Why Do Pool Cleaning Businesses Fail？ ｜ Don't Miss the 8th Reason!

Today we're going to take a look at eight reasons why pool cleaning businesses fail, and you are not

going to want to miss number eight because it's probably the number one reason why most businesses

fail. First off, let's start with some statistics, shall we? Did you know that about half of all small

businesses fail within their first five years, with many of those failing in the first couple of years

And nine out of ten will fail before the tenth year. So how do we keep your pool cleaning business

from becoming one of those statistics. There is power in learning from others

so let's take a look at these eight reasons most pool cleaning businesses fail

Number one, having an employee mindset versus a business owner mindset. Remember, you are creating a business

not just a job for yourself, and way too many small business owners

approach their business from a job mentality. Yes, you are doing pool cleaning work

but you are a small business owner who owns a pool cleaning company

It is critical that you identify as the business owner, not as the pool cleaner. For many of you, you are the only person in your business. Therefore

you wear the employee hat as well as the business owner hat. So it is easy to get lost in the

employee mindset. I'm sure you have heard of the saying working in your business versus on your

business. The employee works in the business and the business owner works on the business

When a business owners spends all of their time working in the business, then the business

begins to fail due to no one taking the reins on where the business is going. And more

importantly, no one is looking for the profitability of the business. The second problem with having

an employee mindset versus a business owner mindset comes when you are making decisions. An employee

will solve the problem of the moment, but a business owner needs to solve not only the current

problem, but think of a longer term solution. Business owners are constantly improving the

business's processes. When the business owner is thinking like an employee, the business tends to

exist versus having a clear vision on where it is going and focusing on constant improvement

Reason number two, paying yourself incorrectly in the business. As I just mentioned, you are wearing two hats in your pool cleaning business. Therefore, you are also being paid two different ways in the business, especially if you're doing employee work in the business, which most of you typically are. In the beginning, most small business owners tend to pocket the money that is left over at the end of the day after they pay their expenses. As the business grows, they change this up and they tend to take a flat monthly fee out of the business each week. However, keep in mind

Usually this money is actually employee wages for doing the work that they're doing in the business

The business owner, you, is only paid out if the business is profitable

Just because you are taking money each month doesn't mean you are being paid as the business owner

as the business, just might not be profitable. Businesses fail when they focus on this employee income versus creating a business that pays you

both as the employee and as the business owner. The pool cleaning businesses that fail have typically created a job for themselves

versus creating a solid business. It is critical that you pay yourself a fair wage as the employee

while you're doing work in your business, but it is just as critical that you focus on the profitability

of the business and creating an owner wage as well It is only after you are able to pay yourself both ways that you are considered a successful business that can beat the odds which leads us to the third most common reason pull cleaning businesses tend to fail Number three pricing their services incorrectly A huge mistake that

pool cleaning businesses make is how they price their services. When our pricing is off, we tend to make

less money for the business. Keep in mind the simple formula for your business. Sales minus cost

of goods, minus expenses equals profits. This is the basic flow of money through your business

and since sales is the first part of the formula, it is safe to say that it all starts with pricing

correctly. Way too many pool cleaning businesses undervalue their services, costing them profits

They fail to account for the right amount of costs and expenses, but also the employee wages

as well as owners' profits. But profits aren't the only thing that bad pricing impacts

When you are priced incorrectly, you will end up working longer and longer hours chasing new sales

to pay the bills and soon burnout will set in. When this happens, so does the real estate

that it probably was easier to just work for someone else. After struggling to make ends meet

and working 60 to 70 hours a week, the pool cleaning business owner closes the business. The goal of

pricing isn't to be the cheapest. This isn't a race to the bottom. It is about charging correctly for

the value that you provide. While most pull cleaners can clean your pool and do some minor fixes

not all of them can do it the way that you do it. It could be your skill level, your service, your hours

or any special sauce that you're trying to bring to the table that others do not have

But you need to know your value. Stand out above the others and charge accordingly

This isn't a pricing video, so if you want to learn more about pricing, I'll put a link below to some videos I have on pricing

Please make sure that you are pricing correctly. You need to make sure that you are being paid both as the pool cleaner and as the business owner

It is the single biggest mistake many small business owners make. Number four, not being crystal clear on who your ideal customer

is. Yes, you want to serve every customer that has a pool and you want to make sure that everybody

uses your business over your competition. But if you approach it this way, you're going to end up

serving no one. Even worse, you will get every person under the sun that only wants you because

you're cheap because ultimately you haven't set the stage for those you want to really serve

Think of it this way. There are pool cleaning businesses that specialize just in weekly cleaning

They do nothing else above that. Some will do minor repairs. Some will do major repairs and some

will even help with some installs. Each of those people would target different customers. Ask yourself

do you plan to do weekly, biweekly, or even monthly services? Will you only focus on in-ground

or are you going to offer a service for folks that have above-ground pools? How about focusing on

older clients that can no longer do their own pool cleaning? Or you can even focus on busy

professionals that don't have the time to clean their pool themselves. Do you want to be a pool cleaner

that specializes in property management type companies, or maybe even hotels? Will you hook up with

realtors to help with getting their sellers homes ready or even take care of the repairs that

might be needed during the inspection period. Who do you want to serve? Know who you want to focus on

and solve their problems. Be a specialist. You don't want to be a dime a dozen. By being a specialist

you can charge more There a reason a brain surgeon a heart doctor and others can make more money than a regular doctor who just a family doctor You get the idea The more you narrow down the bigger the following you can create without having to spend tons of money on advertising and trying to find new customers If you chase everyone

you might just end up with the types of customers you just don't want to have. There are a lot of people

out there that do what it is that you do. How will you be the go-to pool cleaning business

the one that everybody wants to use? Focus your attention and energy on those you want to serve

