Pool Consulting & Essential Tax Strategies

In this episode of the Talking Pools podcast, host Steve Sherwood discusses various challenges faced in pool consulting, including the importance of proper tax management, navigating pool temperature issues, and the role of communication in managing client expectations. He also delves into the significance of general liability insurance and the trends shaping the pool industry in 2026. The conversation emphasizes the need for pool professionals to maintain clear communication with clients and to manage their business effectively to ensure profitability and client satisfaction.

takeaways

• Proper tax management is crucial for pool service businesses.
• Pool temperature management can be a significant challenge.
• Communication with clients is key to successful pool management.
• General liability insurance is essential for protecting your business.
• Not every client is a good fit for your business.
• Chemical management in pools requires careful attention.
• Trimming down difficult clients can improve business efficiency.
• Understanding legal challenges in pool consulting is important.
• Staying updated on industry trends can help in business planning.
• Using capturing apps can enhance communication and accountability.

Sound Bites

• "You can't work your job today."
• "This is how I can protect you."
• "Not every client is for you."

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Pool Consulting Challenges

02:35
The Importance of Proper Tax Management

05:33
Navigating Pool Temperature Issues

08:50
Consulting in the Face of Legal Challenges

11:39
Handling Chemical Management in Pools

14:37
Understanding General Liability Insurance

17:06
The Role of Communication in Pool Management

20:06
Client Management and Expectations

22:39
Setting Goals for the New Year

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:53

He had called me and sent me a picture today, and there was a picture of like 15 gallons of liquid chlorine, and it was in like a hot pool where they have competitions. And like there was just they're just sitting on the front bench, you know, of the stands. There's like four rows of stands. I'm just like, what what is going on with with this, you know? And he was like, hey, he's like, this is what my guy left today, you know, at the pool. Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Talking Pools podcast with your host, Steve Sherwood, on Thursdays. So now we're into the new year, and uh Christmas is gone by, New Year's is gone by. So it's a new year, and uh time for you guys, like I've talked about in previous shows, just this is the time to kind of take a look at last year's ledger for yourselves and see, like, hey, you know, we made this much money on this pool. I mean, like, the your taxes are gonna tell you how much money you've made. Um, so it's real important to have somebody who does your taxes properly and knows the ins and outs and can get you the deductions that you're supposed to and that you're you really should have. Um, and I made the mistake when I first opened my company. I like had one of my old roommates from college, um, and he was like, Yeah, and he he was, you know, just getting into CPA stuff. And uh I let him do my stuff. The next couple years after that, I was like burying, taking myself out of that, you know, because it it buried me a little bit just with different things that I didn't realize. And then once I got a real accountant, and then once I got my, you know, I got with Jen, that took a lot of time to fix. So make sure that your, you know, your taxes are done right and you have somebody doing your taxes that that knows what they're doing. Today on the show, I want to talk a little bit more about one of the things that that we do as a company. Um, you know, the name of our company or my company and Jen's company is Sherwood Pool Consulting Group. All right, so the first couple years, like I didn't, you know, I didn't do so much consulting. And I did a bit of you know, consulting when I was in New Jersey and I worked for another company where they were like into expert witness and different things like that. So I just want to talk, like I had a CPO class today, and I had to deal with like so many other things that were going on that like that's actually my job. And I always it's crazy because I always tell people in the class at the beginning of the class, like, hey, like you can't work your job today, you know. I just like felt pressured a little bit while I was teaching my CPO class. Like there was a couple times where I was like, hey, like I have to pause class, like I really need to take this phone call because I have someone sitting in front of a heater right now, and like there's a problem, and it's a commercial pool, and we need it up. I want to talk to you about, you know, being a pool consultant and how sometimes being a pool consultant is actually just being like a glorified babysitter and guy with a fire extinguisher putting out all the dumpster fires. There's pool consultants out there that they take cases when people get hurt when there's different things, especially like injury, personal injury is a big one. Like in and outside the pool, like people slipping and falling, like over the railing, like, hey, there's there should have been a railing here and there wasn't, or whatever it may be. But you know, a lot of people are are quick to sue in the environment that we live in in this country. And uh, you know, when when shit happens around the pool, the lawyers are like, What do we know about pools? We don't really know anything about pools. So they will hire an expert witness that'll come out, and that expert witness will say, Hey, we want to take on the case. And now they have to do a bunch of research on the case, and basically you become like a like a witness. And