“Let’s start at the beginning,” says Clay
Norman, now one of
four managing partners
at Hydra Hot Tubs & Pools, located in
Fort Mill, S.C. He is joined by partners
Peter Steiner, Rod Mclean and Jason
Jones, each having an equal share in
Hydra.
“Before the four of us went into
business together [in 2017], myself and
Peter were already working together,”
says Norman. The two co-owned The
Hot Tub Loft, and would frequent many
home shows along the Southeast. With
no store location at the time, the shows
were a staple, as they provided a “home
base” to sell their hot tubs from.
“We were looking for people to
deliver and service our hot tubs,” says
Norman, “and that’s when we were
introduced to Rod and Jason who
owned Absolute Installations.”
Norman was impressed with the
duo’s work ethic from the start. “Rod
and Jason could get deliveries done
for us with no excuses, everything was
handled, which was not the case with
other companies. I mean, some people
would charge us an additional $60 to
get the spa around a rock.”
So, the two pairs started working
together. “Before we knew it, we were all
attending home shows,” says Norman.
“And it wasn’t long before we would
separate to knock out two different
home shows in the same weekend.”
It seemed what one company lacked,
the other had. “Absolute Installations,
on top of hot tub deliveries, was also
building aboveground pools,” says
Steiner. “Back then, the pool business
and the spa business were busy at
different parts of the year. When we
were busy selling hot tubs in the
winter, Rod and Jason were slow.
When they were busy building pools
in the summer, Clay and I were slow. Ultimately, the idea was, ”Wouldn’t it be
great if we were busy all the time?'”
And that’s how it started. Absolute
Installations and The Hot Tub Loft
were dissolved, and the group of four,
now great friends, went all in on one
business: Hydra Hot Tubs & Pools.
Behind the Storefront
One major motivator, if not the biggest,
behind Hydra’s inception was the
shared need for a central business
address. “When you go to sell a
customer a hot tub or swimming pool
at a home show, it’s tough to be asked,
‘Where are you located?'” says Norman,
“and for you to say, ‘Well, we really
don’t have a store. We do it online, but
this is where I live.’ It doesn’t help you
very much.”
“There are a lot of people that go
to home shows that don’t want to buy
from you there,” adds Steiner. “They
want to go to a brick-and-mortar store.
That was the impetus to have the
storefront, as we felt like we missed
30% of the sales because, by not having
a place for them to come and see us,
they didn’t know if we were fly-by-night.”
So upon the grand opening of
Hydra’s first storefront, there was a
huge sigh of relief for all involved.
“The first time we could answer where
we were located was amazing,” says
Jones. “It took a huge weight off our
shoulders, because we felt legitimate.”
While both companies brought with
them a well-established list of clients
and referrals, the group invested in
online, pay-per-click and search engine
marketing right from the start. That,
combined with an attractive website,
was helpful in getting Hydra off the
ground. It didn’t take long before the
need for a second showroom arose.
“With our first location, because it’s
mostly warehouse space, people can
come in and feel like they are getting a great deal because they can clearly see
we don’t spend money anywhere else,”
says Norman. “That has really worked
well and to our benefit.
“But with our second location [which
opened in September, 2022], we wanted
to do something different, especially
because our two stores are about 15
miles apart, and we didn’t want to
bastardize ourselves from one store to
the next.”
The result is a swim spa superstore,
“one of very few in the Southeast,”
says Steiner. “We’ve had prospective
customers tell us they can’t find
another within a few hundred miles.”
With 10 hot tubs on the showroom
floor (the company works with Viking
Spas) and four swim spas, prospective
customers can touch, feel and see the
product, which makes all the difference.
“That’s what distinguishes this location
from our other store and from our
competitors,” says Norman. “By putting
their hands in an active swim spa,
we are able to close more sales. Just
yesterday, we had someone come in
asking about fiberglass and left excited
about swim spas. It’s already a huge
part of our business.”
In pre-pandemic conditions,
he adds, the price for an inground
swimming pool around Fort Mill, S.C.,
averaged less than $50,000. “The same
inground pool is now worth $100,000.
And the fact that you have to wait a year
and a half to get it, those are the people
that are converting to swim spas. It’s far
less money, and it’s easier.”
