Malcolm Marshall

CEO/Founder/Pool guy | 50+ employees, $16M Revenue | Sharing SMB Insights | Unqualified CMO - Sharing my journey to build a Corporate and Personal Brand

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

How to make $150k a year cleaning pools 4.5 days week.

No employees, just you, a net and a brush.

The setup

I’d set my work week for Tuesday-Friday cleaning 12 pools a day.

Monday is a flex day. I’d only work Mondays if I’m behind on repairs or need to follow up on things. Maybe some office work if my VA asked me to look over anything.

If I didn’t have any of that, I’d be fishing or golfing.

I would service your pool every week.

Well, not every week. I’d take off the entire week of Christmas and Thanksgiving, one week in the Summer, and one week in the Winter.

You’d know this about my service, and I’d be able to manage your pool so that everything would be fine while I’m gone.

It wouldn’t be an employee servicing your pool. It would be ME. The GOAT of pools.

Ok, not really, but better than your average employed service tech, and with a lot more give a damn.

It’d be a premium service and so it’d be offered at a premium price.

I’d start service off at $275/month, chemicals included.

I’d fill my service route through organic, grass roots marketing.

Customer acquisition costs would be very small to start, and zero once I’ve established my route.

When the route is full I’d start a wait list and begin to increase price to new customers $25-$50 each until I determine the maximum the market would accept.

I’d expect that to be at least $325/month.

I’d do filter cleans and repairs myself. Based on my current business that averages about $1,250 per customer per year.

My Cost of Goods Sold would include chemicals and equipment needed for service, and repair parts. I’d budget 15% for chems and equipment and 65% for parts.

Other expenses would include cost of truck, phone, insurance, vehicle maintenance, fuel, a virtual assistant, an operating software, Quickbooks, and other admin costs.

You may be asking, why a virtual assistant?

The answer is because this is a cush job if you let it be.

I’m going to make $150,000 chilling by the pool. I don’t want the phone to ring and interrupt my podcast and I don’t want to be doing bookwork on the weekends.

I’m going to pay someone $11/hr part time in the Philippines and they’ll do most of that for me.

Sounds to good to be true, huh? Well it’s not. Here’s how the numbers break down:

Revenue
48 pools @ $325/month = $187,200

Filter cleans and Repairs for 48 pools producing $500 labor and $750 parts each = $60,000

COGS
Chemicals and equipment @ 15% service revenue = $28,080

Repair parts @ 65% of parts revenue = $23,400

Credit card fees @ 3% revenue = $7,416

Expenses
Used Truck/Phone/Insurance $800/month = $9,600

Fuel = $4,800/year

Software and other office expenses = $3,600

Virtual Assistant = $14,300

Totals
Revenue: $247,200
COGS: -$58,896
Expenses: -$32,300
--
Earnings: $156,004

Would you take this job? What’s stopping you?

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

Tim is a great entrepreneur! Good luck brother!

[Tim Ryan 🦝 @KenziesPoolBoy]

I’m driving 52 hours round trip from Texas to San Francisco in my pool cleaning truck.

I’m raising money.

If I win, every home service will be experienced like the screenshot below.

Networking is the weakest part of my game.

Twitter’s the only reason I know anyone. I was trapped cleaning pools and didn’t have time to actually network, and Twitter was my window to the outside world between 2020–2024. Right now, I need to get connected to as many people as possible.

If you know anyone who might be interested—investors, pool guys—feel free to connect me.
We have revenue.
The product is live.
There will never be a better founder-market fit for something like this.

Why didn’t I just fly? Because I’m a big fan of symbolism. I’m not woo, but I do believe in magic.
My pool cleaning truck is like Don Quixote’s Rocinante or Zorro’s horse Tornado.

All the success and money I’ve ever made happened in this truck.

It seems dumb not to ride it into California for this.

My cofounder and I have built and sold four pool companies to fund this dream, three of them while I was driving this pickup.

Remember when Airbnb was desperate and ended up selling cereal to fund the startup? We did the same thing, just with pool companies.

But I don’t need the money for survival right now. I need it to blitzkrieg an industry. I have two competitors I need to take out to pull off what I’m trying to do.
I left Saturday around noon. My 8-year-old daughter was crying. My son just wanted to play Minecraft. My wife and cofounder kissed me goodbye. We decided to do this only a few hours before I left.

We both have the ability not to overthink a decision. I think she and I were cowboys in a past life—not the Yellowstone kind, but the real 1800s kind. The kind addicted to risk, adventure, and chasing things down.

My favorite saying is: The cowards never started, and the weak died along the way.

It’s from the Oregon Trail. The saying is about all the people who died chasing gold in California or were too cowardly to leave in the first place.

I have a large piece of pyrite sitting on my dash as a symbol. I got it from a witch’s shop before I left. I walked in and asked her for a rock for good luck. She suggested fool’s gold, and I thought, Well, that’s incredibly fitting for what I’m about to do.