now, like a lawyer could actually go in and like look at your background, and they could like get emails that you had and stuff. You might have to like you might get subpoenaed to like actually sub submit stuff. So they they try and discredit you and different things like that. So that's pretty high-level expert witness stuff. And there's guys out there that do that, and they take on probably like five cases a year, and that's all they do, you know, and that's like uh the upper echelon of those people that are doing that. And then there's people like me, like I'm not going to court most of the time. Like, most people are not going to court, very like less than five percent of the cases will go to court, three percent of cases will go to court. So, you know, most of the time, most of the cases are not going to court. It's just someone calling you and saying, Hey, we have this issue. You know, do you want to help us with this? And you know, and how much would you charge? And a lot of times it starts with an inspection or some sort of you going out and like seeing what's going on, or reviewing the case stuff or whatever happens with that. So that's like the serious stuff that could happen with you know, with things like this, with with there could be, you know, there could be drownings and deaths and all sorts of crazy stuff. But as a pool consultant, the biggest thorn in my side for the last like uh month and a half has been the pool temperature at this one pool. So when I say that we're pool consultants, we work with a lot of other companies. Some of them I work with for free, like they took our class and we just have a good relationship, and I just I help them. And then there's other companies that like need services, and like we will provide that for them. And uh, one of our partners have like a school system, and the school system has this competition pool. And the competition pool doesn't have like a heater, like you would have a regular heater, and the whole school district, it's uh it's on like high voltage, 440. So, like there's a lot of things where like you wouldn't even you'd be like, I'm not gonna work on that. Like, you guys work on that. So they have like uh union electricians that they have on staff and and things like that that they can have that they can do a lot of this stuff. So it's a heater in a sense that it's got two controllers, and one of them controls the shallow end and one of them controls the deep end, but it's connected to like a water boiler, you know, uh like an old school boiler. And when I tell you that this control is like the most sensitive control that you have ever touched in your entire life. And not only is the control super sensitive, after you change the control, like they could tell you that day that the pool is at 76 degrees. And for a competition pool, you want like you know, they want the competition pool at like 78 degrees. That's really the temperature, you know. 78 is a bit cool if you're telling recreation. You know, recreation is definitely gonna be over 80, but there'll be times where because this place is in the northeast, like it gets cold, so it might get cold outside. And now the temperature was good two days ago, you know, it was at like 79 degrees or 80 degrees, and now all of a sudden it's down at 76. And what's happening is it's so cold out that it's actually just making the room, like the room that the pool is in, colder, right? Because they don't have like a uniform there, they're also using water boilers to heat the whole building. So there's certain rooms that are better insulated than others, and you know, this pool room where the pool is, that room can't can get chilly. And uh I I we've trained most of the people, you know, in the district for the school. So they have swim teachers that are doing like uh swim lessons with the with the kids, and then they have coaches that are like uh coaching and lifeguarding and doing the stuff for for the school while they're using this pool. But to get to this heater, you literally have to like uh go into this room, and then the room takes like a ladder and it takes you into this like pit that like takes you underneath the pool. And like it's it's rough getting down there, you know. I wouldn't just ask anyone to go down there. So part of the problem is like we go to this pool, you know, once, twice a week max. Like we're not paid to go to this pool seven days a week. But what's been happening the last couple weeks is like I've been having to send someone there because like you know, you let it go for two days, and then all of a sudden it goes up to like 92 degrees. And you're like, okay, let me recorrect it just a tiny, tiny bit here, and then like uh three days later it goes down to 77. You're like, this is under what we want. So I've been dealing with multiple people every day for the last three weeks texting me because there's certain people that are at the pool, like uh the coaches and stuff, and they'll text me, but like they're not gonna go down and touch the heater, right? So we're trying to figure out because this heater needs to be touched like every couple days, depending on the weather outside. So I'm like this heater's babysitter, you know, and uh it's just kind of crazy because this is like the thing that I it's hard to get a handle on because like I'm not there. And I guess if I was there and I could go every day and like you could you could, you know, mess with it every day, I guess you could figure it out a little bit easier. But again, it shifts with how the weather is outside. So it's one of those things that like doesn't really have an answer unless you could have somebody there every day or every couple days actually changing it around to move with what you want it for the day and the next day. So there's that. I had to deal with that during class. And then um I