How We Turned Swimming Pools From a Loss Leader Into a 40% Gross Margin Division

Elevate To Greatness
Dec 1
2 min read

We’re committed to showing you the real side of this industry, the part most contractors don’t talk about: the struggle to become profitable.

And here’s the truth:

In January of 2025, Nick Liput told his team that if the company didn’t figure out how to make money building swimming pools, they were going to close the division. No more pools. No more pretending. No more growing revenue at the expense of their profit.

"In 2024, we built a ton of pools. We also made zero profit on them.

That’s the part people don’t see behind the social posts and pretty project photos." - Nick Liput

The Hard Truth: Too Many Crews, Not Enough Mastery

At the time, Nick had seven crews in the field installing both pools and hardscapes. The problem? Too many hands, too little specialization, too much inconsistency.

Pools require precision. Repetition. And expertise.

So he made a massive shift.

What We Changed:

Reduced the pool installation division from 7 crews to 1.
Turned the other six crews into hardscape-only teams.
Trained the single pool crew relentlessly—step-by-step, system-by-system.

Once that crew became efficient, predictable, and profitable… everything changed.

Step Two: Train the Next Crew

After mastering one highly trained pool crew, Nick repeated the process:

Selected a second crew
Trained them the same way
Built their skills through repetition, not chaos
Used the first crew’s systems as the blueprint

Now, today, Nick Liput's company has two dedicated pool installation crews—and both of them know exactly what they’re doing.

Why This Works: Efficiency and Clarity

It is crucial to understand that clarity is what creates efficiency.

And efficiency creates profit. Streamlining the pool installation process has made a significant impact on the profitability for Nick Liput's outdoor living company, Rocky Mountain Outdoor Living.

But that’s because Nick's team runs their jobs differently now:

Pool crews install the pool only.
Hardscape/landscape crews follow immediately behind them.
No downtime. No bottlenecks. No waiting around for direction.

Everyone knows what’s next. Everyone knows their scope. Everyone knows the estimated hours—and the actual hours.

The Results: 35–45% Gross Margins

Because of these changes, Nick's company is now hitting 35–45% gross margin on swimming pool projects consistently.

Not by charging more. Not by working harder. But by working smarter—with trained teams, clean processes, and zero guesswork.

The Takeaway for Contractors

If you’re struggling to make money on pools—or any division of your business—the answer usually isn’t “more crews” or “more jobs.” It’s specialization. It’s repetition. It’s training. It’s systemizing every step until profit becomes predictable.

Master one crew. Then duplicate it. That’s how you scale—and stay profitable doing it.