SKIMMER: Build A Pool Business You Can Sell

Your pool service route isn’t just a weekly schedule, it’s an asset that can be worth real money if you can prove it. We sit down with Niki Acosta and Hal Denbar from Skimmer to get specific about what actually increases a pool service business valuation, and what quietly destroys it when a buyer starts digging. If you’ve ever wondered whether you can build something you can sell, this conversation lays out the practical path.

We get into what “due diligence” looks like when someone wants to acquire a pool service company: the buyer is really buying your people, your customers, and your data. That makes your pool service management software a core part of the deal. Clean service history, secure customer records, consistent invoicing, and organized routes don’t just make your life easier, they reduce risk for an acquirer and can materially raise what your business is worth. We also talk about the customer-facing side: modern communication and payments signal professionalism and help retention.

Then we zoom out to the bigger trend: private equity and consolidation moving into pool service. We unpack the real fears pool pros have about pricing and marketing, why big companies often end up charging more, and how that can actually give small operators room to raise rates. We also tie it to the “speed wins” reality in home services, where answering first can beat price and reviews, and where tools like routing, customer communication, and AI-assisted call handling can help you compete.

If you want to protect your route, grow smarter, and build a business that’s actually sellable, listen through to the end and take notes. Subscribe, share this with a pool pro friend, and leave a review with the biggest change you’re making to increase your company’s value.

Your pool service route isn’t just a weekly schedule, it’s an asset that can be worth real money if you can prove it. We sit down with Niki Acosta and Hal Denbar from Skimmer to get specific about what actually increases a pool service business valuation, and what quietly destroys it when a buyer starts digging. If you’ve ever wondered whether you can build something you can sell, this conversation lays out the practical path.

We get into what “due diligence” looks like when someone wants to acquire a pool service company: the buyer is really buying your people, your customers, and your data. That makes your pool service management software a core part of the deal. Clean service history, secure customer records, consistent invoicing, and organized routes don’t just make your life easier, they reduce risk for an acquirer and can materially raise what your business is worth. We also talk about the customer-facing side: modern communication and payments signal professionalism and help retention.

Then we zoom out to the bigger trend: private equity and consolidation moving into pool service. We unpack the real fears pool pros have about pricing and marketing, why big companies often end up charging more, and how that can actually give small operators room to raise rates. We also tie it to the “speed wins” reality in home services, where answering first can beat price and reviews, and where tools like routing, customer communication, and AI-assisted call handling can help you compete.

If you want to protect your route, grow smarter, and build a business that’s actually sellable, listen through to the end and take notes. Subscribe, share this with a pool pro friend, and leave a review with the biggest change you’re making to increase your company’s value.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Value Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In today's episode, I'll be continuing my conversation with Nikki Acosta and Hal Denvar of Skimmer. And today we're going to talk about how your pool service business has value. It's an asset actually that has tangible value. And we're also going to address, of course, the private equity companies coming into the industry. Is this a good thing or is this a bad thing? And how Skimmer can actually be used to protect your business and make it more of a tangible asset, also at the same time. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. From me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. And I think pool owners should also realize that their company is an asset. It's not like you're cleaning pools and you have 80 accounts. That actually has value. And a lot of pool pros don't look at the aspect of, okay, am I going to do this forever and how can it test to this? Are you going to be out there serving serving servicing pools to your 60 years old and you know you can barely grab a pole because the arthritis is so bad? What's the future for you? And you have a sellable asset. So let's talk a little bit about implementing software to help increase, of course, your company and growth, but also to on the other end of it, really retain the fact that you have a business that has it's an asset and it is a sellable product.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, Hal, you want to take that one?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yeah, so that's that's a really important one because you know I've I've been through the process of buying many businesses in this industry. And you know, I can tell you that as we go through due diligence, which is where we're like really turning over every single, every rock and looking under, you know, everything to look for anything that may jump up and bite us when we buy a company. The software it's on is actually really important because really when when somebody is buying a pull service company, what they're buying is they're buying your people, your customers, and your data. And the software really, you know, clearly holds the data and it's the linchpin for your your employees and your customers. And so, you know, for us, like there