have a buddy who owns a company and he has a lot of employees, like in the hundreds of people, right? And he's got like office staff and people that take care of the pools, and you know, like a lot of different things. And he called me today and he was like, Hey, he was like, Do you want to hear the craziest thing that that's happened lately? And I was like, Yeah, I was like, I'm actually in class right now, we're on a break, so I only got a couple minutes. Tell me. He's like, I had a guy, and he went to this site and he clocked in, then proceeded to sit in his car for two hours, and then he clocked out and he left. And I was just pretty, pretty flabbergasted, right? Because like as a pool guy, even if you're not like even if you don't have like a capturing app and stuff, like you're still gonna have you have other people going to this pool and whatever, and like someone's gonna figure this out pretty quickly. So, like, why would you why would you do that? And then like I have other instances that happen today. So when I woke up this morning, I had a picture of one of the commercial pools that we take care of. And the like engineer was like, Hey, like it looks like uh, and it was Monday, and we were there on Friday, and he was like, It looks like there's just like shit all over the bottom of the pool, you know, and just got just got it painted and stuff. So at first I thought it was like a bad paint job. I was like, Oh no, like the paint's coming up, and then I saw their text and they were like, hey, you know, like this person came, and again, this this wasn't my company, this is this is somebody else's company, but they were calling me about this and telling me about this, and like I helped them out in that aspect. I got these pictures and they were like, How could this you know happen at the bottom of the pool? And I was like, Well, we had just put in it's a really big pool, it's like 115, 120,000 gallons, and we were balancing it out at the beginning, and we put in like two bags of calcium flakes because it needed like two over 200 pounds of calcium, so we put in 100 pounds. Um, and the thing is, like the water was really cold, so the calcium actually dissolved. In fact, calcium flakes, if you've ever put calcium flakes in the water, they actually dissolve really well in cold water. Baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, we also put in over 50 pounds of that. And uh that kind of just like didn't dissolve as well. But I knew from the pictures like exactly what happened. And the real lesson here is like honestly, like if you're gonna go to a pool and like you're not gonna do a good job, like it's pretty easy to figure out, you know. Like now I have pictures and now I understand that it's just you just didn't brush the pool properly after you put these chemicals in, you know, and like you always put the chemicals in first and then you brush the pool. I just like you don't have to explain, like in this type of situation, when you have a client and it's like a like a hotel or like an hoa or a school system or a city or whatever where they have a lot of people working in these departments, like someone's gonna see that immediately, and then they're gonna like send a picture and they're gonna be like, Hey, like you guys did this, like what's going on? So, you know, now they're throwing you under the bus. And if there's one thing that I've learned working with you know commercial clients in that aspect, like when anything goes wrong, like they're gonna always try and blame you for sure. So you have to cover your ass with that. One of my other like clients that I that I talk to and help out a bunch, he you know, he had called me and sent me a picture today, and there was a picture of like 15 gallons of liquid chlorine, and it was in like a a pool where they have competitions, and like there was just they're just sitting on the the front bench, you know, of the stands. There's like four rows of stands. I was just like, what what is going on with with this, you know? And he was like, hey, he was like, This is what my guy left today, you know, at the pool. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the insurance interlude with your host, Steve Sherwood from Talking Pools Podcast, and then as always, our guest, uh Pat Grignon from California Pool Association. So, Pat, I I wanna number one just thank you so much for you know coming on every week in and week out, um, and us being able to have this little you know 10 to 15 minute thing in each of our shows. Um, and people have told me that this is actually what they look forward to when they when they hear the show on Thursdays, you know. And uh I just wanted to number one say like the the the information that you're you're giving out is is so great and helpful, not only to all of our listeners, but also to to me and my business. But the thing that I really want to talk about today is, you know, you guys are have this special offer with talking pools, where if you know someone calls in and they say, Hey, I want to get my general liability, you know, the general liability could be anywhere from 800 to$1,000, but I know it starts at around$800. You'll get$100 off for that general liability for the year. Okay. So I want to talk about what that includes, though. And I absolutely 100% have your general liability. So it's more for my knowledge, like, what am I paying for, bro? So just tell give us a little breakdown of what it includes because our our past interludes have talked about pool inspections, car accidents, and and all different things like that, employee um, you know, termination and things like that. So there's a lot of different shit that goes on with this. So, what does it actually include? And then, like, what are some of the other things that you think you would think you were covered for, but maybe you're not?

