If you came out of tax season feeling like you left money on the table, it might be time for a new certified public accountant. More than just an accountant and a tax specialist, a CPA steers and guides business owners through complex financial hurdles. Whether you hire in-house or outsource the work, finding a…
If you sell swim spas and you’re not sure how much is riding on your ability to nail the wet test, consider the numbers. In examining the purchasing habits of thousands of customers over several years and across the nation, Watkins Wellness has found that 45% of all test swims end up closing, says Ryan…
Elon Musk is changing the nature of transportation both on earth and in the cosmos. His aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX, ferries supplies and soon astronauts (and maybe even private passengers) into Earth’s orbit. Back home where gravity is king, his motor vehicle company, Tesla, has transformed fully electric cars from novelty items…
America’s 3.5 million truck drivers move 10.5 billion tons of freight every year, a full 71 percent of everything shipped from one place to another within the United States. Even still, America’s businesses are reeling from a massive trucker shortage. According to The Washington Post, 50,000 new drivers would be needed to satisfy the current…
Some spa dealers have the luxury of servicing flat, temperate, cookie-cutter suburbs where they can show up to a job knowing what to expect. Maybe there’s a tricky staircase or an uneven deck — but for some hot tub superheroes, every installation is a combination of logistical chess and “Apollo 13”–style improvisation and ad-libbing. Help…
The always-evolving spa industry is driven by innovation: upgrades, advances and product improvements are the norm. Yet one device continues to stand out as the apex in its niche no matter how much it stays the same. The SpaDolly is a lot like the great white shark. The ages pass by, yet it remains at…
More and more tech companies are developing software for the hot tub industry, which is good news for spa retailers looking for modern solutions to age-old challenges. The right software can go a long way in shoring up three common problem areas: scheduling, multi-department integration and the pursuit of the almighty, all-powerful online review. Here’s…
Few men are crueler to spa water than Steve Berens. The CEO and founder of Clear Comfort turned perfectly good water into hot tub sludge. He fouled it up with simulated skin, lotion, salt and almond milk to mimic sweat proteins in numbers that were 25 to 50 times greater than the average spa. “It’s…
The spa gods tried their very best to kill Sunbelt Hot Tubs. The company’s four-decade evolution from local retailer to global manufacturer was an obstacle course of natural disasters, man-made disasters and economic calamities. But each brush with extinction forced the Houston-based company to ad-lib bold and sometimes desperate innovations. Now, after nearly 40 years,…
The hot tub retail world is a fairly informal industry — the central product, after all, is leisure. But formality is subjective, and in a country that in two generations went from three-piece suits at baseball games to sneakers at weddings, written dress codes are beginning to feel like workplace relics from a bygone era….
Sue Rogers of Oregon Hot Tub knows timing is everything. Six weeks after she bought the Portland-based hot tub retail company in April 2008, the worst financial calamity in modern history roared across the country and the world, gobbling up homes, life savings, careers and businesses. For Rogers, it was baptism by fire. The Seattle…
For Brian Quint of Seattle-based Aqua Quip, the regional labor pool has talent, high expectations and plenty of options. Washington state, after all, is home to global juggernauts like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon, all of which are famous for generous benefits packages and employee-centric work cultures. But if Quint’s company sells hot tubs, swim spas,…