Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Milton, Crabapple, and Hickory Flat
Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
EP #151: RCS Pool & Spa with Reaves Newsom
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Embark on an entrepreneurial odyssey with Reaves Newsom, the visionary founder of RCS Pool and Spa, as he recounts the evolution of his family's initials into a byword for pool perfection in Atlanta. During our exchange, Reaves unveils how he swapped his corporate credentials for the challenging yet rewarding world of entrepreneurship amidst the 2008 recession. With a blend of craftsmanship and unwavering dedication, he crafts in-ground pools that not only meet but exceed the expectations of his clients. Every project is a narrative of personal commitment, withstanding the caprices of weather and the construction industry's notorious unpredictability.
Our conversation also sails through the shifting tides of pool design trends post-pandemic, revealing how RCS Pool and Spa remained buoyant and responsive to the booming demand for modern, minimalist aquatic retreats. Reaves opens up about the firm's educational approach, employing 3D designs to bridge the gap between dreams and reality for their clients. From the nuances of transparent pricing strategies to the meticulous journey from design inception to the celebratory final handover, this episode is a deep dive into the operational depths of a business where efficiency is synchronized with the aesthetic pulse of contemporary design. Join us for this episode that promises not just a peek but a full view into the heart of a family-owned business that's making waves with its dedication to excellence and customer satisfaction.
Local Pool Business Success Story
Speaker 1This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Poehler.
Speaker 2Hey everybody, we are talking to Reeves Newsome of RCS Pool and Spa today. Welcome Reeves.
Speaker 3Hey, how are you?
Speaker 2Good good. Why don't you first tell us where the name RCS comes from?
Speaker 3Well, we're a family-owned business. We started in 2009, and RCS actually comes from our name Reeves Carmen, which is my wife, and sons. We have three sons. Only one of them is in the business right now.
Speaker 2Okay, Well cool. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about rcs?
Speaker 3we service um areas of atlanta that are about, uh, from downtown atlanta north, basically from i-85 all the way over to dallas georgia area. On the west side of town we build about 70 in-ground pools a year, and of town we build about 70 in-ground pools a year and we're busy, especially right now it's May A lot of people looking to get those pools in before the summer.
Speaker 2huh.
Speaker 3Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2Why don't you tell us about your journey? Have you always been in the pool building business Were?
Speaker 3you doing something before this? The pool building business? Were you doing something before this? I've been in the business for a little over 35 years. I did go to college, but I didn't go to college for building pools, right, I went to college and I got a job right out of college. It just wasn't what I wanted to do and so I was in the pool business during the summers in college and things. So I went back to the pool business, started in a commercial pool management, like lifeguards and homeowners associations and all those things, and we I began building residential pools a little over 25 years ago in both Georgia and then Florida and before settling back here to Georgia in 2002.
Speaker 3When the recession happened in 08, 09, that big corporate company I was working for for over 11 years had to lay off many of us because not very many people are building pools during that time, right and um. So just trying to decide what I wanted to do, cause I was unemployed, I had someone give my name to a homeowner that had recently, uh, let his pool builder go at the time and he hired me to finish his pool and I used the funds from that to start the business and, uh, my wife and I discussed it and we put a plan together and um, our cs pool and spa was born. At that time we increased our revenue and pool builds every year since. So 2009 until now 2024 uh, it's been a great, great ride 2024.
Speaker 2It's been a great, great ride Awesome. Are there any myths or misconceptions that are out there about pool or spa building or just the industry in general?
Speaker 3Well, let me start with a truth rather than a misconception or anything like that. It's very easy and this goes for most any industry. It's very easy to hire someone that doesn't know what they're doing, but it's very easy to find out if that person is for real. So it's important to do your due diligence and it's very, very easy, you know. Obviously, referrals are one thing, but Google is a huge resource. All you got to do is Google the name and there's reviews online. There's positive, negative, everything and you make your determination based on that, because something that is too good to be true, that sounds too good to be true, often is.
Speaker 3I can't stress enough how important doing just a little bit of research is in order for such a huge commitment financially for you and your family. And building a pool is craftsmanship, it's not a commodity. So not every pool builder, not every home builder, not every landscaper, is going to be the same result in the end. It takes time to do it right, it costs what it costs, and as long as you're clear about your expectations, but I want to also make sure that everybody's careful with their demands. You have to finish by this date or you have to do this, and and it rains for three and a half weeks. I mean what there's.