Your Pool Route Is An Asset

SPEAKER_02 2:35

were no bigger nightmare experiences than we would buy a company that had built their own software, or were you or was just using something that was very unconventional. Because for us, what the one of the biggest parts of the value we're requiring is the data. Who knew who knew what kind of problems we were going to find? Trying to extract that data, enrich that data, actually use and analyze that data. And so that's where you know it would give us so much comfort. And therefore, you know, it's it's easy to justify adding value to a company when you know that okay, data's 100% secure, lockdown, we can do exactly what we want with it. There's no question marks there. So, you know, I think moving on to a platform like Skimmer really materially increases the value of your company, apart from just like it, you know, making your life easier and more sane. I mean, you and you can actually go make more money because you have real data you can you can effectively analyze and and and use for your own purposes. It's it's a really material thing when you go to sell a company, what system you're on and how secure your acquirer knows your data is.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I was gonna say there's a chance that a big company would be more interested in you too. I mean, in certain areas, I know uh there's there's different companies acquiring companies out there. And like you mentioned, having kind of like an electronic paper trail where the company knows that this is actually a real account that you've been servicing for three or four years. It's not something that you just took on board this to get some money for. I really think that you have to be aware that someone could call you one day and say, hey, I would like to acquire your company. You know, look, can I are you interested in in what kind of books do you have, or what kind of, you know, can I if we're gonna go further, we need to have records. So I think that should always be in the back of the mind of the pool companies out there, too, that if you get big enough, someone's gonna want to probably come in and acquire you eventually. It seems to be something happening all over uh certain states like Florida and Texas. I wouldn't say epidemic, but it's something where it should be on the radar of the pool pro, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

And and and not only, you know, I think is the value in knowing, okay, me as the acquirer, I have easy access to and can manipulate that data. A lot of times you don't know what what the person buying you has in store next, right? They may be thinking immediately, I only want to buy this company because I'm already talking to the company next door to them. I need to move all of their customers onto this company, you know, next month. Is this is the home cooked system you're on able to all of a sudden double or triple you overnight? Because they may be thinking that, and that may be a factor in how they're valuing you. So it's not only, you know, current state of data, it's you know, you may need to be, you know, a platform is what we call it, the business that's

Due Diligence Means People And Data

SPEAKER_02 5:20

going to be built upon, and you don't know what the future steps are, they're already thinking ahead to that your system may not be capable of, and therefore they're evaluating that you're not capable of.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

It's also a good sales point if you're just a single poll or selling 80 of your, you know, selling your whole route to somebody else. They're like, I've been using this software for the last four years, and here's all the data of all the customers. I mean, that makes you look like a legitimate business versus, yeah, here's my list of customers. It's like a printo, you know, from Word document, and it has, you know, whatever, you know. And I I I think that makes you legitimate. And I think it also makes you legitimate to your customers. Uh, I know my HVAC guy is a good example. He's an old school guy, and I I really like his business and I use him for everything when I need work done on properties. And but I keep telling him, you want to ever try some software? Because he calls me for my credit card numbers still, you know. I'm like, I know there's some software out there you can use. He's like, Yeah, I mean, I'll get to it eventually, but this seems to be working for me now. To me, if you ever wanted to sell his business, I mean, that's not legitimate enough. You know, it's like you need some kind of software, and the customers also see that on our end, like, hey, you know, this guy's not using any kind of software. I mean, how does he, if something happens to him, how am I going to get service later? You know, he's no one has any records of anything that he's done for me. So I really think that from the standpoint of the other end of it, the customer-facing part of it, you using software and and and them knowing that you have this routing software is a big deal. Let's go back to the larger companies that are acquiring the small ones. Because I think this is one of those things where it is controversial and everyone has a different opinion on it. Fortunately, in California, or unfortunately, I guess, in a lot of cases, a lot of these big companies can't come in here and do what they're doing because we're we're so anti what's the word I'm looking for? Big business, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Your regulatory environment.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yeah, that's a better way of phrasing it. We call it a nanny state, and so it's it's one of those things where you have to live with it. You know, we get sunshine 300 days out of the year, and we have the beach and mountains within an hour drive in most cases, but we have to pay for it somehow, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:34

But it's been a barrier for a while, it's not so much anymore. They're they're old folks venturing

Private Equity Arrives In Pool Service

SPEAKER_02 7:41

forth into California now. I mean, I I know a handful of them, and and and they're doing a really good job. So California is no longer the untouched frontier for this this consolidation in the industry.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

