and now two years later they're still paying the same rate and it's like a 40,000 gallon pool. I'm like, uh, we're gonna have to touch this one up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's when you're like, you don't want to do $25, you know, big raises, but do the raises that make sense. And then when people that way I do it fair. So if anyone comes back and is like, hey, what's this? And I'm like, I didn't I put thought into this. Yeah, I didn't just raise it on everybody. I raised this because your pool takes twice as much labor. Right. And then it's really hard for people to argue with that. You're gonna be like, uh there's really nothing to say. It's like, look, he spends 30 minutes here and at your neighbor's house, he's there 15 minutes every week. Like I have to pay him more, yeah, and I have to charge you more. Yeah. So have very little kickback and not being scared to like know what you're worth, what the market rate is. Um, and then like I said, to pick your client. Like, as much as you want the work, especially in the pool world, because it's recurring and it's weekly, it's just you want to make sure it's a good fit for the service and the client. Right, right. On the same page.
SPEAKER_01Love it. Love it. All right. Would you consider yourself successful?
SPEAKER_00Uh, not yet, no. I say I'm on the way. Okay. I'm on the way. Yep. Uh, I know successful people and uh it's a different life. I'm on the way there. I got three kids under six, so it's a lot to learn. Um, and five years in in the endy in the any industry is crazy, you know. Like think about like, oh, I'm successful at five years. I'm like, usually it takes 10 years, five years of hard grind or 10 years of hard grind, and it's the truth. It's been five years and it's leveling out a little bit and it's going up and it's a little bit smoother. Got like one foot in, one foot out, got an admin there. Um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah, no, it makes sense. And would you say that you're happy?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah. I like if you're asking me, you're like, dude, did you think you would be in the trades when you're in the army? I'm like, dude, I used to daydream about the life I have now. I used to be in Iraq and daydream about this shit and be like, what? Oh yeah, I married, a few kids, Arizona in the heat, you know, having my own pool business, making my own schedule. Like, that's a dream. Yes, that's that's a dream you have on the beach. And I wake up and I'm like, all right, take the kids to school, go do the quotes, like bake the schedule. I'm like, I'm here, you know. We we did it. I'm I'm happy, not successful yet, but I'm happy.
SPEAKER_01Love it, love it. And what what is required for success that most people don't see in your eyes?
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, just discipline. Discipline, like I said. I'll go back to my little brother again, but he's just disciplined. He's like the most disciplined person I know. Like we're all competitive, we're like all couple years apart and stuff, but what sets him apart is he's just disciplined. And I noticed that about people in the military or in the trades or any business. If you have discipline, like with your body, with your diet, uh, with anything, it shows through in the business. Um, and people see that too, like as far as quotes and stuff. Like, I'm sure it'd be different if someone showed up and they're overweight and the stuff's untucked and they got stains on it, and they pull up in a crappy truck. They pull up in a nice truck, you're in shape, you know, make sure your hair is done, you don't you smell good, got some gum in, talk to the client, it's it's good to go. Yeah. You know, it makes all the difference in the world as being disciplined and uh a hard worker. Because you can't you can't just be disciplined and not work hard. You got to work hard and be disciplined and like the non-stop grind, uh, nonstop grind, because it's the comfortable part, like the ego and the comfortability of don't have to go anywhere. And then the ego of like, you know, of eating your ego. So eat the ego, and I don't have to go anywhere, but I'm going to, right. Like I'll do, I don't have to go anywhere, but I'm getting in the truck and I'm gonna go door hang, even if there's not a quote. Like you just have to get it and treat it like a job. I heard one of my uh brother sales guys talk about that, and he's you know, millions of dollars, this guy rushing it. He's just like, yeah, just treat it like a job. Yeah, I just get up and go not every day. Yeah, just like no matter what, just like a job nine to five, Monday through Friday, get up and go do it. And I go that's that's the mindset. Yeah. Like no matter how much money you have or what you do or don't have to do, it's like just get up and get in the truck and go. Exactly. And then you'll find they'll find the way. Like the work's there, like sitting around once you get to that spot and you're like, okay, how do I double my business without it's never gonna happen? You have to do it yourself. There's no one's gonna do it for you. Yeah, people will help you and and support you, but uh like yeah, I still drive every time. I'm still on the quotes, I'm still in the truck, I'm still doing that.
SPEAKER_01The saying is uh 80% of success is just showing up and just consistently going and being there. And when you put yourself in these areas to be successful, good things happen. Um, what is the biggest misconception people have about you?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Um misconception. I don't know, it's a good question. I'm trying to think about that. Um that I don't take things seriously, that's probably a misconception because I kind of joke around a lot. You know, I'm pretty charismatic and stuff like that. Um but I I do take I do take things seriously and I'm very like I think about things. I'm pretty quiet, like it takes a while to open up, you know, but I'd say that's probably it. Is that like I don't take it seriously because of that joke in a lot. Yeah. I make a lot of jokes, but yeah, that's the misconception. Is I I actually am very serious, but I just play it off with the jokes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, make it light because I can get it, you know, low.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And um leaning into that, what right now as a business owner is the biggest pressure that you're carrying that maybe not a lot of people see?
