{"id":8006,"date":"2012-11-09T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=8006"},"modified":"2012-11-09T09:34:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T16:34:57","slug":"working-with-everyday-opportunities-to-become-a-businessman-the-origins-and-unfolding-of-snake-river-pool-and-spa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/working-with-everyday-opportunities-to-become-a-businessman-the-origins-and-unfolding-of-snake-river-pool-and-spa\/","title":{"rendered":"Working With Everyday Opportunities to Become a Businessman – The Origins and Unfolding of Snake River Pool and Spa"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jim Paxton was about nine years old, his uncle hired him and his cousin for the summer. \u00a0<\/strong>Their jobs were to do everything they could with shovels, rakes, and brooms to clean up around their uncle’s store. \u00a0This uncle was an astute businessman and entrepreneur, who owned and managed three businesses on one property: \u00a0a fast food restaurant, a convenience store, and a mobile home park. \u00a0Jim remembers watching how his uncle ran things and getting to ask a lot of questions, like “why was he changing the gas station into a convenience store,” which was a novel idea at the time.<\/p>\n

Jim’s parents had already trained Jim to make the most of the chance to work. \u00a0<\/strong>All four of their children, Jim being the youngest, knew that diligence was an important value. \u00a0They would be expected to earn any money they wanted. \u00a0They were taught to set goals and treat people well as they went about accomplishing the goals. \u00a0The parents would give wise counsel, but the children needed to take initiative.<\/p>\n

During the summers until high school, Jim and his cousin lived in Buhl (Idaho) off and on, with the aforementioned uncle, who was married to Jim’s father’s sister. \u00a0<\/strong>Jim thought of the whole live-in-as-hired-labor situation more as a hobby. \u00a0He enjoyed the constant contact with people, too. \u00a0He came to love the idea of being self-employed. \u00a0There were plenty of chances to learn skills, including time management and working with equipment. \u00a0It was a hands-on business experience that came with excellent explanations.<\/p>\n

Cleaning clinkers out of coal furnaces and lawn mowing filled Jim’s school-year-after-school hours until he was 14 years old.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Then, he was old enough to be hired by a local farm. \u00a0The farm, Cummins Farms, was part of Uhlig Ranches, and was located nearly 20 miles from Twin Falls (Idaho), where Jim was born and raised.<\/p>\n

High school classes were let out at 2 PM and Jim worked every evening after school. \u00a0<\/strong>In the fall, he would plow or disc from 4 PM until midnight. \u00a0The winter evenings were spent in the spud cellar \u00a0“pressing pipe,”\u00a0which meant putting pieces together. \u00a0This was piece work that the boys cooperated together to do assembly line style; then, they divided the pay. \u00a0Summer days were busy from 5 AM to 9 PM, driving machines and dealing with irrigation. \u00a0Homework was fit in enough to keep up average grades in the academic world.<\/p>\n

When Jim graduated from high school in 1977, he had no desire to go to college. \u00a0<\/strong>Instead, he worked first for his brother-in-law and sister, Dale and Karla Pippitt, learning about pumps at Floyd Lilly Company. \u00a0He also worked for Floyd Vance, at Kimberly Nursery, putting in lawn sprinklers. \u00a0Then he was hired by Larry Fairbanks at PMF to do underground construction work. \u00a0In those jobs, Jim learned valuable trade skills. \u00a0Because of these skills, in 1978, a friend’s dad asked Jim and the friend to install a one-piece fiberglass swimming pool. \u00a0Word got out and soon the duo were receiving regular referrals.<\/p>\n

At first, the young men just worked part time out of a garage. \u00a0<\/strong>However, in 1979, they decided it would be good to have a place of business with regular hours. \u00a0Jim’s dad had co-signed on a loan for Jim during high school, which helped Jim buy a truck and laid the foundation for Jim’s good credit rating. \u00a0Thus, when Jim went to the bank to borrow money for the business, the bank was comfortable giving him another loan. \u00a0 Plus, since it was a relatively small town, the banker knew several of Jim’s previous customers! \u00a0Soon, Jim and his friend had opened a shop where people could get a better look at the products that the business could make available to them. \u00a0It was not long before the business sold its first hot tub.<\/p>\n

In 1982, Jim’s friend wanted to move on to other things, so Jim bought the entire business. \u00a0<\/strong>Jim has been multiplying his business ventures ever since. \u00a0He began owning and managing commercial property in Twin Falls in 1985. \u00a0The Boise Snake River Pool and Spa<\/em> store was \u00a0opened in 1989, followed by a store in Idaho Falls in 1993, then another in the Wood River Valley in 1995. \u00a0Jim was able to sell the third and fourth stores later, when he decided he wasn’t spending enough time at home. \u00a0Along the way, he also purchased commercial property in Boise, where he owns and operates three stores, including the Boise Snake River Pool and Spa<\/em> store.<\/p>\n

Jim’s mom says Jim always likes to have projects going on and doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet. \u00a0<\/strong>Jim say this is because he enjoys getting things accomplished. \u00a0However, he fully recognizes all the mentoring and help he has benefitted from. \u00a0There have been unexpected opportunities, too, but it appears that he has made excellent use of them.<\/p>\n

checklist for putting in a swimming pool<\/a>
\nidea for insulating outdoor pool with Fastlane current generator<\/a>
\nfirst swim with the Fastlane<\/a>
\neasy set-up for draining our Tuff pool<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Jim Paxton was about nine years old, his uncle hired him and his cousin for the summer. \u00a0Their jobs were to do everything they could with shovels, rakes, and brooms to clean up around their uncle’s store. \u00a0This uncle was an astute businessman and entrepreneur, who owned and managed three businesses on one property: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}