And I think it's moving at a rapid pace. I I think that if depending on which side you fall on, if you like the fact that these companies are moving in, it happens in the pest control industry with Terminx and other industries, uh, HVAC industries are feeling this a little bit too. And plumbers, of course, always had this the big companies pool industry. We never had to really worry about this or even think about it. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that it's a bad thing or a good thing at this point because it is something relatively new. But if you want to address these come these concerns that maybe a single polar has, you know, being kind of boxed out price-wise by the bigger companies, or someone who's thinking about selling their pool route, if someone if they actually get a phone call from one of these companies, is it something that they should consider selling?

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm a you know, I I've I have some bias, but I but the bias was was really rooted in my true belief, and I think the vision for what this can do for the industry, which is which is why roughly five years ago I I jumped in and helped spearhead one of the first movers in this in this evolution of the industry. And and for me, you know, I think historically you go to trade shows, you go to an IPSA meeting, you're talking with other pool people pool people. The the biggest thing is always like, why why are we the redheaded stepchild of the trades, right? Like, why why can't we hire good people? Why can't we charge as much as as the other trades? And it's it was really sort of chicken or egg, right? Like we'd never had large professional enterprises that in order to be a large professional enterprise had to pay their people well, had to train them really well, had to provide a safe environment, had to provide technology and education and all these things that that you know bear out professionalism, which then bear out esteem in the eyes of the consumer, which then bears out being able to charge higher prices, then you can you can pay your people more. And so, you know, back then I was really excited about okay, I want to jump in and help try to start this evolution, right? Like it's it's gonna be a slog, but somebody's got to do it. And we can keep complaining about this forever, but until we try something to solve it, nothing's gonna change. And, you know, I from my seed, I've seen a lot of change in the last five years in terms of the expect the professional expectation of our customers. You know, prices have continued to move up. We've got better trained people, we're attracting better people into this industry. Because this is the coolest trade. I mean, you know, if if you're trades oriented and you want to be in an attic in, you know, Phoenix, Arizona, when it's 110 outside working on the HVAC, or you want to be overlooking a negative edge pool at

Professionalism Pricing And AI Proof Work

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Camelback Mountain, like to me, that's a no-brainer. And we just got to make everything else fit in in that ideal employee's eyes for them to see it. And, you know, so I think to me, consolidation, it's making everything we do more valuable. It's making our businesses more valuable, our people more valuable, the knowledge that we have more valuable. I mean, I was cleaning backyards for a decade in people's or cleaning pools in people's backyards for a decade. Now, now I'm on the board of directors of a tech company. Like that wouldn't have happened five years ago, right? Like what we have, the knowledge we have as pool people, is becoming really valuable in this economy. And it and it's a result of getting more attraction, getting more dollars into this industry. And to me, it's gonna just continue to snowball, make everything we do more valuable. And I would say for the age of AI is sort of reinforcing that, right? You got you got lots, lots of finance guys graduating from Ivy League schools or wanting to start pool companies. Like that wasn't gonna happen 10 years ago, right? Like we we sort of are the future of the economy as tradespeople. I mean, again, I go back to my thesis, pool is the coolest trade there is if people knew about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I I think the other sort of piece of this too is it seems to be pretty AI proof, right? Like home services in general are still gonna require people to go out and do things with you know all kinds of variables and factors. And, you know, not every you know, pool pad is is alike. Not every pool is situated, you know, in the same climate with the same materials. And that variability is going to necessitate, you know, humans have to come out and be able to assess and make judgments, uh, to be able to, you know, build, repair, uh, treat, balance uh pools. And it's it's it is, I think the trades just in general, along with you know, some other ones that Anthropic came out with, were like, you know, the healthcare field, there there are certain industries that are going to be less prone to be to being wiped out by AI. And pool service is absolutely one of them.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

And so you know one of the potential throughout, David, too, about like getting boxed out with pricing and things like that. I'd be shocked if anybody has actually found that in real life, right? I mean, I know, I know for the last five years we raised prices a lot more aggressively than if I was a small business. I know a lot of the private equity competitors are doing that because to support the corporate overhead and all the new jobs they're bringing in to support these businesses in the back end, they have to raise prices. And as a result, you know, I think you you go to any city where private equity's touched it, those private equity backed companies are probably the most expensive companies in the town. You know, and they're for sure not the cheapest. You know, they may not be the most expensive, but they're up there. And it actually gives air cover to all these small businesses out there to, if they're paying attention, to go raise their prices and then provide a better standing of living for them and their people.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

And do you think it's a good idea to sell to one of these private equities if you had if you had let's say you had a company and you're running it for 10 years and they approach you, you have a pool out of uh 200 pools. I mean, what what would be stopping somebody from selling to one of these private equities?

