Karen Larson Of Soake Pools: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder

… Don’t grow faster than the rate at which you can manage the growth. Some years we could have sold and produced more pools but we chose to limit sales so we could ensure high quality service and customer experience to the clients we had sold products to. We felt we owed that to the people who had already placed their orders.

As part of our interview series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Larson. Karen’s education and background is in textiles and design. She worked in the design field for many years before taking time off to raise two children. She co-founded Soake Pools in 2015.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I fell into this job out of necessity. My husband, Brian, had created a product (precast concrete plunge pool) that filled a gap in the market, and we needed someone to get it out there and start selling it. I was the obvious choice for this role as I wasn’t replacing an income at the time and was ready to re-enter the working world.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

In the early years of Soake Pools, the American public still wasn’t sold on small pools. Most people didn’t even know what a plunge pool was. People often compared price-per-square-foot with other less expensive large pools or asked why they would want a small pool when they could get a larger one. The constant education of consumers about small pools was both exciting and challenging. I also knew nothing about construction, so meeting with seasoned landscape professionals was intimidating at first. Once I realized how much I could learn from these same professionals, things got a lot more fun. I saw every meeting as an opportunity to learn, in addition to ensuring that the job would go well. We didn’t have any employees, and Brian was supporting us with a full-time job, so I was on my own for everything from sales to overseeing deliveries and installations.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I had made a promise to Brian that I would give it my all and would not give up until the company was at a point where he could leave his job and join Soake Pools.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

The fact that I had to do many things myself contributed to my knowledge of the product and all aspects of installing it. This affected everything from how I conversed with customers and professionals to design decisions around the product itself. Our company has grown to a level we never could have imagined. We currently have 14 employees and are growing every year.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I think we stand out in two ways; our product is unique and high quality, and our team is very involved and connected with every customer. Regarding the first, we are not trying to offer a mass-production product, but rather a quality boutique product. We hand tile every pool in New Hampshire. We could quadruple the number of pools we make if we just applied a sprayed-on finish or some other faster interior finish, but that isn’t what we are about. We are proud of the artisan quality interiors of our hand-tiled pools and our customers recognize this difference. With regard to our team, by the time our customers have started their pools up, most of them have been in contact with almost every member of our team, whether it is during the sales process, the delivery or with questions along the way. We want the experience to be fun and personal. Our customers feel a connection with the personal side of our company and comment frequently about how they enjoy our team.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I got some really good advice from a mentor a couple of years ago. She told me to ‘decide who you want to be as a company, and then grow to that size and type.’ Sounds corny, but it has been helpful to understand that we don’t need to grow just for the sake of growing. So our growth is managed in this way and we don’t feel pressure to grow beyond the size we want to be or beyond the size in which we can be proud of our product and customer journey.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Yes. Our precast partner was a valuable ally. I am grateful to all of the people who work there, but especially for two members of that company, who took the time to teach me everything I needed to know about deliveries of our pools back in the early days. They took us seriously and spent the time to help me understand where that delivery truck could go and where it could not. Without their partnership we would have struggled to learn the delivery aspect of the business.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

One of our company mantras is to use our sense of humor, even when things don’t go as planned. This helps us keep our sanity and enjoy every day. I believe this is very important. Additionally, we donate a significant amount of money to water.org every year. This is an organization that helps provide access to clean water to people in developing countries. Our donation makes a significant impact in the lives of over 5,000 people every year.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1) Owning a business can actually be fun! I spent a lot of time worrying about just about everything when we first went into business. Then one day I realized that I actually loved what we do! That helped reduce the worrying!

2) Take time off. Even company owners need to disconnect for a day or two here and there.

3) Don’t listen to every bit of advice you receive. People will try to tell you how to run your company but only you know how you want to run your own company. I can’t tell you how many times people have tried to advise us about how we can increase profit (by using a less expensive item, for example) but we don’t do it. We choose the quality over the profit and it has proven to be the right path for us.

4) Don’t grow faster than the rate at which you can manage the growth. Some years we could have sold and produced more pools but we chose to limit sales so we could ensure high quality service and customer experience to the clients we had sold products to. We felt we owed that to the people who had already placed their orders.

5) Be very selective about who you hire. Be thorough in the interview process and trust your instinct.

Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

One of the greatest joys of being a founder is receiving great feedback from a customer. There really is nothing better than getting an email and a photo from a customer that says “Best decision we ever made!”, along with a photo of their family enjoying their pool. It’s extremely gratifying to know that the company we built is having a positive effect on the lives of our customers. The flip side is that when a customer is upset about a project delay or some other inevitable issue, you wonder if and how you could have done anything differently or better. There is sometimes nobody else to share that ‘blame’ with.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Be silly when you can. Be kind always. The domino effect of laughing and having fun in the workplace is huge and it spreads far and wide. The domino effect of kindness is profound.

How can our readers further follow your work online? \

We have an active Instagram page. That’s a great place to get to know us as a company. Our website, soakepools.com, is also updated frequently with fun videos.

• https://soakepools.com
• Instagram: @soakepools

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!