Industry news, training & life on the road

If you or your team are looking for a Certified Service Technician Class, you can register for Kevin Tucker’s upcoming three-day virtual training on November 25, December 2, and 9. Visit his website for more information and to register: Educational Leverage

If you’re at the International Pool Spa Patio Expo come and visit the Skimmer team at booth 1600!We are having a fabulous day meeting with customers…plus we have some cool swag if you stop by to say 👋  

*** Post UPDATED ***Hello! I’d like to throw out there that the Small Business Administration offers disaster loans. You can see if you’re eligible here.They do require documentation. The typical documentation required to prove disaster-related damage or economic injury includes: insurance claims, photos, repair estimates, financial statements, tax returns, and other related documentation.For physical damage, it's important to document the direct impact on your property or equipment, while for economic injury (EIDL), demonstrating a decline in revenue and cash flow is key. Providing detailed, accurate, and timely information will help expedite your application and ensure that you receive the assistance you need.Naturally, it’s a little challenging for a service business to prove significant change in the business, but here are a few ideas to consider:If you took regular Skimmer service pictures on your pool and spa service route, utilize those as “before” pictures. Document the “after”

Thinking about buying or selling routes? Here are a handful of datapoints from the Skimmer universe on routes sold since June:Texas leads the way in routes sold, followed by Florida and Arizona.Monthly service size ranges from only a few service stops to 500+.2/3 of routes sold have Service Emails enabled. 50% of routes sold were enabled with Skimmer Billing.84% of all business volume was paid via online card/bank. That’s what we’ve got for now! What else are you interested in knowing about routes bought and sold on Skimmer? Let me know in the comments.

This is our first time dealing with plodded pools after a storm. What are your best tips and recommended steps to effectively clean up flooded pools and ensure they are safe for swimming?

I spoke with an exec at a major distributor today, and he expressed that his executive team has been discussing the potential impact of a potential strike and closures of east coast and gulf region ports. As we saw with Covid, port closures and supply chain disruptions can have a direct impact on pricing and availability of chemicals, equipment, and parts. It is premature to speculate on the potential impact of the strike, but keep an eye on your chem and equipment prices and adjust your rates accordingly!Here are some suggestions to prepare for the potential impact: Consider stocking up on equipment and supplies you know you’re going to need.  If you have outstanding quotes that your customers have not approved, give them a nudge to approve the quote. Let them know that pricing and availability may be uncertain.  Prepare to increase prices in the event chem and equipment prices increase, especially if you include chems as part of your service pricing. Check out the Skimmer Price Incre

As pool season comes to a close for those of us in the north,  I am sharing Pentair’s recent post on how to guide your customers through winterization and turn them into repeat customers this spring.READ ARTICLE  

I’ve seen several posts in fb groups posting about salt shortages, and it looks like some folks are making a run on salt. Is this happening in your market? 

The conference portion runs from November 9th -14th, and the expo hall will be open November 12th - 14th.Attend the expo portion FREE! Use Skimmer’s VIP code, 119736 when you register for yourself or your team members! And if you decide to attend, come find us in Booth #1600, right up front. We’ll be co-located with our friends from Primate Pool Tools and BluerayXL!       Last Chance: PSP/Deck Expo Early Bird Rates End Tonight!   Unlock the Best Rates and Exclusive Offers Before Time Runs Out.   This year’s International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo™, co-located with Deck Expo, brings together professionals from across the pool, spa, patio, decking, and outdoor living industries for unparalleled education and networking. Early bird rates expire tonight—don’t wait to lock in the best deal for this must-attend event.   Special Offer: If you register for GENESIS® C201: Construction School: Concrete Pools before September 30 you’ll receive a compl

Hey everyone, I am dealing with a pool that has what we think is Yellow Algae. The Chlorine level was 4.5 when we got there today and all of the rest of the chemicals were within range. We have been using yellow algaecide weekly and can’t seem to get it under control. The pump has been running 10 hrs/ day and we clean the filter regularly. This pool is on the beach so I am thinking that could be part of it.  Does anyone have any magic they can recommend? Thinking I might give PoolRx a try on this one… 

Upcoming September CPO courses can be found herehttps://www.spacecoastpoolschool.com/100-online-cpo-class/

Exciting 4 CPO classes going on this weekend and I am not teaching. I am actually hosting a fantasy football draft at my house this Saturday.Four of my awesome instructor teaching between in person in St. Petersburg FL with Bill Hamilton or 2 virtual CPO English classes with Stephen Ely and August A Ursin or Spanish virtual CPO class with Clemente Jesus Rivera!! I am thankful for all of my instructors. They are awesome! This class here is in Saint Petersburg going on right now in Florida taught by Billy Hamilton  with full brand new awesome class room thanks to AquaServ Pool Service and Bryan Lee Lulucki!! Beautiful!! 

Had a great conversation with Niki Acosta and Jack Nelson about the service index rate. Really valuable info for pool pros that gives a 10,000 ft overview of what companies are charging in a given market. Listen in on the discussion on the Pool Magazine podcast.

Memorial Day is just around the corner. Is this one of your days off? I am often asked if you should take these significant holidays off. It depends. If your Mondays are light, you can easily make up the pools during the week. Or if you want to skip the pools entirely, you can, but then you will use up one of your days on your four weeks off. How does a Pool Pro take four weeks off each year? It's simple. There are months when there are five service weeks, and you charge monthly for four weeks. May 2024 has 5 Wednesdays, 5 Thursdays, and 5 Fridays. You explain to the customer that you don't charge extra for the 5th week during these months, which adds up to 4 weeks off for your company. I usually take two straight weeks off during the year and then use the other two weeks for random times. To avoid conflicts, have this written in your service agreement: "Sick Day/Vacation Policy: In case of a sick day or injury, we will do our best to make up the service day for you. If we cannot make

Hi all. Curious as to what some other pool pros are doing to combat this issue especially you pool pros in warmer Climents? Right now, we are aiming for about 5ppm in all of our accounts as well as keeping chlorinators with the appropriate number of tablets however, we are still getting calls from homeowners that they are experiencing signs of algae. I’ll further add that the chemistry is all with in tolerance levels including CYA. Do you guys just use an algaecide treatment when this happens that helps cure it and keeps it at bay during the summer months?  For those of you that use Pool RX how are you selling this to your customers? Do you just ask them to buy it or do you provide it? It's hard for us to mark up the cost of Pool RX when it can be purchased for less on Amazon then I can buy it from Pool Corp. I would like to implement it into our service but just want to know the best way how that is working for the consensus. 

 August Virtual CPO classes:08/03  Fusion08/17  Fusion08/17  Spanish Fusion08/17-08/18  Full 2 day Virtual CPO08/31  FusionCheck out full schedule here:Virtual CPO Class Schedule