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, absolutely. Well, first off, thanks for having me again, Steve. Really appreciate you having me on. Um I I can't believe someone's actually look looking forward to talking about insurance or hearing someone talk about insurance, but I'll take your word for it. So, yeah, so general liability. So, you know, the policy itself is it protects the individual if it's a sole prop or if it's a business entity like an LLC or a corp. It's gonna be for third-party damages or injuries that the business is responsible for.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Okay. Hold on, is there is there any difference? Because I I did have to change my designation at one point from like an LLC to an S Corp. Um, and that significantly changed like our tax implications, and now all of a sudden we're doing quarterly taxes and stuff. Um, but with the with the state that we live in, you know, you you have to do that for for certain reasons. Does that change anything or no?

SPEAKER_02 16:56

So the entity, it's important, right? So if you're a sole proprietor and you end up forming a corp or an LLC, like for a hundred percent, you need to you need to get in touch with your insurance agent because you'll need to change the named insured on your policies, you know, or at least add them as an additional named insured. Sometimes you got to rewrite them, it just depends. But for sure, business entity, like if I insure somebody as a sole proprietor, but they're really a corporation, there's zero coverage. There's no insurable interest. I've insured an individual, and the business is the one on contract. And so, like, it's essentially your your insurance is out in the outer space and it's never gonna kick in. So business entities are important. Obviously, there's a lot of you know, business benefits and protection, and there's tax stuff at being a corporation or an LLC.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

I I guess what I'm saying is like when you if you gave like Sherwood Pool Consulting Group S Corp, and if you gave Sherwood Pool Consulting Group LLC a contract for your general liability, is there any difference in the line items that are on there?

SPEAKER_02 17:59

There wouldn't be on the insurance policy, no. But really important if that were to flip-flop that you'd definitely change if you go from corp to LLC. Like there's met like that's massive insurance implications where whether you have coverage or not. So talk to your agent if you end up making a change to the business entity. But the policy is gonna stay the the the same. So third party liability, damages or injuries to somebody who's not part of your company, right? Your employees are covered with workers' comp. Um, you know, that your your equipment is covered under an equipment policy, your truck's under a truck policy, you know. But the general liability is always gonna be for a third party or somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Sure. And like that also goes to property, too. So like my guy pulls into somebody's garage and his brakes stop working, and he literally goes through the garage door into their garage and hits their car. Because they got they got a Maserati parked in the like with that lately, you're you're covered for that.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yeah, well, again, rule of thumb, I've said it before. I'll say it now. The uh if if you're behind the wheel and the vehicle's turned on and moving, that's always going to be your auto. If it's parked and it's not turned on, that'll be your general liability. But let's say, like let's say you open the gate to get in the backyard and like a dog gets out and goes and mauls another dog that someone's walking across the street. Like, you know, technically, because you opened the gate, the dog got out, like that's liability on you. That that's that's kind of a pop uh not popular, but it's a famous one in the industry where that happened. It's a pretty fucking morbid pat. Oh my god. They got they got cracked. They went to court, there was bad injuries to the person walking the dog, and they they they paid full limits on that. So simple stuff out of nowhere like that, you know, where these policies aren't a ton of money. If you think about like what is what's your revenue every year, even if you're just making 50 grand or something, we're talking about like an eight hundred or a thousand dollar policy. Right now, so as a percentage of your revenue to get millions of dollars of coverage, our policy in that instance would have a million bucks as a max limit for the dog attacking the person.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Also, take care of the the lawyer fees with some of this stuff if it actually did have to go to court or something like that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

