Just got an e-mail from the client's pool guy. They charge $150.00/hr. Act accordingly.

when did Brendon start doing pools?

Is that $150 hr per man hour or a flat fee of $150 hr and there could be three people working on the pool?

$150/hr/man. They gave an estimate of 4 hours and stated that anything over their estimate would be billed at an additional $150/hr/man.

What part of the country?

People are only sometimes willing to admit that they can't do something. Unfortunately, everyone thinks they can do what we do, or knows someone who can. Pool guys work with chemicals and that often scares people. We work with electricity- I think we need to make some smoke, as a way to get people to realize that it's less safe than they think.

Also, we need to do a better job of explaining that the act of unplugging something in order to make it work isn't that simple- knowing that it might work comes from having tried other options over long periods of time. Sure, they can do it but what if that doesn't work next time? What do they try?

Most reputable pool companies around here (philly) are charging $180-$210/hour.

In their defense they are a seasonal business and don’t really sell anything.

Southern California

That's a great point. We had two paid phone troubleshoots over the last 2 days. One was "It ain't got no batteries in it." Another one was "Gots to turn up the volume". These seem like very simple issues but it was the 25 years I've put into learning those fixes that made things go quickly. I just billed them for the phone time and not the 25 years.

Time for clear separation of labor and product.

They would, if they were smart. Pool noodles, tubes, etc could always be sold as add-ons, just like we do with our accessories.

Our pool guy in the Tampa area costs $90 per month for weekly service. He's usually in and out in about 10 minutes. Includes chemicals/additives/salt as needed.

Lots of pool companies build, renovate and fix pools. It's not all servicing

Not entirely true, the 4 specific pool builders I know have no interest in that, most of the services are handled by the pool maintenance company and vice Versa

My son and I started a side business providing certain Home services and make between 60 and $100 per visit and we are in the house about 15 minutes. No license needed. Minimal overhead, high margin product. RMR based. And does not depend on functioning HDMI!! Can service 5 to 10 houses per day depending on the location.
Currently working on a franchise model.