Speaker 3You know there's demands that you can make, but there's also demands that if you force it, people will do it and they'll cut corners and things like that. So I just want them to be careful. Working with a company with a proven track record, there's very few barriers to get into the pool business. There's very few barriers to get into the pool business. There's very few barriers to get into the landscape business. But pool business that has codes, it has requirements and if you're not versed in those, the inspections are not going to cover all of those. So I guess the bottom line is just make sure you do your due diligence and you'll find a good contractor to build your pool.
Speaker 2I mean, you guys have great reviews and you've obviously been doing this a very long time. What are some of those differentiators that you bring to the table that have helped you to be successful?
Speaker 3Well, I wish my customers knew how much they mean to me and my family. This is a family business, so this is not a big corporate business. I don't have anybody to answer to except to them. So when I walk into a backyard or one of my salespeople walks into a backyard, my reputation is on the line on a daily basis. And because we haven't been in business for two years, we've been in business for almost 15 years, right and in one form or another. We just started and now we're in 2024.
Speaker 3There's a lot going on and it's important that I let them know how much they mean to me and how much each job means to me. We're not perfect. We're never going to be perfect, but I want the chance to make things right If there's something going miscommunication, schedule issues or whatever we want by the end of the project, we want you to be wowed. We want you to be wowed, we want you to be happy, and and so, with that, that's one of the main things that I wish that I could convey to every single customer and everybody takes it a different way, right, but I wish I could convey to every customer how much they mean to us.
Speaker 2That's awesome. I know that you're in business with some members of your family, but what do you guys like to do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3All of us. We love the outdoors, vacations, being with family, et cetera. We have a place in the North Georgia mountains that we go to all the time and personally I love to fish, play tennis, play golf. So we're all pretty much of an active family and it's great. Our boys are all in their 20s, so we know, my wife and I know that we only have so much time with them left, you know, together right, none of them are hitched and so you know, we've kind of got them, you know, to ourselves right now, but that won't last forever. So we try to do as much as we can with them, going on trips, vacations. So it's that's very, very important to us.
Speaker 2That's great. I'm sure there's been some obstacles and stumbling blocks along the way since you got the business off the ground in 2009. Can you share with us, you know, some of the challenges that you faced and how you guys have worked through them and overcome them?
Speaker 3You know it's hard to narrow down because all of us have those types of things in our lives. You know, and I can pretty much tell you, the biggest challenges over the last 15 years have been two. Number one was, even before the company started, was I was laid off and then four months later my wife was laid off. We were both unemployed um, the, my wife. We were both unemployed. We had three kids, kids, a house payment. Luckily, we were essentially debt free. Like you know, a few years before that we kind of made it our passion to say, okay, we want to, we don't want to be have a ton of debt. So, except for the house, everything was paid off and that experience taught us a lot about ourselves and our marriage.
Pool Design Trends
Speaker 3Right, because that was a big, huge challenge and and you know we didn't have a whole lot of back then we just wanted to start doing what we're doing and at that time I had I don't know what 10 to 15 years experience in the industry. So I said, all right, I'm going to try. I'm going to try and I did, and I'm so glad that I did. The second one would be COVID, so glad that I did. The second one would be COVID. What I thought was going to happen was completely opposite. The phone stopped ringing.
Speaker 2Everybody started powering down in the phone stopped ringing.
Speaker 3We were still busy because we had a backlog of people already purchased pools and we were building et cetera and so forth. But for one month we didn't know what was going on. My salespeople weren't meeting with people, obviously, but by middle of May we were six weeks out just to see somebody about building a pool, just to see somebody about building a pool. And that, right there was, were two of the biggest obstacles we were able to overcome in our marriage and in our business life and it worked out really, really well.
Speaker 2Amazing. Can you tell us about maybe some other things about your business that you haven't had a chance to share, that you want our listeners to know?
Speaker 3Well, we have so much information to give to our customers before we even set foot in our backyard, and I want to make sure every customer has the information they need to make the right decisions for them. And not every company does this. I think most companies don't do that until walk in okay, this is what was sold to you. So here it is, and we're going to start building. Well, we do a little bit more due diligence and making sure, and sometimes it kind of overwhelms the customer and we don't want to do that either. So we we believe we've found a happy medium, um, but I think the way we're doing things gives us our customer backing, gives us our reviews, gives us the glowing um.
Speaker 3Oh, we love our pool. Hey, come out. I can't tell you how many times we've been invited to the first pool party. Of course, I mean, it's a lot of fun. We can't make them all, but we really enjoy giving our customers the education that they need in order for them not to say I wish I did this instead of this. So that's what I don't want. Any regrets once you're finally finished and done.
