Featured Podcast on The Ins and Outs of Buying a Swimming Pool Route Listen Now

Pool Route Sales: An Exit Strategy

An Exit Strategy for pool route owners

or What Do I Do When I Get Old?

There is a myth amongst young people that can be proven a fallacy as time progresses. The myth is “Getting old will never happen to me.” I see the remnants of this every day in my business, from pool route sales and business purchases to webinars and seminars, from the young claiming immortality to the elderly bowing out of life’s work. Age definitely gives one a different perspective.

If youth gives you the sense of immortality, you are wonderfully young. Unfortunately, for most of us, youth must be tempered with a dash of realism. If we live, we age. If we age, we retire. The best we can hope for at this point is that we are coming off a long journey from a smooth road that brought us to a point of success and plenty.

Unfortunately, I have witnessed too many businessmen and women over the past forty years, who like the grasshopper, from The Ant and the Grasshopper, failed to plan for the days of necessity. It may not be an easy task or chore, but it is necessary. There are many ways you plan for retirement in our industry.

If you are fifty-five years old and want to retire at sixty-five, with two million dollars in your bank account, you can either save ten percent of the desired amount each year for ten years or as many of my clients prefer, you can increase the savings amount each year to reach your desired goal at the tenth year and then retire. If you are much younger than fifty-five and if you are smart, the burden of saving for retirement will be allocated over many more years.

There are many other ways to plan for retirement from the income generated from your pool route or business: through income properties, annuities, the stock market, bonds, etc.  I am not advocating any one way of saving or building wealth over another. That is for your Financial Planner. I am merely stating you must plan ahead because as Shakespeare so poignantly wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” We all have our exits.

If you operate a pool route and are looking to retire, call our office of professional Pool Brokers and learn how you can get top dollar for your route. 877-766-5757.


For those of you not familiar with the fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper, I have copied it below for your edification.     

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew…

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.