SPEAKER_00So business owner is like the payroll, right? So I got six families that I'm feeding, right? And then my family, and then hundreds of clients. So it's a lot, right? And people don't think about that until you're like the Tommy Millow, A1 garage door guy with a billion dollar evaluation. Until you're him or either there, it's like it's and everyone says the same thing no matter what real or podcast you watch. It's like, yeah, you just uh you get your teeth kicked in for like five, 10 years. Five, 10 years of hard work and dedication, and then you can get off the ground. Right. And that's still true. Like I'm an example of that, like five years of hard work, and you're like, How'd it happen? Like, take me through it. I'm like, let me actually think because it's been like a whirlwind. Right. Like, because it was so hard, and then you're gradu, you're getting there, you're getting there, you're adding text, you're adding text, you're going, you're going, you're like, look back and you're like, wow, I got my own fleet, like I got hundreds of clients, like uh everything everything's working good. And now you got to keep that momentum because it's like you can't just sit on it. You can't just like sit there and not do anything and just hover. You have to move forward constantly. Um, and then that's the hardest part. Move forward constantly and not think about what you have or you get carried away and like I'm good. Yeah, I'm comfortable. Yeah, comfortable is like where you die. Yeah, that's what it is. Exactly. I mean, I'm comfortable, it's not like I never hear anybody super sexual. I'm just comfortable. Like, no, they're always grinded.
SPEAKER_01You need to be in that zone of like there just needs to be friction, and you need to be able to like be in an area where if you're comfortable, things aren't progressing, you're not solving the problems in the business, you're not like tackling all the most important things. Um, so I couldn't agree more. Uh, who are you without the business?
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, that's funny. I just look at myself as a soldier first before anything, always, right? Uh I don't know, without the business, um yeah, it's crazy. I'm trying to think about that. Um because the business is a massive part of your identity, right? If you're a founder and you're running it, like everything, you know. Um but outside of that, like yeah, the soldiers, family man, like a husband, like a dad, you know, that's my thing. Yeah, like I just love being with my kids. I like like I said, I'm living the daydream, I'm living what I d dreamt about. Yeah. So I just gotta pinch myself sometimes and be like, oh, it's all good. Yeah. Like it's good.
SPEAKER_01And let's play the scenario that none of this existed, you know. Um, you didn't have the business at all. What would you spend your time doing?
SPEAKER_00Dude, um, well, I do like to skateboard, uh, play sports. Um, I do mue thai, so I like to like train, like that kind of stuff. I do it with my brother. Actually, we do that a couple times a week. But um, yeah, I'm just like an active guy. I like to be outdoors, I like to travel, I like to, you know, do all the things outside. Yeah. I'm not an inside guy. Yeah. I like to do stuff outside. So traveling, sports, anything like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And finally, Cliff, give us a couple words of wisdom for, you know, if you had a uh day one entrepreneur coming into the trades, just lastly, what would you leave them with?
SPEAKER_00Um just take inspiration from people around you that are where you want to be. So that's what I really like. You asked that first question. Like I was like, I would take notes at that first company of like how they set everything up, how they like ran everything. And then, okay, that's how I want to do it, and take little pieces of what I want to do and what I didn't want to do, you know. Um, so I just look around at what the guys that are like serious are doing, the guys with the wrap trucks, whatever business you're in, and just like copy that model. Or anyone that's you know doing social media stuff, like, oh even no. You're like, just do what that guy did, just like put some music with it and then just show you walking around, just get started and then make it better, and then clip it and then do it from there. But just getting started and keeping your eyes open and like know your market. Like that's the number one thing is like I came in so low on the pricing and everything because I just wanted to get in. Yeah. But if I had the time to take my time and like know the market, do due diligence on a route and like what I'm gonna pay, like that's what I would do. Take your time, look at the guys that are doing it right, do your due diligence if you want to buy a route. Uh like go look at the pools and like, you know what I mean? Like, actually with your feet, like go look at those pools, don't look at pictures, look at the equipment, like talk to the person who's selling it, like have something in place where if in 90 days something happens, I'm not, you know, like that's what I that's the advice I'd give to someone because I do want people to have what I have because it's the best filly of the world. I'm like, dude, just go get it. And if I had someone to tell me, like, hey, dude, do your due diligence, like probably check it out first and then then go find a route on pool trader, then go do your thing. And and what what city, what state do you want to be in? Because if pools are in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, different markets. Um, but at least in Arizona, it's saturated. So you gotta be on your game out there. You gotta be on your game.
SPEAKER_01Well, good deal. We appreciate the time, Cliff. This was awesome. Thank you, obviously, for trusting us at Rebolt to be your provider uh for marketing services. So uh thanks for the time, man. I appreciate you guys. Thank you.
