Is Your Pool Business Balanced—or Are You Just Putting Out Fires?

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This week on Mondays Down Under, Lee Salisbury—the Pool Shop Coach—and Nick tackle a question every pool business owner should ask: Are you actually running your business, or are you simply reacting to whichever fire is burning hottest today?

Lee introduces her new Business Balance Check, a free assessment designed specifically to identify the areas of your business that need attention most. It examines ten critical areas—including branding, communication, team culture, safety, policies and procedures, and employee autonomy—before revealing whether you’re currently operating as the Firefighter, the Glue, the Foreman, or the Owner.

Lee and Nick also discuss:

Why procedures sitting unread in a binder are nothing more than expensive pieces of paperThe importance of teaching employees the what, how, and whyHow small, one-percent improvements can transform a businessWhy great ideas collected at conferences rarely survive the trip homeHow a coach or mentor creates accountability and turns intention into actionUsing AI to streamline spreadsheets, emails, administration, and repetitive tasksWhy obviously AI-generated advertising can destroy customer trustThe danger of letting software replace genuine technical knowledge and judgmentWhy pool professionals must understand the story behind the water-test resultsCustomers who create a chemical catastrophe—and conveniently forget to mention what they addedThe importance of consistent branding and customer experiences across every touchpoint

The episode also includes coverage from SPLASH 2026, featuring new chlorination and pool-control technology from Fluidra, along with commercial salt chlorination, ozone, UV, and advanced oxidation systems from Brauer.

And, because no pool-industry episode would be complete without a customer turning a manageable problem into a full-blown aquatic crime scene, Nick shares what happened when someone accidentally dumped approximately eight kilograms of chlorine remover into a 70,000-liter indoor pool—and then attempted to fix it with liquid chlorine and stabilized chlorine.

Take the Free Business Balance Check

Find out whether you’re operating as the Firefighter, the Glue, the Foreman, or the Owner:

The Pool Shop Coach’s Business Balance Check

Have a question or topic suggestion for Mondays Down Under? Email talkingpools@gmail.com and mark it for Lee and Nick.

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