Long hours, busy and chaotic at times. Those are the working conditions of the pool and spa industry — conditions for which I was fully prepared after my near 30-year career in corrections.
I never aspired to work in a jail (does anybody?). But when you’re in your early 20s, married with two kids, you go where you can pocket some serious overtime.
My first job working in the New Jersey penal system was as an officer at a facility for sex offenders. The pay was so-so, but if you took full advantage of all the opportunities for overtime, you could almost double your salary. It wasn’t unusual for me to put in 16-hour days a couple days a week. That time-and-a-half adds up.
Throughout the course of my career I worked at four housing units within the Garden State. I rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a captain at a maximum security prison.
I can honestly say I enjoyed the job. There was a sense of camaraderie among my coworkers, and you had to be on your toes at all times. You learned to expect the unexpected.
As for the inmates? A superior officer once put it to me like this: Does a rancher hate his cattle? Of course not. Cows can be stubborn and difficult, but a good rancher learns how to manage them.
It’s the same with inmates. If you’re firm, consistent and fair, most of them will respect you. You can even be friendly with inmates to an extent. I was trained to keep conversations at a generic level. I talked weather and sports, but drew the line at discussing anything personal.
As it turned out, managing inmates and those who worked under me was something of a master class in how to run a business. Much of operating a jail is logistics, especially as a supervisor. It involves scheduling, directing, training, recordkeeping, interpersonal communications — all skills that apply to being an entrepreneur.
Changing of the guard
The idea of owning my own business began to percolate as I was approaching retirement. I was in my late 40s when I became eligible for my pension — too young to stop working entirely. So I began to consider things I could do on the side that could develop into a full-time occupation by the time I retired.
My wife and I have an inground pool. I had to pay someone handsomely to open and close it each year. When the service guy was in the backyard, I turned to my wife and said, “You know, I think I could do that.”
I went to NESPA’s headquarters in Hamilton, N.J., less than an hour from where I live. I took a class there on how to open a pool, put an ad in the local newspaper, and the work started coming in.
I grossly underestimated how fast my new side business, New Jersey Pool Repair, would grow. During pool season, there were times I was essentially working two full-time jobs in the years leading to retirement from corrections. But I had grown accustomed to long hours thanks to all those years accumulating overtime.
You might not think of corrections as a career where one gains customer-service skills, but it’s because of my background as a prison guard that I’m able to respond to customers quickly and fairly.
For example: Let’s say I miss an appointment with a client. (This rarely happens, by the way.) I get an angry call the next day. Do I ignore the call or call back immediately? A good business owner calls back right away. It’s not only the right thing to do — it prevents problems from escalating, i.e. more angry calls.
Believe me, you don’t want problems to escalate in a maximum security prison.
The same applies to business.
Today, I own my second pool company, Proven Water Solutions, providing weekly water care.
Coincidently, my business partner, Fred Smetana, also came from outside the industry. He has a Ph.D. in chemistry and retired as the vice president of research and development at Church & Dwight, the Arm & Hammer company.
So, here we are: A former security guard and a chemistry genius. Together, we developed a program to eradicate recreational water illnesses at residential pools.
It’s funny. Many of my former coworkers are mostly retired these days, working part-time jobs in security.
In a way, I’m still in the security business, too. But instead of protecting properties from vandals and thieves, I’m keeping pools safe from RWI.
