I'm Morgan Litchfield. I run a licensed pool company in Hanford, California — real trucks, real route, real books. Route Academy is the 12 weeks I'd spend teaching you to build a route of your own, in your own town, without buying one from anybody.
Applying costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You talk to Morgan before you pay anyone.
You do the work, someone else bills for it, and you've done the arithmetic on what your stops are worth. The gap between "good tech" and "owner" is business, not chemistry.
You've seen the listings and the multiples, and something about paying that much for someone else's customer list doesn't sit right — especially when you'd still have to learn the job.
You bought the videos, watched half, and nothing changed because nobody was on the other end. Fair. That's why this has a live call every week and a person on it.
Route brokers price routes as a multiple of monthly billing. Their multiples are published on their own sites. Here is what that means next to the price of learning to build one yourself.
| Path | What it is | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Superior Pool Routes | A 20-account route, their own published example, at 7× monthly billing | $16,800 |
| National Pool Route Sales | Calls ~12× monthly billing the industry standard | 12× |
| Route Academy | Twelve weeks of learning to build and run your own | $2,000 |
Superior Pool Routes sells a 20-account route for about $16,800 — 7× monthly billing. National Pool Route Sales calls 12× the industry standard. I'll teach you to build your own route for $2,000.
My route, my math — no guarantee you'll earn anything. Multiples read from each broker's own website on 2026-08-30; they change theirs whenever they like, so go and check before you decide anything. Buying a route is a legitimate option and for some people it is the right one — this is the comparison, not a warning.
What the program teaches and targets: CPO-ready by Week 2 · first 10 accounts · hold a $150/mo floor · 20 pools/day density. Those are the standards taught in the course, not a prediction of your results.
I have exactly one student and he is mid-course, so there is nothing from a student to show you and I am not going to invent anything. What I can show you is my own company, which you can verify without asking me.
A CSLB-licensed C-53 pool contractor. The state publishes the license, the classifications and the status. Look it up before you trust me on anything else.
My company billed $247,325 in pool service over the last 20 months — about 1,465 service billings averaging $168.77 each.
Our recurring maintenance route billed $135,567 across 846 monthly service billings — about $160 a billing.
My licensed pool company did just over $1M in 2025 — most of that is pool CONSTRUCTION, not route income. That is a whole-company, construction-heavy figure, shown because it says I run a real company — not because a route earns it.
These are my company's real numbers from my own route in Hanford, CA. They're not a promise of what you'll earn — no student has completed the program yet, and no student earnings data exists.
Fair question, and the honest answer is the reason this page reads the way it does. I have one student, he is mid-course, and there is no student-outcome data on file — so there is no number I can honestly promise you, and I am not going to invent one. What I can do is show you a state-verifiable contractor license, my own company's billing figures, and exactly what the twelve weeks contain, and let you decide.
Heads up on the law: in California you can clean pools without a contractor's license, but unlicensed work is capped at under $1,000 per job including materials — no permit work, no hired helpers, and any ad you run has to say you're not a licensed contractor. Repairs above that line need a C-61/D-35 license. Other states draw the line differently — know yours before you quote a single job.
Week 1 covers finding your own state's line. My license and my insurance cover my company and nothing else — yours are yours to carry.
No. Route Academy teaches you to build your own accounts, in your own town, under your own name. It is education — nobody hands you customers.
Because a cheap course is a pile of videos and nobody on the other end. This is twelve live hours with the person who runs the route, plus the action items, the documents and the "I'm stuck" access in between. If watching videos alone worked for you, you would already be running a route.
The chemistry, the pricing, the density work, the customer management and the money side travel anywhere. The licensing rules do not — Week 1 is about finding the line in your own state, and I'll say plainly when something is California-specific. The in-person ride-alongs are only for people close enough to Hanford to drive here.
One hour a week live, plus the action item — and then however long you spend actually building. The people who get somewhere are the ones doing the outreach between calls, not the ones watching the replay.
Morgan reads it and you get a short call — 15 to 30 minutes — to work out whether this is right for you. Nobody pays anything before that call. If it isn't a fit, I'll say so.
Do the work and get your first five paying accounts — or get your money back. Here's the deal, in plain terms:
1. Finish all 12 weeks — attend each weekly session live or watch the replay (tracked in your course account).
2. Complete all 12 weekly action items — submit each week's checklist in the course platform.
3. Do the outreach — log at least 50 real prospecting actions (door knocks, quotes delivered, referral asks, Nextdoor posts) in your course outreach tracker, with dates and details.
If you've done all three and you still don't have your first 5 paying pool-service accounts within 6 months of your start date, email us your tracker within 30 days after that 6-month mark and we'll refund every dollar you've paid — the full $2,000 if you've paid in full.
That's the whole guarantee. No income promises — an account is a customer, not a dollar figure, and nobody can guarantee what you'll earn. Full terms at checkout.
Morgan runs the weekly call himself, so intake is limited by how many people he can actually coach at once. Tell him where you're starting from and he'll come back to you about a call.
Every dollar figure on this page comes from Neighborhood Pool Service LLC's own QuickBooks records (cash basis, Jan 1, 2025 – Aug 30, 2026): our pool-service item billed $247,325.13 across 1,465.5 monthly service billings, averaging $168.77 per billing, and our weekly-maintenance item billed a further $77,995.95 across 723 monthly service billings, averaging $107.88 per billing. Those are Morgan Litchfield's results running a licensed California pool company (CSLB C-53, Lic #1139527) — not a projection of yours.
Here's what we can honestly tell you to expect: as of August 2026 we have one student, and he's mid-course, so we have zero data on what students earn — and no basis to promise you anything. Industry-wide, most people who buy business courses complete little of the material and never earn a dollar back. If you do the work, your results will still depend on your local market, your pricing, your effort, and your state's licensing rules — in California, unlicensed operators are limited to jobs under $1,000 including materials, no permit work, and no hired helpers. Route Academy is education. It is not a business opportunity, a franchise, or a guarantee of income. Refund terms are stated at checkout.
This is education based on my experience running my own pool company. It isn't legal, financial, tax, or licensing advice — talk to a professional and your state's licensing board before you make business decisions.
Heads up on the law: in California you can clean pools without a contractor's license, but unlicensed work is capped at under $1,000 per job including materials — no permit work, no hired helpers, and any ad you run has to say you're not a licensed contractor. Repairs above that line need a C-61/D-35 license. Other states draw the line differently — know yours before you quote a single job.