[Arif]

The most profitable part of the business also brings along the biggest headaches. I've found more challenges dealing with customers that just call us up for repairs. Some want to haggle on the price after the repair and others just can't seem to make up their mind on what they want. I also need to do a better job writing out contracts which I usually don't do.
I've decided to concentrate on growing the weekly cleaning service. It's stable and year round versus the repairs which are primarily in the spring and summer. One area which has huge profit margins is drain and cleans. I usually charge $300 to drain a pool which can take 3 hours max. Another is replacing drain covers (new law) which I charge $200 plus the cover for 10 minutes of work. I can get away with the price because I'm SCUBA qualified and the owner doesn't have to drain the pool. When I get some free time I plan to visit the hotels and condos to offer my services.

Out of the 90 pools, we have 4 commercial pools and I just bid on a new one today. I got that referral from a property manager we did some work for. Commercial pools can be demanding giving the volume of people using the pool on a daily basis however we charge accordingly.

I haven't tried craigslist but will look into it. The last time I looked there was a guy offering his pool services for about half what I charge. Not looking to compete with him at those prices.

I need to work on the realtor angle. Probably should have done that in early spring when it was quieter. Now we are as busy as I want to be. I'm not looking to sqeeze the last bit of profit out of the business just a large and consistent income from the weekly cleanings. For the most part employees take care of the weekly cleanings which will leave me with more family time. The repairs are more challenging because I do most of the repairs myself.