Speaker 2That's a great. That's a great approach. Who is the mastermind behind designing the pools? Is that you, or Carmen, or Well we are.
Speaker 3our structure is when, when I first started, I was doing all the sales, all the designing, all of that, and that was the first couple of years. Right, I had. You know, we built I don't know about 15 to 20 pools in the first year and it just went up from there. I hired on a friend of mine that used to work for me at that larger company and he came to work for me and he was with me for nine years, um, and it was great. He has since moved on. I've got two other people that do the design. So the sales people meet with the customers, do the design work on the front end, sign the contract and the agreements with the customers, um, help them, and we do it in 3D. So everything is kind of conceptual, but it's more understandable than just a 2D flat drawing, right, and so it looks like okay, this is really nice. This is what I was after.
Speaker 3Once that's done, we sign an agreement, we have to go through permitting, and then that's when people like me and my project managers take over.
Speaker 3The salesperson goes and sells another pool and we take over and actually build the pool. Well, first we destroy the backyard and then we build the pool Right. We have our machines and our excavators and all other kind of stuff. We trench, we did, but by the time it's all finished, it's beautiful, and we have our partners that we have worked with for several years with landscaping and fencing, and we give our customers those contacts and they have worked for us for so long. They know what to expect, they know how to get the job done and most of our guys that do work for us they don't take a week and a half or two weeks. They come in with large crews and they come in for a few days and they're done, they're out, they're gone, and so, um, when they're all done, we finish the interior of the pool, fill it up, teach our customers how to operate things on their phones, hand them the keys and saying go jump in. That. That's awesome.
Speaker 2Yeah, any trends you're seeing in pool design. I seem to think that people were into these like freeform and pools with rocks and all that stuff, and now maybe moving more towards clean lines and old-school rectangle. Is that true? Is that?
Speaker 3what you're seeing on your end? You are exactly right. Rectangle, Is that true? Is that what you're seeing on your end? You are exactly right. They're, I would say, at probably 70-30, 70% right now. Clean lines. I say geometric, I say modern, clean lines. All those things are right. You see, a lot of these new houses, they're all white, black, gray. Those are the colors, dominant colors right now. When I first started, it was brick edging and it was the terracottas, the reds, the things that you probably would cringe at right now. And then it went to natural stone and we still do natural stone, but not as much by any stretch. It's the grays, the whites, the blacks, all those types of things that are predominant. That's not all we do, but they're predominant in what people are expecting and wanting right now. So yeah, you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 2Cost-wise, is there a savings in doing a new note?
Speaker 3No, our polls are priced out by the square footage.
Speaker 3So, I don't care if it's a circle or rectangle or trapezoid, it's by square footage and perimeter footage of the pool itself, yeah. And then the deck is placed out, and it's by square footage. The decking meaning pavers or pool deck, whatever. And so, yeah, no, it's the pricing, whatever. And so, yeah, no, it's the pricing. The costs get increased based on walls, elevation differences. So if you have multiple elevations, you're going to have to have walls and steps and different things like that. So that's where you can get into some really beautiful work.
Speaker 3I have colleagues and not well, friends in the business that we're competitors but we're friends that just do some beautiful work with different elevations. And there's people out there that will spend a magnanimous amount of money in the backyard because, number one, because of COVID, and that's when things started exploding and because the breadwinner was home, and the breadwinner this is what I can surmise is the breadwinner was home, and so talking to the family is like is this what you have to deal with every day? We want to do this and do this, and that's what happened. Everybody's doing that, and that trend has continued.
Speaker 2Wow, for sure. I know you have lots of beautiful pools on your website that people can go check out. Can you share your contact information with us?
Speaker 3Sure, you can call or text 770-820-1597. You can also and you'll probably get a faster response if you just go to rcspoolspacom and click on the contact us page and fill out the information there. It goes right to us, it gets right into our contact information and it gets assigned a designer. They'll contact you for an appointment and we come out for an appointment and figure out what you want to do and see the backyard. And one thing I want to make sure of is everybody understands that we have to have a survey of your property in order to understand what is involved, because I can do all the things beautiful and design everything, but if your survey says that I can't make a pool this big or in this spot or this, it's just a waste of time. So it's important to have a survey of your property and the survey is where are your property lines, where's your house sitting, all those types of things.
Speaker 2Got it All right Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Reeves.
Speaker 3You bet Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's great. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Milton More. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpmiltoncom. That's gnpmiltoncom, or call 470-664-4930.