Yesterday I drove 15 hours down I-10 and I-8, skirting the border with my cartel brothers to my left. I’m half Mexican, and I like to joke that since I’ve funded myself up to this point by cleaning pools, my Mexican half was the first investor in my white half. I need a few more of those

I’m glad I drove. This country is beautiful. You don’t get to see that while flying

First stop is San Diego for meetings. Then LA. Then I’ll be in San Francisco by Wednesday or Thursday.

Hit me up.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KenziesPoolBoy Good luck Tim! You’re a great entrepreneur!

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

Doing good - been a decent year. Made some big changes in the business. We’re gonna kill it in 2025.

I’ve been opening X every now and then but the launch of Popcorn Perfect caught me off guard. You were just starting to talk about it when we were in the growth group. Glad to see you’ve launched!

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KenziesPoolBoy Spot on. I started fixing options September this year.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KirkNewcombe Haven’t been on X in six months but dropping in to confirm that @KenziesPoolBoy is right, this is a great tweet.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@mjobelieves Well done

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KirkNewcombe Two step authentication is in place now.

We do not have a managed service provider.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

That’s tough

I made a similar move with our marketing this year. Moved all SEO and PPC away from the one stop shop firm we had been using for a few years.

I increased their content creation budget though. They had done a lot for us and did a great job on content. They had just lost a few other clients I knew about and I didn’t want to be the nail in the coffin.

I presented some terms and they accepted them. Had they not I would’ve had to walk away. I felt like I owed it to them to at least give them a shot for continued business.

I guess I’m a soft entrepreneur 😂

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@trevizo_gabe As I parent I want to do most of these, only actually do a few. Props to you and your wife for the discipline and work it takes to stick to this.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@mjobelieves Is this how yall usually do boulder features where you’re at?

We don’t do this at all where I’m at.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@Austen Wow… can’t imagine going into that position and then suddenly having that realization.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@kevinslavelle That’s a cool way to kick off the sleep overs, get to know everyone, and ensure them their kids will be safe.

Kids started sleeping over at our house more after we started hosting 8th grade football parties.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KirkNewcombe Thanks Kirk. I appreciate the kind words.

My hang up on this one was that the guy was the second owner on a non transferable warranty.

The non transferable warranty was the clear line for me.

I couldn’t stand to see the pool in the condition it was in though. Just felt bad.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

Five weeks ago I made this post

There were a lot of opinions

Most people said I should do nothing more than I’d already offered

Some said I was a terrible person only driven by profits

And some said I should find a better compromise, maybe even try to turn it into a PR positive

Today the homeowner and I agreed to a compromise where I supported more of the repairs

My legal obligation was zero but I struggled with doing zero given the extent of the issues

This post was probably the only one I’ve ever made where I wished X would stop showing it

The comments were brutal

But ultimately I left with a general consensus of the public’s opinion plus some really good business ideas on how to think of warranty for our business in the future

And for that I’m thankful

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

Today I received a Better Business Bureau complaint

Here's the backstory:

The homeowner's pool is cracking

It was built in 2020 by a company I acquired in December 2022

The homeowner bought the home in 2021 and started noticing cracks in the pool shell in 2023

Warranties are almost always non transferrable in the gunite pool industry and so the warranty did not transfer from the original homeowner to the new homeowner

We completed an asset purchase of Maximus Pools in December 2022 that included the tangible and intangible assets, but no ownership of the legal entity in order to avoid liablities

We planned to maintain the brand in a limited capacity (mainly just website and local business profiles) so we anticipated some warranty expense to keep goodwill intact and we've executed nearly $50k of warranty work on their behalf

Our warranty representative visited the pool in the Summer of 2023 to examine the cracks but the warranty claim was denied because the property owner was not the original buyer

I did approve completing the work at cost as a good faith gesture

The home owner declined the offer and has resorted to complaints and public disparagement to try to force our hand

Check out the BBB complaint and our response

What do you think? Should we spend the $15k to fix the pool even though we have no contractual obligation? Or should we stand our ground?

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

Was hard for me to see this pool following apart and do nothing.

It was one of four shotcrete pools that the company built that year. The rest were gunite. All four are cracking.

Lots of ASR issues showing up in my market right now. Luckily my exposure seems to be limited to the four pools shot by this shotcrete company.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@KirkNewcombe If I had a reputation issue I would have been more likely to eat it. I think the impact of standing my ground would have been minimal though.

At the end of the day I contributed a significant amount to the home owner because it’s what I thought was right.

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@jamestgordon Thanks James!

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

@AlexJoyce26 I don’t know if anyone either

[Malcolm Marshall @MalcolmPools]

I didn’t realize how many parents are against sleep overs

There are 5 comments saying no sleep overs to every yes

My kids started staying at friends’ houses around 8. I have all boys. Might have thought a little harder about it if I had girls.

What’s your take on sleep overs?

[Gabe Trevizo @trevizo_gabe]

My daughter is 8, she wants to sleep over at her friends. We know the parents well, but I'm not on board with sleepovers quite yet, maybe not ever.

What's everyone's take on kid sleepovers?