The defense costs are included in the policy, even if you're just getting out of something. Um, some policies have have them included in the limit, ours has it outside of the limit.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Do you always use your lawyers? Like and I this is just because I'm curious. Like, uh, you obviously have a bunch of like lawyers on retainer, but do you have lawyers in Los Angeles and it's different people than in New Jersey, or you just have in-house lawyers that might be in your home base of Sacramento or what whatever? How does that look?

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah, so that the insurance companies always gonna have their lawyers that they use. They'll have some in-house stuff, but they normally are gonna farm that out. I mean, insurance carriers are I mean, they're in lawsuits and litigation all the time. What I mean, that that is literally your business, right? And you know, look, I think that yeah, if they normally are gonna assign a lawyer, but yeah, like in that example, like they have a million bucks for the injuries, and they'd also have defense costs outside of that million dollars. So not only would you have the million, but you'd also have defense, and that wouldn't eat up your million dollars if that case went a long way.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Sure. I mean, obviously, no, again, the main goal of everybody that sues anybody is not actually to go to court. Most of the time, when you're getting sued, they're they're looking to get something out of it, and you know, a hundred percent of the time it's it's money. Yeah, you know, but you did say something that really did make me think a little bit like about fraud and like waste and abuse and stuff. Um is there anything that you could give us a little tidbit about that we can cliffhang? And we'll talk about it in the next episode. But like, has there like what's been like a a case where like you found out there was fucking fraud?

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Oh gosh, this was a uh we didn't talk about this off air, I didn't mean to drop this on you like this, but but like it just makes you feel like mafia stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Like there's so much that I've seen fraud-wise over the years, like there's so much, and that's a big reason why if you think like 20 years ago, like if you had an insurance, even a car accident, like the insurance company would just pay the claim.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Yeah, yeah. There's no there was no pictures, there was no, it was it was like this person's saying this, and now all of a sudden this person's also saying this.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yep, yep, exactly. But yeah, there's been there's been some uh you know, building building fires, warehouse fires that were uh, you know, didn't seem accidental.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

All right, let's yeah, so let's just we'll stop this here. Uh, we want you guys to tune in next week. Um, thank you guys so much, always, as always, for for listening in with us. Um, and like I said, just check out California Pool Association, like there's so many different things. That you need to be insured for. And everyone that Pat has, you know, I don't always get to talk to Pat because he's pretty busy. But like we always talk to, you know, their associates and you know, people that actually are in charge of our account. And they're the ones that are sending us out reminders. And most of the time, like they'll remind us about payment and like, hey, you have this coming up, or do you want to add this? But check in with your insurer, you know, not just once a year, check in with them a couple times a year because your business, it's always super fluid and things are going to change. And you know, you pick up different clients with Airbnbs, or you know, they have swim lessons there, or it's a commercial property, or different things like that. Like, there's so many different I always say, like, doing pools is not just doing pools. You're also doing electricity, you're also doing plumbing, you're also doing a bunch of different things. You wear a lot of different hats. So make sure that you're covered in all directions. And CPA is going to give you a hundred bucks off of your general liability, which comes with a lot of different things that Pat just talked about on it. So check it out. And if you have any questions for us, hit us up, talkingpools at gmail.com. And as always, we'll see you on Thursdays for the insurance interlude. Pat, thanks so much. And everybody, thanks so much for listening. Talk to you soon. Thanks, Steve.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

