From down and out to award winners in less than two years

Aug. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Two years ago, Simon and Zofia Gainey had a big decision to make – close the doors on their pool business or keep battling to make ends meet...now they are multiple award winners in their industry.

The drought had almost killed their once thriving pool business and the GFC made building a pool a luxury item.

After 25 years in the industry, Simon said they were ready to walk away. “People would look at us as if we were crazy to have a pool business in Canberra,” he said.

“Two years ago was our quietest year ever. I was going to go to old pool builder’s graveyard – a hardware shop.

“Things can turn around so quickly – this year we are multiple award winners and will be putting on staff.”

In the past six months, Simon and Zofia’s business Capital Fibreglass Pools has won three awards at the Swimming Pool and Spa Alliance Awards and been recognised 2014 Fibreglass Pool Builder of the Year for NSW and ACT.

Simon said the wins would not have happened if they had not been shocked into motion after meeting with their business mentor Paul Blackburn.

“He asked us some tough questions and we realised our business was not growing because of us,” Simon said.

“We were too scared to pick up the phone to chase jobs. We did not want to seem pushy.

“It was a real fear of rejection. Paul told us we would never know if we could get a job if we did not ring people.”

Simon said they could no longer blame circumstances on their business not growing. “We stopped being scared,” he said.

“Then mid last year we were on our way home and the phone rang.  A quote we put in months ago was accepted; it was worth thousands. That phone call plus the kick in the pants from Paul helped our business to blossom.”

Simon said to go from almost closing the doors to being recognised as the best pool builder in the whole of NSW is a huge accolade.

“NSW has got a huge amount of pool builders…it is a huge win for a two person business,” he said.

“Now we face a whole range of other issues like employing staff but these are the good type of issues to have."

ENDS