SPEAKER_02 13:32

I mean, I can't I can't think of what would, right? I mean, if if they're if they're willing to give you the best deal of anybody look, you know, willing to acquire your business, like you know, they're gonna run it really well because that's what they do professionally. They're gonna treat your people well because, like I said, the people, the you know, what we're buying, we're buying your people, your customers, and your data. Because if if they come in and buy your company and and you know, force all your people out or lose all your people quickly, like they bought nothing. They just wasted their money, right? So to me, it I it's created this avenue for exit. I know when I was running Patriot Pool and SPA before national pool partners, I just assumed I was gonna have to build a business so big that somebody'd be willing to buy, be willing to buy it based on just the size of the business because there was no big pool company that was ever gonna buy me. And you know, now there's that outlet, right? You know, you can you can build any size business and get a return on on all the time and effort you put into it uh at any point because they're they're willing buyers that are gonna buy it. And it is in their best interest to do everything they can to treat it as well as possible. Otherwise, they just wasted a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah, interesting because I think a lot of pool pros do feel like if they do sell to like another individual, which does happen, they they they start to lose customers and lose, you know, because we do care about our customers to beyond the point of business. We don't want Mr. Jones or you know, Mrs. Smith not be happy with us kind of selling their ass, selling their asset, their pool to someone else, and then they drop the ball. Our customers, I don't think a lot of customers out there really know that the pool company that well, I had I have a friend that he had an old pool guy, and then he's like, hey, this is young guy coming to my my house now. And he says something about selling his route or something, but I have no idea what he was talking about, but now there's this young guy coming. So at that end of it, they don't have a lot of insight on this. So the pool pro really needs to understand, like I mentioned at the very beginning, you know, your business is an asset, it has value to it. And whether you sell to a big company or whether you have them coming into your area, I really think you're right that it does elevate the pricing because you're competing already with Leslie's pool supply or pinch a penny that they do installs and equipment, and their prices are usually always higher than what you can sell that to the customer for. So I really don't think you're gonna be boxed out. I think what a lot of pool pros are afraid of is the marketing juggernaut that these companies have, the money they have behind their marketing to push in their area where if you're going out to bid a pool, they probably already had been bid by one of these bigger companies. And so that's I think the biggest problem that, or the biggest fear I should say, is that you can't market as well as these big companies market themselves.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, I there's there's something to that, right, in terms of marketing budgets. But I think to the counter of that, right? I know, I know as I was growing Patriot, we spent almost nothing on marketing. Like we were we were a local business that basically went out and fought for referrals, right? And local businesses are

Marketing Fears And Speed To Answer

SPEAKER_02 16:35

always going to do that better than than a big conglomerate. Like there's that's not even a fair fight. The conglomerates don't try to do that because that that's not their game, right? So really, and a lot of times, you know, we may go out and talk to a customer as a big company. Not every customer is a fit for the you know, every company, right? Like there are a lot of customers that want the the personal touch a big company can't provide. And so, you know, I think there's plenty of pie for everybody. There's sort of you know specific niches that that every every every type of company we've discussed fit into. And and I don't think that it it necessarily pulls massively from each other because I think it's they're sort of fighting over two different kinds of customers, and and that's where even AI call agent, like I said, you know, we for sure spent a lot more marketing than a lot of local companies, and we knew we weren't always the first call, right? If we were we were getting that customer because the the the smaller companies weren't picking up the phone.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, and tying it back to skimmer, I think if you are a small company and you want to compete against the big fish out there, having this AI service is great because I can't tell you for myself, if I'm calling for a plumber or a new or a new service, if they don't pick up the phone, I'll call someone else. And if I see a callback from them, I'm already talking to someone else at that point, and you've lost that lead. And this is a kind of day and age where I mean, you're you're kind of like for my generation. If your friend wasn't home, you'd leave a note on the door or you know, tell his parents, hey, have Billy call me, you know, or whatever. And then it went to where like you had pagers, you know, people would page you, and then people would get cheap and page you code because they don't want to pay for anything, you know. And then you have cell phones and texting, but now it's like if you don't get back to someone or pick up the phone within 30 seconds, they've already moved on to someone else. We're in that kind of this is the mentality of everyone now, you know, 30 seconds, one minute, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

