March 14, 2017

Meet Sean Etter of Clear View Pool Management in North Atlanta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Etter.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Sean. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
While pursuing a degree at the University of Georgia in wildlife biology, I would come home to Atlanta and spend my summers working for a pool management company. I started out lifeguarding and then was taught to do maintenance and finally repair. By the time I was a senior in college, I was managing all of the lifeguards and doing the bulk of all the pool maintenance.

After graduating, I realized the potential that a smaller, residential, pool maintenance company could have in this area and I just started from there. For the first few years, I was still living at home with my parents and paying them rent to keep my overhead low, but within two years there was already too much work for me to do alone, and that’s when I hired my brother Ryan. We have been slowly growing ever since and we still have a lot of those same accounts that I started with ten years ago.

I think the key to our success and low customer turnovers has been our personal relationships with customers and the fact that we never take on more work than can be reasonably completed. We don’t ever want too many accounts. It’s not worth a little more income if you have to let people down.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The pool business is not one that is easily run. I’ve seen many collapse on top of themselves trying to grow too quickly and hiring the wrong employees. I think our growth has gone relatively smoothly because we are not out there pursuing every account and getting stretched too thin. Pool equipment is constantly breaking down so you just have to be flexible. No work week is like the last one so we just do everything we can to keep people happy.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Clear View Pool Management story. Tell us more about the business.
We specialize in weekly and bi-monthly service of residential pools. Our cleaning services are top notch. We never miss a service and our customers see the same faces over and over. We also do full equipment repair from pumps to filters to plumbing. If it’s broken or just needs an upgrade, we can do it. I think our personal touch and communication is what sets us aside from other pool companies. I always ask new customers why they left their old company and communication seems to be very high on the list of reasons. My business number is my cell phone. I can pretty well always be reached.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’ve been very lucky that my brother Ryan was available to take the job as our head service technician. He has always been a very hard worker and is great with customers. If I hadn’t have had him ready, willing, and able, I might have had to go through a lot of sub-par employees until I found the right one. I also married very well. My wife Lizz is a great help with the accounting and very supportive at all times.

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