Pandemic Period
Norman remembers exactly where he
was when the Coronavirus hit. “At that
point in time, we were a hardworking
company, but Hydra wasn’t a huge
company, not yet anyway.
“We had lots of overhead after just
starting up, and had ordered truckload
after truckload of inventory for the
upcoming home show season. Then
suddenly, manufacturers are calling,
asking us, ‘Are you canceling? Are you
canceling?’ A lot of companies in the
area had canceled their orders, because,
due to health concerns, all of the home
shows had backed out.”
The group had a decision to make.
Like most pool and spa professionals,
they were afraid of the unknown. “But
after a few weeks, we saw what was
happening and instead of canceling
our orders, we took a huge gamble. We
doubled and tripled our hot tub orders,”
says Mclean.
The company had about 15 months
where every hot tub coming in was sold
before they even arrived, but — due
to careful planning — there was never
a time when spas were out of stock.
“That’s not to say we didn’t get a little
sparse on the floor,” says Norman. “We
weren’t able to double-up on models,
for example. But we made sure to only
sell our floor models if we knew we
could restock them right away.”
“We had to fight to stay at it,”
adds Jones. “It wasn’t easy. It was a
full-time job just cold-calling people
and searching the internet to find
something as easy as a skimmer. That
was the crazy part on my end.”
The hard work paid off, as Steiner
credits the pandemic period with
having helped Hydra to open its second
location. “We put ourselves in a better
financial position, because we were
responsible when business exploded,”
he says.
Now, with 40 hot tubs always
in stock and ready for immediate delivery, he feels the company is set
up to properly deal with the influx of
business. “Sales are on the downswing,
but being that I’m sales focused, you
just have to close a higher percentage
right now,” says Steiner. “It was easy for
a year and a half, two years. It’s not easy
anymore.”
Steiner also notes that the post pandemic
buying cycle has evolved.
“We are having to alter the way we sell
to people,” he says. Hydra has sold
more products on the phone than ever
before — where customers don’t even
come into the store. And when they do,
it’s no longer mostly on weekends.
“Prior to the virus, Saturdays were
extremely busy,” says Norman. “Eighty
percent of our sales were done on
Saturday. Now, I dare say that 40% of
our sales occur on Saturday. People can
visit the showroom in the middle of a
weekday now, because they’re working
from home.”
This can make staffing a bit more
challenging, as it’s harder to predict
how many employees should be on
hand and when. Fortunately for Hydra,
all four business partners are ready to
fill in gaps where they can. “We take
the overflow, so people don’t have to
wait. And we’ve cross-trained almost
all of our employees, so they can do
multiple things. Nobody in the office is
above testing water, for example,” says
Norman.
In addition to the four partners,
the company has 11 employees on its
payroll, for a total of 15, most of which
have been on staff a long time, due to a
family-like management approach.
“We really take care of our people,”
says Norman. Even on the busiest of
industry days, for example, the team
has found it boosts morale to take off.
“The 4th of July, Memorial Day, all of
these holidays that are traditionally
sales holidays in retail, not only do
we take them off, but they’re paid
time off for our employees. Is that a
smart business move for a retail shop?
Probably not, but we do it anyway.”
With 10 hot tubs (the company works with Viking Spas) and four swim spas on the showroom floor, prospective customers can touch, feel and see the product, which makes all the difference.
Feeling Grateful
No matter the challenges of today’s
market, Jones says, Hydra leadership
takes them on as both friends and
business partners. “One question we
always receive is, ‘How do you guys
make this work with four different
people? How do you not rip each
other’s heads off?’ And the answer is
that we have a good thing. We have
comradery, we have respect for each
other’s opinions.
“We all come from different
backgrounds and think a bit differently,
yet we somehow share 25% of this
company. I think that’s what helps
our business to stand out — there’s
more thought that goes into each
decision, which eventually turns into an
agreement.”
“And it doesn’t hurt that we sell
happiness,” says Steiner. “I enjoy the
fact that we are selling a product that is
more of a want than a need. People that
buy a pool or spa, they’re happy, they’re
getting quality family time, sitting in the
backyard — and that is really gratifying
for all of us.”