As we kick off the first week of 2026, one of the most closely watched stories comes out of service industry news, where Florida lawmakers are already lining up pool safety bills aimed squarely at vacation rentals. This isn't abstract policy talk. If these proposals move forward, they will directly affect how pool service companies document safety features, how they advise property owners and managers, and how they protect themselves from the all-too familiar, you never told us liability after something goes wrong. Expect more pressure around barriers, alarms, inspections, and clearly defining who is responsible for what when a short-term rental has a pool. This is one of those stories that starts in legislation but ends in your service agreements and daily workflows, and it's worth reading in full at Service Industry News. Over at Pool Magazine, the headline story offers a market pulse check that feels refreshingly grounded. Florida pool permits are reportedly down about 3 percent year-to-date, and the framing matters here. This is being described as post-boom normalization, not a collapse. For service professionals, the takeaway is familiar and practical. New construction may be softer than the insanity of recent years, but demand for upgrades, renovations, and ongoing maintenance remains strong. Homeowners are still prioritizing outdoor living. They're just making decisions with a little more caution and a lot less frenzy. The full context and numbers are available at Pool magazine. Pool and Spa News starts the year focused on people and infrastructure, highlighting PHTA's announcement of the latest Greg Garrett scholarship recipients and the Doctor R. Neil Lowry Grant Award. Beyond the congratulations, the Grant story is where things get operationally interesting. The Southern Nevada Health District is using the funding to expand risk factor survey work, looking at staffing, bather load, equipment, and water treatment variables, and then converting those findings into training materials. This is exactly how today's research quietly becomes tomorrow's inspections, enforcement language, and industry expectations. It's a reminder that education funding often shapes the rules long before the rules are written. And you can read the full story at Pool and Spa News. Aqua magazine opens 2026 with a wide-angle lens rather than a single breaking incident, marking 50 years of Aqua by tracing how the pool and spa industry has evolved through market cycles, technological shifts, and efficiency pushes, particularly around energy use and pumps. It's part history, part perspective, and part warning label. The message is that the industry has always changed, often faster than people expect. And many of the themes we think are new have shown up before under different names. When markets get strange, patterns repeat, and this piece provides useful context for anyone trying to separate noise from long-term signals. The full article is available at Aqua magazine. Finally, Pool Pro magazine reports on Penter's rollout of a restructured sales organization designed to strengthen distributor and dealer support. The changes include dedicated national account managers and defined regional and zone coverage, backed by a large field team presence. For service companies, the practical implications are significant. This affects who you call, how problems escalate, how warranties and support are handled, and how relationship-based service is being formalized inside large manufacturers. It's less about org charts and more about access, responsiveness, and accountability. And the full breakdown can be found at Pool Pro Magazine.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

