By Rachel S. Master

And things are really heating up this season for the owner and president of Fort Worth based Pulliam Pools. Business is booming with no end in sight, and more than family and friends are taking notice: Pulliam is a finalist in the Southwest Area Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, the only Tarrant County entrepreneur honored this year. His category: family business.

Poolside history
 

The Pulliam family business was actually launched before swimming pools hit backyards en masse. In 1916, Theo Pulliam, Barry Pulliam's grandfather, started a concrete company in Fort Worth. Renowned for his waterproof cattle-dipping vats, he was recruited to build in-ground pools - apparently afforded only by the most well-to-do and their cattle back in the '20s. (The first pools, by the way, had no filter systems and had to be drained weekly.)

Though specializing in both pools and concrete work for a time, eventually Theo's sons split the company into two companies. Both operations are now run by third-generation Pulliams.

Growing up learning the pool trade, Barry Pulliam's first plunge into the deep waters of entrepreneurship came as a student at the University of Houston, where he launched a pool cleaning and repair business. Dubbed Aquamen Ltd., the company was under contract with some 40 pools for weekly service.

 When Barry's father lost his service manager at the family firm in 1970, Barry moved back to the family trade - but not for good just yet. He soon ventured out again - "testing his entrepreneurial bent" - this time tackling convenience store ownership and earth-sheltered home development.

Dive in, the water's fine

 But the tie to the family business was too strong to ignore. When he took over the swimming reins in 1985, Pulliam Pools was digging 25 to 30 pools a year.

 "We quadrupled the sales the first year, from 25 to 119. This year we'll be building about 250," Pulliam says.

Current annual sales: $4.5 million.

 Pulliam Pools builds in Tarrant and four surrounding counties, though it isn't interested in venturing into Dallas. (Heading that far east and spreading his service staff that thin wouldn't make sense economically, Barry says.)

Pulliam Pools is a member of Aquatech, an invitation-only national organization of pool builders, and employs 22 staffers year round.

 The remodeling side of business is also on the grow, accounting for about 25 percent of jobs these days. It's an area the family would like to develop further - but not during its busy summer building boom. They're putting renovations off until September and hope it will build business during the traditionally slow fall and winter months.

 In addition to the pool business, Barry has also expanded into commercial real estate, which began with the purchase of Pulliam's current 14,000-square-foot building, half of which is leased to another company. His firm, Alta Mesa Properties Inc., is involved in several joint venture projects, as well.

Marco, Polo

 Barry attributes his big splash in the pool business to seeking out customers through more aggressive marketing, such as increased visibility and referral solicitation. "At this point, 50 percent of our business is from someone who knows someone who has one of our pools," he notes.

When he came back to the company, he brought his entrepreneurial drive in tow, continually working on ways to expand the business, such as bringing different aspects of the building process in house, notes Lizz Pulliam, Barry's wife and Pulliam Pools VP.

 "He developed all the systems - for on-site inspection and things like that - so that we could build in that volume with quality," she says.

 Among the successes: bringing plumbing under the Pulliam umbrella. Plumbing -buried under layers of concrete, dirt and decking - is critical, Barry says. "We actually have more control by bringing it in house." 

Tile and coping efforts, however, weren't such smooth sailing. "With the economies involved, it's better done in a subcontractor relationship," Barry concedes.

 "Not all of them worked but nothing ventured, nothing gained," he adds.

And this entrepreneur will continue to look for new avenues of gain.

EOY

 Family business - for which Barry Pulliam is a finalist - is new to the 10-year-old Southwest Area Entrepreneur of the Year awards this year. "It's for people who inherited a business and then made dramatic changes in it," says Julie Jody, EOY program manager. "The company itself was one of the very first in the pool business and since Barry took over, it's experienced extensive growth."

Actual award winners will be announced in July and then proceed to national competition. There are 46 U.S. regions, each of which have eight to 10 categories of winners. Past EOY national winners from the Southwest Area - which covers North Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma - include locals Bombay Co. chief Robert E.M. Nourse, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher.

 Created by Ernst & Young, the purpose of the EOY program is to build support for entrepreneurship in the community. National sponsors include the Entrepreneur of the Year Institute, NASDAQ and USA Today. Regional corporate sponsors are IBM, Baker & Botts LLP and Sprint.

Nominations for 1997's awards will be accepted in January.