Creative Environments: 200 + Team Executing Complex & Original Design-Build Projects Fast with Dan Waters

Pool Chasers Podcast

22-03-2023 • 1 hr 50 mins

Greg and Justin sit down with Dan Waters, Owner and Principal at Creative Environments, which provides pool, spa, landscape design, and construction services in Phoenix.

With over 33 years of design and landscape construction experience, Dan has worked on the design and development of landscaping for model home parks for Toll Brothers, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, Jackson Properties, and Engle Homes.

Dan co-founded and helped to build Creative Environments from $700,000 in revenues to over $50 million. In addition, he has trained and mentored over 100 landscape designers and architects in the workings of quality design, and is a regular Guest Speaker at Arizona State University Construction Management Program.

Listen in as Dan goes down memory lane, from earning $3.35 an hour in fast food as a kid to a one-off construction project for a swimming pool, to his first official landscaping job, to, at just 24 years old, purchasing the business that he would grow from a six to a 200-person operation.

Dan also talks about Creative Environments’ decision to put up their own metal fabrication shop, how they manage to stay within budget, and the astonishing speed at which the company accomplishes its projects.

He discusses the business’s client-facing approach, insisting that his salespeople are themselves designers who could see client desires and considerations from their point of view, offering something that matches their vision as closely as possible over simply getting the sale.

Finally, Dan speaks on how the company is currently navigating a still-turbulent economy and lingering supply chain challenges. He explains why reputation management is something that no business owner should skimp on amid a market where delays and setbacks should be expected.

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