The business · Lesson 05 · 5 min
The first customers
The first pools are not a marketing plan. They are a short list of humans and a map that doesn't cross town twice.
Start with names, not ads
Write the people who already trust you and have a pool. A neighbor. A friend. The coach whose backyard you have been looking at all season. Tell them what a week of service is: you show up on a set day, you do the visit, you come back.
Most of them will say no, or not yet. That is the work. The ones who say yes are the start of the book, and they will tell the house next door if you do the visit the same way twice.
Keep the loop tight, and leave clean
Then walk streets you can reach without a freeway in the middle. A route that zigzags spends the day on fuel and on you sitting in the truck. Ten pools on three streets beat ten pools in ten towns.
If you are leaving a company, leave clean. Give notice. Hand their customers back. Build your own list. A route you took on the way out the door is a fight, and the fight arrives in the first month, which is when you can least afford it.