Paul Porter is CEO of Premier Franchise Management, the largest pool company on the planet. He first co-founded the company with Keith Harbeck as a Sacramento office in 1988. Today, it is a national franchise with many subsidiary brands. Premier Pools & Spas has locations all over the country. They’ve become the largest pool franchise within the industry. Over 175 offices are spread across the country under its sister brands: Pinnacle Pools & Spas; Premier Pool Service and Pinnacle Pool Service.
Paul Porter, in addition to being the owner of PFM, appeared with his son Brian Porter on three seasons Pool Kings, a hit cable television show. Together they travelled all across the United States, building resort-style pools and promoting Premier Pools & Spas to consumers.
Recently, I interviewed Paul Porter on the Pool Magazine podcast. During our conversation, Paul Porter shared many details about his life. It is enough to say that his story is remarkable.
Pool Magazine (PM), Paul: Your story is unique and I believe that many people would like to learn more. I want to hear more about your story today.
Paul Porter (PP), I think that I can relate to the pool industry so well because we all have humble beginnings. We lack the college credentials. There is no college in the world that can produce pool builders. I learned through osmosis, as did everyone else. I was raised by a single mother who lived on welfare. The only reason I can share this is because when you are just trying to make it in the world you have no idea of what you will do after you finish school. When I was growing, my idea of who owns a swimming pool is only wealthy people. In the mid-eighties, when I was offered the chance to work as a pool builder I thought it was a great opportunity.
My first sales experience was selling vacuum cleaners from door to door. Ten doors will be slammed on your face before one person wants to let in. It was the first time I sold anything and someone actually said to me, “I’ve dreamed about a pool for years. I would like you to come to my house and show what you can create to fulfill my dream.” It was only a matter of convincing them that I could fulfill their dream, and that my value proposition was better.
Before starting Premier Pools I worked at another pool company, where I did really well. They asked me to open an office in another location for them, so I moved into the San Francisco Bay Area and began building pools. I was the largest pool builder within that market in nine months.
My boss Ed called me one day from Sacramento, saying that the business was in trouble. I had been living in Antioch, California, for nine months at the time. We were building a swimming pool and had a house. I was doing well, but his license was in place.
He said: “I’m finished.” We put our house on the market and moved back home to Sacramento. We sold our home and received $70,000 in equity. It was the most money I had ever seen in my entire life. Maybe some people can relate. Paul, I would like to give you some company stock because you’ve been so loyal. In fact, I would like to give you 10% of my stock.”
You know the rest of the story as well as everyone else. He gave me 10% of his stock in exchange for $70,000, which was my entire life savings. I thought this was a kid raised by a single mom from the bad side of town who gets to do what he loves, and get a stake in the company. So I did it. We started repaying the debt. His company was in debt at the time of about $250,000.
We bought a home in Folsom, and began building pools in the neighborhood. At the time, I had 18 pools in my neighbourhood. Keith Harbeck, myself and another colleague showed up at work one day and found a padlock covering the front door. Ed was no longer there. He took my savings in the middle night.
PM: I imagine you felt defeated at that stage. What happened next?
PP: At that time, we didn’t really know what to think. I had 23 swimming pools under construction. I believe the company had about 50 or 60 swimming pools. They were hardworking people, not rich people. They had always dreamed of owning a pool and their faces were filled with anguish when I told them the company would be closing.
How could this be possible? I thought as I heard people pounding my door at night and yelling, “We’re going kill you!” through the door. I was 27 at the time. How could I have been so stupid as to put my trust in someone that much? At the time, my wife was nine months pregnant with her third child. We had also just had our cars taken away from our driveway.
We could see their hopes being crushed and decided to do everything we could to restore them to full health. Keith and I tried to finish the pools for free and we managed to complete every pool in just ten weeks.
Keith asked me, “Paul, what will you do now that all of these pools are finished?” I replied, “You know, I can’t leave this note.” We have to get this done right. We had a duty to our employees. My mom actually loaned me $50. My wife had drawn a pool picture on a flyer, and we bought 5,000 of them at Kinkos. Keith, myself and the rest our family began distributing flyers from door to door. For two weeks we went out 8 hours per day, every day. We came home on the third day and found that our answering machine had a red light blinking.
I answered the phone, and the man said, “Hey, I’m from Elk Grove, and I received a flyer at my door.” I am looking for an estimation’. I was both excited and afraid. What was I going to say? That I worked for a business that went out of business, and that I had damaged many customers?
I went to the meeting and listened to all of it. He was impressed with what he saw, and asked me for any references he could call. I told him, “No, no one who would tell you anything you like to hear.” He asked, “Do you have any swimming pools you could show me?” I replied, “Probably not many people are interested in having me in their backyard at this time.” I then said, “Here’s the deal. It’s my story, and no one needs to do more for you. No one knows what you want better than me. This is the price you will pay if you wish to pay subcontractors directly. This is the amount of money that I will make from this.
He said to me, “You know what?” You have something that makes me trust you and believe in you. I’m going ahead and giving you the job. In 1988, I believe the pool was worth around $15,000. This guy was obsessed with the pool. It was small, but to him it was everything. Saying that we exceeded our expectations would be an understatement in my life.
We did all we could to ensure that he was happy. We promised to build a swimming pool in six weeks, but we finished it in just three. He was thrilled. He was delighted. We built a third pool for a local swim coach, who sent us thirteen jobs. It was about 35 years ago and there were around 100,000 pools.
In 2003, our business was doing more than $100 million per year in Sacramento. Then came the Great Recession in 2008. For two years, we went without a paycheck. During that time, we borrowed against our homes and did everything we could to keep every employee.
