Emerging Franchises Doing Awesome Things in Franchising: Pool Scouts

With more than 10 million residential pools across the U.S. and a continually improving housing market, a pool can be a key factor in buying or selling a home. That is, if it is well-maintained and ready to be used on the next warm, sunny day.

But no homeowner wants to spend hours every week skimming leaves and insects from the surface of the water and testing chemical levels to ensure their family’s safety. Enter Pool Scouts*.

Founded in early 2016 by Buzz Franchise Brands — the franchisor of sister company Mosquito Joe* — the brand was created with a mission to provide premier pool services with a consistent brand experience. Offering a suite of support services not provided by independent pool companies, including service training, business management tools and expert marketing, Pool Scouts positions its growing system of franchisees to offer best-in-industry services with an established business model and branding.

“Even though Pool Scouts is relatively new to franchising, we’ve been successfully operating in the industry for a long time,” Michael Wagner, Pool Scouts’ president, previously told 1851 Franchise. “We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building a nationally recognized business, and we’ve applied all of those best practices to the Pool Scouts brand. That expertise, combined with the growing demand for our services, points to impressive growth throughout 2017.”

Now with franchise locations in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida and New Jersey, Pool Scouts is making an impact in parts of the U.S. with the highest number of pools. And the growing brand is attracting entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds, connected by a shared priority for convenience and flexibility, which the brand prides itself on.

Due to low initial staffing needs and the ability to operate as a home-based business, Pool Scouts franchise costs are significantly less than most franchises. The average investment range for Pool Scouts is between $54,500 and $98,000, significantly less than the six figures typically required for the majority of franchise brands.

To fuel the growth momentum of the concept, Pool Scouts recently hired industry veteran Timothy Holadia as Director of Franchise Development. Holadia brings more than 16 years of experience in franchise development to the team. As the former VP of Development at Geeks on Call and, most recently, as CEO & Founder of FRANMOGUL, Holadia has worked with more than 80 brands to grow their franchise networks.

Holadia notes Pool Scouts’ huge potential to scale quickly and effectively.

“I was attracted to the approach that Pool Scouts and Buzz Franchise Brands take regarding growth,” Holadia said. “Rather than a turn-and-burn mentality, the teams are committed to finding the right franchisees who will be successful individually and continue to make the brand successful as a result.”

Holadia also points to the Pool Scouts culture as another draw for him to join the team.

“One of the company’s requirements is that we ‘enjoy life,’ with the idea that a positive internal environment leads to happy and productive employees,” Holadia said. “This will allow us to find more franchisee partners that match our positive perspective and will provide excellent service to their own customers.”

As the brand looks to 2018, their growth trajectory is focused on the Northeast region of the United states as well as areas of Arizona, Texas and California.