Posted by Mark Welch on November 5, 2008 at 2:00pm
It was only 5 years ago that I was installing 50 pools and selling 100 spas a year. I was comfortable in my own little world and was not ready to think outside the box. I live in a resort area and every house had to have a pool and a hottub to increase the rentals . The builders I worked with thought of pools as a necessary evil and wanted to do it as cheap as possible. Imagine $750,000.00 to $2,000.000 dollar rental homes that sleep 25 with a $ 20,000.00 12x24 non cantilevered pool job,This was the norm not the exception. Ray Cronise had been pushing me to separate myself from the 30 pool builders on the island.He was talking hydraulics,water features and new milestones in the fiberglass industry. AT first these ideas were met head on with great resistance, I was making money and honestly not ready to change anything. Ray gave me the phone number of another pool dealer who had made this leap of faith a year before,and suggested I give her a call.Her response was"It was the best thing we could of done" .She had gone from competing with the 25,000.00 pool projects to her packages starting at 45,000.00 with customers lined up willing to spend. I took classes on hydraulics and constuction and made the change. I over came the fear of the unknown and dove right into head first .The first gunite pool I did had a 27' negatvie edge on it. I'm thankful I finally listened and made the change.Even though things are tough in economy If you are willing to set yourself apart from the rest ,your chances for survival will greatly increase.
Read more…