In 2010, the market started to recover. Keith and I just kind of looked at eachother and said, “We made this. How do we want our career to end?” I saw so many plights in that timeframe and we lost 70 percent of our industry.
Many people who had dedicated their lives to the industry were forced to leave, because they could only rely on themselves. In the 20 years that I spent in the swimming pools industry, I learned so much. I learned to be efficient in my business by keeping track of all the numbers. I understood that the industry needed to change. You had to consolidate because you needed to increase scalability.
I thought this was an excellent opportunity to consolidate the industry. Helping existing pool builders and elevating the customer experience at the same time. In 2010, I began licensing and started calling and knocking on people’s doors. I explained what we were up to and how we could work together to create a better experience for our customers.
PM When did you switch to a franchise model from a licensing one?
PP: We began rolling out our franchise system in 2014. It was another model that many people in the industry were not familiar with, or didn’t understand why they needed.
We brought in franchises that were incredibly successful. Many of our guys were in the business for many years. I tell Jeff Boyer’s story (owner, Premier Pools & Spas – Temecula) every time. He and his family were in the pool business for over 30 years, but only did $500,000 in sales each year. Jeff is now doing $30 million in business each year with us, because he has adopted our philosophy and contributed to it.
We figured out how to scale as a group. We knew we could do it, because our business grew from a garage to $100 million dollars. We taught builders along the way how to scale up their business, how recruit people, how bring in salespeople, schedulers and construction workers, and how to fix costs so they could afford these things.
PM : Was that the time when you began to gain mass acceptance in your industry?
PP: As the industry began to see that we were expanding, we gained more acceptance in the market. In the first seven-year period, we grew to 45-50 offices. We started looking for businesspeople in the market about three to four years ago. We looked for people who had character and business acumen. Our business grew because we could share our knowledge with them.
Pinnacle Pools & Spas was a new division that we launched in 2021. We added 70 franchises between 2016 and 2017. This division would have been a part of our franchise company that focused solely on fiberglass pool construction. We have brought 22 Pinnacle franchises on board in the past two years.
We wanted to finish the experience with the client. We spent all that time building a relationship with our customers. We wanted to support the products we sold. We started our pool service division two years ago. We wanted to make it dynamic. Not just someone who took care of maintenance, but also someone that was associated with the builder and protected the experience. We have been doing this for the past two years and now we have 35 Pinnacle or Premier pool service businesses, which are growing quickly.
We generated a revenue of $750,000,000 last year because we were able to scale. We can now afford to scale these things and offer our employees a better experience, including sophisticated websites and brochures. We’re building a business that will last generations. We want to ensure that the brand is meaningful to consumers and represents quality, integrity and value.
PM: Your franchisees have an impressive track record of profitability and are well-known in the pool market. What growth has been experienced by your organization over the last few years?
PP: Our growth rate is about 40% per year. We had a revenue increase of $250,000,000 last year. It’s not from the big markets. This is what makes it so amazing. There are so many people who achieve at the highest levels, they have long-term employees, they continue to grow, and create market shares every year. Sacramento did over $130,000,000 in business between Modesto and Sacramento last year. Just incredible. Over 1,300 swimming pools.
Paul, we’ve looked at your map and it seems that there are Premier or Pinnacle offices in nearly every state of America. What is your goal for the future? How much larger can you go?
PP: I think there are many opportunities. Our roadmap, we believe, will lead to 500 Premier and Pinnacle Franchises and unlimited Service Franchises. We believe there is a huge opportunity for hundreds of service franchises, and that consolidation is needed.
PM: Would you like to extend this idea beyond the United States, perhaps to countries such as Canada, Mexico or even Australia?
PP: We’re moving into Canada with our new brand this year. Premier was considered too generic by Canadian trademark law. We are already licensed, and this year we will be moving to Canada. We have set our sights on Australia, Mexico, and a few others. But we need to duplicate the process. And we believe that fiberglass is a great opportunity to go global. We’ll be focusing on that.
PM – We’ve seen how the partnership with Latham helped you to get lower prices for fiberglass shells. Are you now trying to introduce the Hydura product line to all of your markets?
We are. In the year we installed fiberglass pools, we became the largest builder and installer in the world. In the last year, we installed about 1,600 shells. Latham built us a line of shells that we designed ourselves. We have unique shapes and designs that we can bring to market. We wanted to stamp our mark on it, and be able say that this pool is being built for a different reason. It provides different needs for customers and creates distinction.
PM: We began to notice at the start of 2022 a shift in consumer behavior heading away from Covid. What do you imagine the remainder of 2023 will look like as we move into the new season for swimming pools? How is your company best positioned to adapt to a changing marketplace?
PP: In fact, we were up in 2022. I know the industry was down by 20 percent or more. We had a terrible fourth quarter but ended up with our best ever year. Over 130,000 leads were generated last year.
This year, leads are more costly. Our website is attracting more visitors, but they are not converting. Our website is attracting 33% more visitors, but our conversion rate is 40% lower. There is still a strong desire to own a pool. However, due to lack of confidence or conviction in the market, these people are not converting into leads and getting estimates.
I believe that a large part of the reason for this is because consumers heard about how pools are now costing over $70,00 per pool. I believe that the demand is there, so we are trying to reach out in various ways.
Listen to the entire podcast with Paul Porter, CEO Premier Franchise Management.
The post Paul Porter’s Story of Building the World’s Largest Pool Company first appeared on PoolMagazine.com – Get The Latest Pool News.