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SPEAKER_00 29:51

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SPEAKER_03 30:17

I'm just like, what what is going on with with this? You know? And he was like, hey, he was like, this is what my guy left today at the pool. So like you guys that own residential companies, like those gallons are cash, right? So you're always bringing those gallons back with you. And you go to your local distributor and they give you whatever. You know, they're actually like eight to ten dollars, like six to ten dollars if it's like a case and it's four of them. So that's actually cashola for yourselves. But then there's also ones that you throw away, right? That you put in the recycling. So make sure that like when you're done with this stuff, that obviously you're always washing these bottles out no matter what, whether you're throwing them away in the recycling or you're, you know, putting them back into your stock and bringing them back to the distributor. But uh, like one of the pictures was that, the other picture was like, you know, gallons in a garbage can. And there was like acid and and liquid chlorine in there and stuff. Obviously, you know, these employees were fired, and it was more of just like, hey, it was just letting you know like what these guys were doing. Again, if you're gonna go to the pool and like you're gonna put in a bunch of chemicals, like you really have to uh make sure that you're that you're brushing the pool afterwards and making sure that none of that stuff is at the bottom. And you know, the one of the biggest things is like if you guys are doing residential pools out there, it's best to not put too much in the pool, especially if it's like swimming season, because a lot of the families are gonna want to use the pool after you, you know, after you go there and clean it. And if you know in a 20,000 gallon pool, you're putting a 50-pound bag of baking soda or half a even a half a bag of baking soda, it's gonna make that pool go white for a pretty significant amount of time, at least a couple turnovers, maybe overnight. So just kind of be careful about that. What else did I want to talk to you guys about? So I had a situation, you know, over the weekend, and like here's the thing with the capturing apps and everything like that. And if you go to these pools as an employee and you communicate with the client that you're coming, and if there's any situations, you know, like the water is low, like I, you know, I need you to add what I could only add water for a little bit today. A lot of people, they're not gonna like understand that like if their water was a little bit low, that their heater's not gonna work if the skimmer starts sucking air, you know. So I try not to like bother my guys over the weekend. But like if a client texts me over the weekend, like I'm gonna go into our capturing app and I'm gonna look at it and I'm gonna be like, hey, like what what time was he there from? You know, what was it? And luckily he had filled out his whole thing. So I didn't need to call the kid who works for me, you know, to be like, hey, like what when were you there? What did you do? And he put notes that he put water in there, but it needed to, you know, to be more, but he didn't text the client after he was done. So now like I could totally see what was going on, and it's great. You know, this is why if you guys own a company and you guys have people that are working for you, like it's really you have to have you should have some sort of a capturing app if you guys are doing a bunch of pools out there. And it doesn't matter whether it's skimmer or pool brain or pay the pool man, you know, they all kind of work the same way. And I definitely would say for you guys to go out and check them all out and see what's up with them. But I tell all the guys that work for me that you know, this is this is how I can protect you, you know, because if I can't see like what time you got there, and if there's no before and after picture, and like with with these apps, you can just say, like, hey, this is what the chlorine was, this is what the pH was, you know, this is any problems, and I needed to alert the office or what whatever it is. And then you have these pictures of these pools. And one of the other things that the client said to me is he also said he was like, Hey, he was like, the pool is he was like, the pool's kind of dirty. And he sent me a picture of like dirt on the bottom of the pool, but his pool's painted and it's like kind of got like those like little recess pockets in it, and that's where like the dirt gets caught and stuff. So, like I said, I I talked to the client over the weekend and I was able to explain the whole situation. And I also had said to him, like, hey, do you remember like that you used to have an an automated vacuum and it broke and it was too expensive to fix? I was like, Maybe it's time to get another one of those, you know, and that will make the pool more or less look good every day. You know, it's not just gonna look good for the the day that the guy comes and the day after, and then maybe the day after that, and then it starts to go downhill. Okay. So definitely these robot vacuums will will help them, but you know, this client, I don't think really had a realistic expectation with that the pool's gonna be good for, you know, five, six days or whatever it may be. But like I said, with the capturing app that they were able to fill that out, it was more so that I was able to go in there and say, you know, exactly what was going on. So the last situation that I want to tell you about that happened was, you know, one of my guys was gonna go out and they had to install a pump. And, you know, in the capturing app, like we had put in there like pretty specific instructions. We were like, hey, you need to install this pump. And then we also put like you need to bring bonding and grounding wire with you because I had been there before, and like the bonding and grounding wire wasn't the right wire, needs to be an eight gauge or you know, thicker wire. And in some states, they weren't like the copper wire sheathed in green. So it just depends what state you live in. But either way, all pools need to be bonded and grounded. So guy goes out and he installs the pump. Like, I look, I can see the picture in the capturing app, and uh, I'm like, where's the bonding and grounding wire? Right. So he just attached the same bonding and grounding wire because he didn't have bonding and grounding wire on it. So I also like the client texts, he's like, hey, he's like, can I turn on the pump? So like I find out really quickly. I'm like, hey, I'm like, can we turn on