[tatommack]

i have struggled the last 4 years the previous 10 were great all my advertising is the same. Not sure what to do at this point but if this keeps up my wife will have to go back to work. Anyone else struggling with a small business?

[Ernie Mccracken]

What kind of business?

[SportsPedagogy]

We get it. You are saying Obama is bad for small business.

[tatommack]

pool service

[Bigbill365]

hmm interesting is it hard getting small business loans?and if so whats the typical % you have to put down

[Ernie Mccracken]

pool service

What's your competitive advantage? Who are your ideal customers and what problem are you solving for them? Do you have a facebook/twitter/blog? What kind of promotions are you running to draw in new business?

[You mad bro]

We get it. You are saying Obama is bad for small business.

We all know that already clown

[Grits n' Gravy]

My friend has the same business in Vegas and he gets contracts from property management companies to take care of all of their rental properties.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Though I do not agree with the fiscal policies of the President, I have to admit that under his presidency, I have done better than average. With that being said, my success is due to other businesses being forced to let go certain types of employees which has created a demand for the work that I do (without having to hire, pay the benefits, etc.). I work my a$$ off and I'm very reliable, which has helped me with repeat business, word of mouth recommendations, and very little money being spent on advertising. In my office I have a map of the U.S.. Before the President was elected, I was primarily doing work in Portland, Ore, Idaho, and Utah--I put a pin on the map for the location of every new client that I do business with. Over the last four years, I have conducted business in over 30 states with Texas, Illinois, Utah (I live here), and the Deep South, being my primary hotspots. Really, it's been Texas by a mile and I owe the Lone Star state big time!

I don't want to discuss what I do, but I will say that for me, it's about OVERHEAD, market demand, and competition. Tato, as hard as this might be to hear, you might need to work your way into something different. A while back, I encouraged one of my clients to explore a completely different field for applying his business/ skill-set. He had been supplying dentists with dental implants for 20 years and because of the economy, people were foregoing dental work and he nearly lost everything. At first he scoffed at the idea, which was to make dental implants for animals, but he now has more business than ever and he's been able to do business with major zoos and veterinarians across the nation.

Even when the economy sucks, there's still opportunity for those that want it. Good luck!!

[ROFLcopter]

My friend has the same business in Vegas and he gets contracts from property management companies to take care of all of their rental properties.

Who are your main clients? Think of ways to change the way you do things if what you're doing now isn't working. Reach out to hotels, motels, gyms, spas, etc.

[daneault23]

Internet is big now. Trying signing up to yelp, angie's list, etc and encourage your customers to write reviews of ur work on those sites if they're happy with your services.

[King Mayan]

Housing is down the shithole... The last thing people are worried about are cleaning their pools, painting their houses or fixing anything in general... Has nothing to do with the president.. Lower your prices...

[Naz18]

Doing very good, but so is the local economy..

[Justin3587]

A guy I know is in the pool business. He is ballin out. His main source of income is community pools hire him to maintain their pools, but he also provides the lifeguards. Something to think about

[hawley]

Housing is down the shithole... The last thing people are worried about are cleaning their pools, painting their houses or fixing anything in general... Has nothing to do with the president.. Lower your prices...

Plus Mayan will do it all for half the price




Pump them hammies.

[capitalist pig]

I deal with pool service companies on a regular basis, and the ones who do really well have hotel, condo ,water park, public pool contracts. Its tough to make it just doing residential work. If your just cleaning pools your need to branch out and get your pool contractors license and do repairs, you need to eliminate the middle man on buying chemicals and go right to the distributor, which where I live if you have your CPO permit you can buy the chemicals from distributors.

In 2013 the handicap pool lift chairs become madatory on all non residential pools, condos, hotels, public pools, water parks, etc, and there is going to be a fortune made installing those, there will literally be millions of those that will need installing nationwide, there is a opportunity there to make a killing, something to think about, but you will have to get your pool contractors license.

Ive owned a company for 25 + years and have gone through great times business wise and not so great times.I did very well up through 2009, then 2010 and 2011 were terrible, and it still hasnt come back to where it was and doubt it will in the next 10 years. Im really considering closing up shop and retiring early.

later

[VegasVixen]

i have struggled the last 4 years the previous 10 were great all my advertising is the same. Not sure what to do at this point but if this keeps up my wife will have to go back to work. Anyone else struggling with a small business?

Change it. The ad game is NOT the same as it was 10+ years ago. I own a retail store, and have a 1500+ name database of my customers. I use Constant Contact for e-mail marketing, and we are on Facebook, Twitter & have a website. This is all marketing & costs a fraction of print or TV ads. Google a book called "Guerilla Reatiling" or maybe "Guerilla Marketing"? He also has a website - it will open your eyes to fresh ideas. Also see if a forum exists of other business owners in your business across the country. The Gift Shop Owner's forum I belong to always gives me great ideas for products, displays, in-store events, etc.

Best of Luck!

[tatommack]

ill try and answer the questions the best i can hope i didnt miss any.

Im on angie's list and all the others like that.

King my pricing has been the same since i started. 100 lbs use to cost me 60.00 it runs around 127.00 now all parts have doubled. Im buddies with SCP the supplier so I get a special rate cost plus 10% most of the other guys dont get this rate and pay 20%.

Most of my work comes from word of mouth because im a straight shooter which really hurts my profit i wont sell you something you dont need or over charge for it.

Commercial properties are out of the question as far as weekly service most now use the maintenance man to do them. I didnt have enough service calls to warrant carrying ins. I still do them but under my buddies electrical company.

I have one rental company i work for but they are very small.

Sad thing is I used to be so busy i wouldn't answer my phone for small jobs. Basically anything under 500.00 profit I didnt waste my time.

