Pool rules

It started with a poorly dressed, window-peering pool technician. That led to a conversation among residents at a community party about dissatisfaction with their pool service. Then that led to a chance meeting of neighbors, which, in turn, provided the impetus to entice the two retired executives out of retirement and into the swimming pool maintenance and repair business.

But those entrepreneurs, Daniel Buettin and Eric Dobson, who met at that neighborhood party one year ago and struck an immediate friendship, aren’t just dipping their toes in the water. They’re diving in head-first with a goal of transforming the vast pool maintenance industry in Southwest Florida. In the process they are using some well-learned business lessons, such as consistency is the key to repeat business; keeping customers is easier than growing by acquisition; and in the home services business, a technician's appearance goes a long way.