the system? He's like, yeah, he's like, I just wanted the like glue to dry and and whatnot. And that's fine, but like the number one thing that you need to do in communication is like if you're gonna communicate with your clients, you gotta tell them before you show up, and then just give them the rundown of what happened, like when you're leaving. Whether it be like, hey, I added as much water as I could. You need to add more water when you get a chance, please. Have a great weekend. Like it's as simple as text as that. And you know, I've gotten in trouble in the past with commercial clients where you tell them you're coming, but then you don't tell them the outcome, and then the next day something's wrong where they're like, Hey, did you even fix this other stuff? But like most of the time we fixed that other stuff, it could have been something else. And I just feel like the I mean, it always really depends like how you bring it across too, like with a text message or when you call these people, you know, that you explain exactly what's going on and you know, everything. But I think the the most important part is like when you leave, like you have to, you know, set this expectation of like, hey, this happened and this is what I did, or there was a problem and we're gonna look into fixing it, or whatever. But if you stay ahead, you know, of the game and you tell these clients, and I'd rather over-communicate and say, hey, like I I gotta find out what these parts are and where I could get them. It could be a few days, and you even give yourself some leeway, you know, built in with that. But really, what it you know, just what it is is just you you need to communicate clearly and you need to communicate concisely what's going on with everything, you know. And there's just always a lot of moving parts, especially with the with the commercial clients. And like I said, it's uh really what you want to be with your commercial clients is you want to be their their trusted advisor and their pool consultant. And I feel like uh, you know, with with all of my commercial clients, we have a really good rapport, and I'm able to just, when something is wrong, just tell them exactly what's going on. And if I don't know what's going on, like, hey, I I don't actually know what's going on, but I'm gonna figure it out for you. And that's where you guys get to lean on the manufacturers of whatever it is that you're using, like whatever pump that is, or whatever heater that is. I told you earlier in the show, like there's certain situations where these are like boilers and you know things that I wouldn't work on, high voltage pumps, but you just as long as you communicate exactly what's going on, it's definitely gonna be easier for your business. And then uh on a lighter note, I had a guy call me and uh he was like, Hey, like I want you to come out to my pool and uh, you know, I want you to give me a quote for like renovation or whatever it was. And I was like, Okay, cool. I was like, I don't really have too much time though. I was like, I, you know, next week I'm leaving the country into you know through the end of the year. And I was like, I might have a hard time getting out there, but I can send my service manager Carlos out there. And he was just like, It seems like you're really busy, man. And like we talked for a few minutes, and like he was just like, It seems like you're really busy, man. Uh he was like, You just uh he's like, I'm just gonna move in a different direction. And I was like, totally, totally fine with me because like he, you know, there's some people and like they want you to come out and they want you to come out like yesterday, and with like pool inspections or insurance claims or like injury or like something like that, like if you're doing something, you know, it it's really time sensitive. But if people are gonna call you and in their first phone call with you, they're gonna be like a little pushy with like the timeline and like all of this stuff. Like, I would never, you know, I like screened that phone call and like I was really good with not working with that person. So I know when you first start out, I took a lot of accounts that like I wouldn't I wouldn't take now. And that was cool because I really I needed those accounts and like I needed that to sustain what I was was doing. But as you grow as a pool company, like I said, as we go into the new year, take a look back at all of your clients and you know, just take note of the ones that were like you know, a bit of a Karen or a bit of a pain in the ass. And not just, and you're gonna see that those people they weren't just like that once, they were like that, like you know, a lot or like every time, or you know, you know where I'm going with that. So take note, like I said, the most important thing is to now that you just started the year off, make sure that you figure out on each client that you have what you've been putting in their pool, how much that costs you, and how much you build out for it. And you're gonna come up with two numbers. You're gonna come up with what you paid for that pool, and you're gonna come up with what you charged for that pool. And that difference in number needs to be enough. And look, I I want to grow in 2026, and I want you to grow in 2026, and I want to help you grow in 2026. The first thing that I'm gonna tell you about this new year is there's probably some clients that you could trim the fat of and that are actually weighing you guys down just as much as it is pulling you, you know, not pulling you forward. So trim that fat. It's it's you know, we want to have a hundred percent success rate with all of our clients. We try and pick up the phone all the time. We try and make sure that we're nice to everybody and we try and make sure that we do a good job. But not every client is for you, and not every client is gonna, you know, depends what you're charging, but you don't have to lower your prices, you could just get less clients at that price. So, for this first show, really into the new year, like I said, I want this really to be a profitable year for you guys, and I want to make sure that all of your clients on the roster are doing what they're supposed to be doing for you, and that's first and foremost, making money. Second, not being too big of a you know deterrent or pain in the ass for you guys. So, as always, if you guys have any questions, uh you can reach out to me at talkingpools at gmail.com. I think Wayne is gonna be back with me for the upcoming weeks. So we look forward to having him back. And guys, for you, I hope you have a healthy, profitable week and great start to 2026. We'll be talking at you next week. Thank you.