Pool Scouts Franchise Information

Pool Scouts Executive Q&A: Michael Wagner, Brand President Illustrates Why the Company is a Premier Service

Pool Scouts Brand President Michael Wagner explains the exciting opportunities that come with signing on as an owner with the premier pool service franchise.

1851 Franchise: What about Pool Scouts makes it unique within its industry?

Michael Wagner: Pool Scouts takes a strategic, long-term view on a traditional mom-and-pop industry. We aim to create a nationwide brand that is associated with quality, innovation and superior customer care and communication. From a branding and marketing perspective, we certainly stand out amongst the sea of similar companies with strong brand awareness. We do customer acquisition on behalf of the franchisees, doing direct mail to specific, targeted households, handling the search engine optimization of all the websites and helping them manage the digital side of marketing. We work hard to make locations known in their communities and take a lot of the guesswork out for franchisees. On the customer operations side, we offer a high level of professionalism in communications, using state-of-the-art, cloud-based systems that allow us to text customers, provide them with service reports and before and after pictures, seamless invoicing and billing, and more. Our technicians undergo background checks and show up in uniform and branded vehicles so we can ensure our customers feel safe and trust who is working in their backyards. 

1851: What have been some of the brand's most important milestones?

Wagner: In 2021, we hit the very important milestone of awarding over 100 territories. That's really a tipping point for our brand. Last year, we brought in 22 new franchisees and 44 territories across the system. We're now up to 110. It was a really strong year for us from a franchise development perspective. We've started to really focus on geographic concentration, which has been exciting. We have multiple franchisees in Dallas and Houston, in the state of North Carolina, and we're starting to build up concentrations in Florida and in the southeast. We expanded west last year with the addition of Arizona, Utah and Idaho. And we've expanded our team to be able to support all that growth and get hands-on support to our franchisees.

1851: What plans does the brand have in the coming years? 

Wagner: Building Pool Scouts to be a household name in the premium pool cleaning and maintenance space is our long-term goal. Our plans are to grow our business and build up a team of people that are supporting it, to stay in front of technology trends and to train our franchisees to stay ahead of the curve. We believe there are 800 territories available around the U.S.. Ideally, our goal is to bring in 20 new franchisees in 2022. We have partnered with Hope Floats, an organization that provides swimming lessons to kids whose families don’t have the financial means. Franchisees donate $1.00 per service to provide swimming lessons to those children. Last year with this initiative, we generated over $16,000 and we're expecting to surpass that substantially in 2022. 

1851: What does an ideal franchisee look like?

Wagner: Early adopters tend to be owner-operators in franchising, and we have seen that our franchisees and prospects so far fit that model. People who are ready to own a business but don’t want to be completely by themselves have been our ideal candidates. We educate all franchisees on the pool business, but they all bring experience in different business areas to the table.  

1851: Why is Pool Scouts a good investment?

Wagner: The demand for home service businesses growing, and the pool business grew 24% in 2020, and 2021 had similar numbers. During the pandemic, homeowners focused on property care, and folks have been investing money in their homes and yards. Pools are being constructed at a record rate, meaning the demand for pool cleaning is and will stay high. Each new customer call is the beginning of a 10-year marriage, meaning there is an opportunity to serve customers and build a long-term relationship. And this is a recurring revenue business that often serves clients weekly during peak pool season, which offers our franchisees great revenue opportunities. We provide tools that help our franchisees grow, including creative marketing programs and the brand awareness that comes with Pool Scouts’ geographic concentration. Our efficient operating system and state-of-the-art technology make every stage easier, from routing and planning to the jobs themselves. 

The startup costs for a Pool Scouts franchise range from $70,950 to $88,350. To learn more about franchising with Pool Scouts, visit https://poolscoutsfranchise.com/.