Number five, expanding beyond your local community way too soon. The average business has thousands of homes within five to ten miles of their location

However, in a bid to grow the business, they mistakenly chase business 30 to 60 minutes out of their area

thus driving up their costs, the wear and tear on their vehicles, and lost jobs doing to being out on the road

Another thing way too many business owners try to do is they jump to a new city and try to expand to get more business

when the reality is there's plenty of business close to home. Just think about how many homes are within a 15-minute drive of where you are

Depending upon your location, there might be tons of homes in the area that have pools that need to be serviced

A typical pool cleaner only helps about 3 to 5% of their local area

What if you could get that up to 15%? That's more than doubling your business and sometimes tripling your business

Trust me, there is plenty of business in your hometown. Quit spending time, energy, resources, gas, wear and tear on your vehicle to go everywhere under the sun

There's plenty of business in your backyard. businesses fail when they chase business that does not help their bottom line and business outside of

your immediate area comes at a cost and while you might gain more sales those extra costs hit your

profitability and as we have discussed without profit the business is going to fail focus on a smaller

area and i promise you word of mouth will get out and you'll start getting other people that want you to

help service their pool especially if you focus on that ideal customer we discussed earlier all right

the number six reason why pool cleaning businesses fail is poor communication with your customers one of the

most overlooked items that kill a small business is poor communication. How many times have you

and a customer butted heads over something that turned out to be a communication problem? But this

type of communication problem isn't the only issue that can hurt your pool cleaning business

How often are you staying in touch with your past clients? This is a great way to encourage

returning customers and guarantee future sales, not to mention top of mind awareness when their

friends call needing a referral. Ever call a business and never get a call back? How often does this

happen in your business? Do you have a message that tells folks that you'll call them back within the

next 24 hours? And more importantly, do you actually do it? How do you handle those emergency situations

Yes, not all things are emergencies, but if someone's backyard is flooding, then it's an emergency to them

There are a ton of businesses that have websites that have an email for potential clients to reach out to

them. Yet, this email either doesn't work or no one ever reaches back to you. This happens to me all

of the time. Heck, I have attempted to use small businesses that do not respond either to their email or to

their phone calls. Then they wonder why business isn't making any money and will soon fail

By the way, poor communication happens with employees as well. Owners failing to communicate

clear expectations to their team often leads to a loss of business and profits. Good communication

also helps you stand up from your competition as well. I love all the business I have received

over the years due to my competition being horrible at communication It has led to thousands of dollars in my pocket Never underestimate the power of good communication to lead to more business and profits All right Number seven not paying their taxes For many of you you are used to your old company

taking the taxes out of your paycheck and paying the IRS. The challenge that happens with most

small business owners is they fail to set aside the money each month for their taxes. Then tax time

rolls around and they scramble to find the money they need to pay their taxes. If your state

requires you to collect taxes with each sale, please make sure that you pay that each month

It is not your money. It belongs to the government. You are just a holding center for their money

One of the key things that you can do is to make paying your taxes a habit. Have a separate bank

account to hold the money so you're ready to go. If you want to learn more about your business

taxes, please check out this video where I go into more depth. Okay, the biggest reasons

pull cleaning businesses fail is around the eighth reason, which is not knowing or understanding

their business numbers. Okay, folks, let me tell you, businesses fail for a variety of reasons

but one of the biggest reasons is due to not knowing their business numbers. If a business owner

knows their business numbers, they are more likely to react to problems way before they become

profit killers. They are smarter about how they spend their business profits, and they ensure that

they got a return on the money that they spent. They tend to price better, and they tend not to chase

sales. They shouldn't be chasing. Earlier, I shared my number one calculation that I think all small

business owners need to know. Sales minus cost of goods, minus expense, equals profits. This is the basis of all business numbers. It is the flow of money through your

business. Understanding your profit and loss ensures that you know where your hard-earned money is going

Think of it as the business's report card. Businesses fail when they shoot from the hip day after

day without looking at the numbers and understanding what is the best decision to make

Everything you do in your business will be tied to your numbers. This doesn't mean you need to memorize a ton of things other than sales minus cost of goods minus expenses equals profits

A calculator can definitely be your best friend, and you can look up anything else that you need to know

But there is a power in looking at your business trends. What does each March look like

How are your sales spread out across the months? What are they telling you? When should you be preparing for the next season

When's the best time to go seek out new customers? The list can go on and on

Want to purchase a new piece of equipment? Great. Use your business numbers to determine what type of return you're going to get off that equipment

just so that you can break even. Just like the words in a book tell you a story, so do the numbers of the numbers of

of your business. You just want to learn what story your numbers are telling you. I know you want to run a

very profitable pool cleaning business. Remember, your business has one job to be profitable. Yes

you need to provide great service with amazing customer service, but in order for the business

not to fill, you must also make money. Your business numbers are the key to you not making

simple mistakes that can lead to your pool cleaning business closing its doors. I give you my promise

I will continue to create more videos to help you understand your business numbers better. There is even an

affordable course in the show notes for those that don't want to go hunting down all those videos

Listen, I could build a list of 20 reasons, pull cleaning businesses fill, but if you focus on

these eight areas, you will give yourself a fighting chance to beat the statistics and have a thriving

business. For more videos to help you grow your pull cleaning business, then don't forget to hit

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