Hey everyone! Brad here! I’m the owner of Summit Pool & Spa and in this blog post I am going to take you all the way back to not just the start of Summit, but we’re going to take it all the way back to where my first introduction to the pool industry began. I’ll try to keep this portion brief because at large, my goal here is to explain how I first got into pool maintenance, how Summit Pool & Spa was created, struggles through the years, the ideals Summit is built on, and where we are today. Alright, here goes!
I first got into the pool industry almost immediately out of High School. I attended Berean Christian High in Walnut Creek and my best friends dad happened to be the owner of one of the largest pool service companies in the area. So after I graduated I started working with them for about two years. I loved everything about the job. Being outside, maintaining pools well and being able to see the difference I was making week in and week out. It was great. But! I was a broke 20 something and thus tried to get a different job to make some more money. After about 4 months, that opportunity didn’t work out great and then I ended up spending a year with a commercial pool maintenance company, and then another year back at my friends dads company. So in all, about 4 years of pool maintenance experience. Simultaneously while working I was studying to become a firefighter/EMT. Eventually quitting my final stint at the pool company to become an EMT for a local ambulance company. Not long after working there I was given an incredible opportunity to take a position at John Muir in Walnut Creek. I loved the work I did there and still have so many lifelong friends developed in my nearly four years being employed there. BUT – I was getting the itch. I wanted back in the pool business. This time, as an owner.
While I was still employed at the hospital, I would often search for local pool service routes for sale. It is common for pool companies that are either retiring, or scaling back to sell their entire route or portions/areas of their routes. These routes are typically posted online to a number of different brokerage websites. It was late 2017 when I found a route for sale that fit my criteria to purchase. It was a route with pools in every local city that were loaded with pools. Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Alamo, and Danville. It was only about 30 pools to maintain but that was also honestly all I would be able to handle and still keep a position working at the hospital. So in early 2018 we purchased the business and Summit Pool & Spa began! For the first year I worked Monday and Tuesday on the routes, and Wednesday thru Saturday at the hospital. It was a busy year! But after that year and headed into 2019 I knew that I would soon have to quit John Muir to go all in on the pool business. And that’s what I did. I quit John Muir and within about 3 months I had to hire my first technician!
Now, I’ll save a lot of extra stories I could go into but this cracks the door on why so many local pool companies struggle. Mainly, why so many homeowners struggle with their pool company! Many homeowners assume that a business they engage with will be this professionally run thing – in all facets. I don’t know why that’s many folks default assumption, but it certainly exists en masse. Most pool companies are run by guys like me! No degree, no business degree that’s for sure, and little to no business experience. At large, we’re mostly (I can’t speak for everyone!) just good pool guys who could never get paid good enough working for someone else! So, the communication sucks, the billing sucks, the service itself is good, but even then, we can get sick, we can lose track, we can get lazy. And that! That is where homeowners get pissed. And I knew that because I’d hear it all the time from the previous companies I worked with. So I needed Summit Pool & Spa to be different. To have higher standards, to be the company that is responsive, that does the job right, and actually operates like a professional business!
Well, as you can imagine, going from being an employee to running your own business to then becoming an employ-er and then adding in a couple hundred new clients, went about as smooth as it sounds like it would! My Lord it was a mess. And it sure got extra messy when Covid came around and 2021 where it was impossible to find someone to work. It was tough! Looking back now I sure was walking through the fire – for sure. But, we made it through, we didn’t quit, and we’re better for it. Through it all, I got blessed with an audacious, rugged, put your-dukes-up kind of resiliency after all those years. And that brings me to where we are today.
Today, we have around 300 weekly service clients. We have four in the field employees and a full time Office Coordinator who fields the majority of our phone calls, emails, scheduling, billing, all of it! We have built systems around every facet of our organization and have truly become just that, an organization. I grew from dork know-nothing bright eyed bushy tailed new business owner to a grizzled old beat up savvy businessman. It took me six years to get here, but it all worked out. I can say that the high standards for service I always dreamed of, is being delivered every day. We have a lead repair technician who manages all of our repair needs and helps troubleshoot issues with our technicians. We have another technician who monitors each technicians route reports (all reports are generated online in great detail with multiple photos) to ensure our quality standards are being hit on every single pool. And as I mentioned earlier, an office coordinator that literally takes care of all customer phone calls, emails, billing, scheduling, etc. We are a well run, high functioning, high quality pool service and repair company and I don’t know of any other company out there that operates with such high standards. Not only for the service being delivered, but the quality of the technicians we hire. Hey, if you’ve got a pulse, that’s not good enough for Summit Pool & Spa! We care to be different, we care to hold ourselves to a higher standard. And I just couldn’t be prouder of the organization we’ve created and the TEAM that’s got us to this point. Cheers to 2025! We are looking to have our best year yet! So hey, if you’re tired of your mediocre old pool company, give us a call! We’d love to show you what professional pool care looks like!
With all the thankfulness in the world, sincerely, Brad Whittenburg
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