Episode 18: Alex & Tom Corrales with Tri County Pools
This episode of the Small Business Voice has an origin story only Jeanette could pull off. Fresh back from a 15-hour drive from Montana, she returned home to a green pool, a clogged pump, and no pool service in sight — until she spotted a truck full of pool equipment outside a small market in Linden and tracked down the owner. That young man turned out to be Alex Corrales, 23-year-old owner of Tri-County Pool Service, who followed her home, tested her water, and told her she didn't need to drain the pool after all. Now he's on the show. Alex walks Jeanette through how he got his start in the pool industry right out of Linden High School, earned his CPO certification valid in 49 states, built up a quiet side customer base while working for someone else, and then in January of this year made it official — filing the LLC paperwork with his father Tom, a 26-year veteran of John Deere dealership management, as his 50-50 partner. The conversation covers their four service tiers, the real chemistry risks of improperly maintained commercial pools, why dogs are the equivalent of 20 swimmers, and how they've grown from 30 accounts to 93 in just months — serving pools from Murphys all the way down to Stockton and Lodi.