One thing I did notice on yahoo and Google I use to be listed first when you would do a search now im on the second page. There were only 5 pool companies back when I first signed up now there are over 50 unreal.

I had 65 customers in 2007 currently 40.

I do appreciate all of yalls input.

[tatommack]

One thing I thought about was making a viral video on youtube something crazy to drawl alot of attention to my services. What do you guys think of this I figured with how critical some of you guys are I could get some great ideas from most of you.

[robmpink]

Stop gambling, because from what I saw, you are a better sized gambler. Also, who gives a flying F about Angies List? Bogus review for the most part.

[muldoon]

One thing I thought about was making a viral video on youtube something crazy to drawl alot of attention to my services. What do you guys think of this I figured with how critical some of you guys are I could get some great ideas from most of you.

Viral videos (more often than not) rarely work when made intentionally (normally it's a guy mocking an animal at the zoo and gets his face smashed or something)

I sent you a PM as well.

[ROFLcopter]

One thing I did notice on yahoo and Google I use to be listed first when you would do a search now im on the second page. There were only 5 pool companies back when I first signed up now there are over 50 unreal.

I'm pretty sure you can pay to be listed on the first page/one of the first search results.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Viral videos work for some kinds of businesses, but quite frankly, they'd turn me off to doing business with most kinds of companies. I guess if there was a viral video of you wrestling snakes and gators free from a pool while one of your employees pokes you with a caddle prod while another pours acid into the pool, I'd say to myself, God damn that's a hard worker who is willing to get dirty.

[Iwinyourmoney]

pool service

Pool service is tough. Easy to clean your own pool.

I own my own building business in the summer and get sub contracted out from local companies. No store front, no advertising. nothing. Do mainly liner swaps in above grounds, build maybe 5 a year, but do like 15 liners. It's a bitch working 40 hours a week and doing this. Summers are fukin rough!

I service one pool regularly for the last 5 years, but at $65 a week (she's a doctor), most people can't afford that.

I guess what I'm saying is look to expand your pool business to more then just service.

[PaperTrail07]

cancellation due to non payment is higher than ever fact

[VegasVixen]

Word of mouth is your best friend (assuming it's positive). Do a promo this spring for pool opening season - offer $25 off to current customers for each referral that uses you...

I hate the pool service I use, and I basically only use them because they're the only one in my area. Had a guy I used for a few years for side jobs & maintenance then he hurt his back so I'm back to the same Co that built my pool. Did I mention I hate them? I'm not covering my pool this winter just so I don't have to call them in the Spring for opening. I've been sweeping leaves daily just to not ever give them another nickle LOL.

[chipper]

I've been a small business owner for 17+ years now. Business is definitely down and the past five or so years have been very tough. BUT, I do think things are starting to get better and I have hopes that we'll soon return to the sales we've previously had.

[InTheDrink]

I'm pretty sure you can pay to be listed on the first page/one of the first search results.

not exactly

you can pay a search engine optimization company to get you there, which is likely considering the pool cleaning business in OP's neck of the woods isn't likely that competitive for web traffic...but getting on the first page isn't necessarily enough....this graph shows the general click proportions based on spots 1 through 10 on the first page....if you're on the second page you ain't getting much traffic but you also arent getting rich just because youre on the first page

[stikymess]

Pool guy i know here years back was one of the first to start salt water conversions, not sure if there is a profit for you there?

Also you said you went from 65 customers to 40 now, have you touched base with those and get answers to why? Or try to get the business back?

Last, if you don't do pool repairs then find some company that does, sit with them and see if you can do referrals for them for either a flat fee or percentage of the work done.

Best of luck.

[tatommack]

Pool guy i know here years back was one of the first to start salt water conversions, not sure if there is a profit for you there?

Also you said you went from 65 customers to 40 now, have you touched base with those and get answers to why? Or try to get the business back?

Last, if you don't do pool repairs then find some company that does, sit with them and see if you can do referrals for them for either a flat fee or percentage of the work done.

Best of luck.

i do all repairs most moved ive only been fired by 2

[daneblazer]

Brick and Mortar is struggling. Everything is going online. Amazon among others are sucking the life out of small businesses. It takes a large percentage of money out of the local economy and it affects everyone like pool services that don't have online competition.

Can't really blame that on the president. Change of the times. They need to begin charging these online retailers tax though.

[Bigbill365]

Clean salt water fish tanks

[InTheDrink]

Brick and Mortar is struggling. Everything is going online. Amazon among others are sucking the life out of small businesses. It takes a large percentage of money out of the local economy and it affects everyone like pool services that don't have online competition.

Can't really blame that on the president. Change of the times. They need to begin charging these online retailers tax though.

its pretty amazing that you can go to a store to pick something out that you want and then find a site that doesnt charge shipping OR sales tax and save a bundle....sometimes from the SAME FUKKIN BUSINESS

i did it with a $2000 refrigerator at best buy....saved myself $100 in sales tax....and the best part was that i still picked it up at the store

[SlickRick1382]

Pretty much has already been well said by others such as capitalist pig. You need to branch out and create another niche within your industry. You have to be able to provide other services at a time like this especially if you're unable to partake in larger commerical work due to insurance requirements among other potential problems.

[tatommack]

Brick and Mortar is struggling. Everything is going online. Amazon among others are sucking the life out of small businesses. It takes a large percentage of money out of the local economy and it affects everyone like pool services that don't have online competition.

Can't really blame that on the president. Change of the times. They need to begin charging these online retailers tax though.

yeah i noticed that a few years back when i started getting service calls for something they bought online. most things like cleaners are cheaper online than i can get them for.