If you look at generic studies across home services, the number one most important thing to customers is who calls me, who, who, who can I reach the fastest? It's not price, it's not like, oh, they're right next door to me. It's it's not quality of their reviews. That might be why they try calling you first, but the most important thing, why they choose a company is who called them back first or who picked up the phone.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

And David, I'll just add that's just kind of one, that's just one aspect that's important skimmer, right? It's it is routing, it is customer communication, it is all of the payment uh handling and being able to track all of the data and be able to have the data to make educated uh decisions about how to move your business forward. Like it's it's all of that. It's tech accountability, it's it's being able to forecast chemical usage. Like all of those things are healthy things to implement if you're trying to build a business that is worth something.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, in this day and age, if you're not using a software like Skimmer, there's so many aspects, layers that we talked about here, you know, building a business to make it sellable, maybe someone calling you to buy your business, the

Skimmer Features Plus Adoption Hesitation

SPEAKER_01 19:33

customer-facing end of it. Hey, this guy is calling me for the credit card or he's sending me this invoice that's looks like you know it was from the 1980s, you know. It's one of those things where, you know, the first person I started working for, I'll date myself. I started in 1988, and he used these carbon copy things. I don't know if you remember these things, but they're like a little invoiced back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

And so you would, by the time you get to the third sheet, it was like an illegible pink with like the barely legible whatever's left on there. You would tear that off in hands of the customer. And, you know, if you're still doing that nowadays, I really think you're you're gonna lose out because the generation, and I really believe that the pool industry is gearing down towards a younger generation of pool pros that are more tech savvy, more advanced. So if you're an older person trying to compete, you really need to jump on board and start utilizing some of these tools. And I think having someone answer the phone is key to business. And as we mentioned, you know, the first one that gets the response is the one that wins. And it's one of those things where if this is available to you, why not use it? What's what's a hesitation? You know, it's the software is paid for by one customer, basically. And if you do the math, it's definitely worth it. So it I guess we can end here. The last thought would be why is there any hesitation to jump on board and use software? Have you have you uh run into people that are hesitant out there?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Fear of the unknown. That's it. You know, fear change. There's a lot of people who are just comfortable doing what they're doing, but like, you know, the world is changing, right? Like you said, you know, the the cohort of pool owners is getting younger. The people who are writing checks are are kind of becoming fewer and fewer in number. And if you want to get your business organized, if you want to have, you know, really good intelligence around your day-to-day operations and put systems in place that are scalable and repeatable so that you have less stress and you can spend more time with your family, like get some software, get Skimmer.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yeah, good point. Well, thank you for your time today. It was, I think it's very educational for the pool pros. We covered a lot of topics, not just talking about the software, but things that are relevant to the pro out there in this kind of changing AI era. And I really think AI is a great tool. And the fact that Skimmer is implementing it, I think Hal mentioned that there's so many new things coming out that you can't even keep track of them. Uh A great thing for the industry.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah, there's more to come. This is just our first AI offer, but there is definitely more to come. And I'll I'll drop your your link for you if if you want to take advantage of David's 30-day free trial offer. It's get skimmer.com slash pull guy, and you can get a 30-day free trial courtesy of David Van Brett.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Thank you for that. Thank you, Hal. David. Thanks so much, man. And if you would like to try Skimmer for free for 30 days, simply go to my website, swingpoollearning.com. Click on the skimmer, the skimmer banner that's on the homepage there. And then you can try Skimmer for 30 days for free. If you're looking for other

Free Trial Links And Closing

SPEAKER_01 22:40

podcasts, go to that same website. On the banner, click on the podcast icon. There'll be a drop down menu over 1900 podcasts there for you to listen to at your leisure. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a rest of your week and God bless.