Macon Magazine

homes & gardens | by leilia regan-porter Photography by danny gilleland stewart vernon Macon's Serial Entrepreneur Pocket money is important to most high school kids. If they don't have enough, they may find a job. But not many would start their own business. Stewart Vernon was not like most kids. "When Stewart was a little boy he would sometimes sell pecans when he was visiting his grandmother; she had a lot of pecan trees in her yard," said his mom, Natalie Vernon. "And when he got a little older he started the car-washing business in our driveway. I had lots of soapsuds to water my flowers." He was, she said, the archetypal "young entrepreneur." In fact, he could be described as a "serial entrepreneur." By the time he was 17 Vernon had two high school friends who worked for him. "I was really washing cars as much as I was going to school," he said. That drive was encouraged by much more than a need for cash. "It's deep-rooted in the psychological fact that I don't like to hear the word 'no,' and so I always like to have my own money and access to controlling my own destiny and fate in some way," said Vernon, who is now the 33-yearold founder and CEO of Macon-based, highly successful ASP, America's Swimming Pool Company. ASP is one of America's largest swimming pool cleaning, repair and renovation franchise, with 110 franchises in 12 states. The company hit its first $1 million in yearly revenue in 2005, making Vernon a self-made millionaire by the time he was 26. He even got national attention from CNBC television network, being chosen in 2010 as a member of their Young Millionaires Club - a unique group of individuals who made their first million before turning 30. In 2013, the company is expected to break the $20 million mark in revenue. But having success at such a young age has not altered his outlook on business. 'NOTHING IS GUARANTEED' "I do not believe success is something that is easy to measure for a business owner, large or small, who has ever started a business from the ground up," said Vernon. "Rather, success is something that must be worked for every single day, knowing that the future is uncertain and knowing that nothing is guaranteed." Macon born and bred, Vernon continued his passion for the start-up business world after he graduated from Stratford and attended the College of Charleston. He was further inspired while attending college by a professor named Tommy Baker. Baker is a businessman who serves on the college's executive committee of the board of governors for the school of business. He is a Distinguished Entrepreneur in Residence and teaches students who are majoring in business administration with an entrepreneurship concentration. "Each week [Baker] would bring in entrepreneurs who would speak and teach the class," said Vernon. "I actually took that class in my senior year when I founded the pool business. Tommy and that class are very near and dear to my heart as it relates to me professionally, but also to my swimming pool company." Just before Vernon made the leap to found his own business, however, he met with his first obstacle, an opportunity gone awry. "I was driving through Macon on my way back to college one afternoon, and I stopped to meet a couple of contacts who were business folks here in town," he said. "I told them I was looking to graduate and start a business, and we talked about the pool industry, just on a basic level, being fragmented and a service industry that we felt like we could enter, and they gave me the opportunity [to partner with them]." Vernon had some experience cleaning pools while he was in high school. april/MAy 2013macon magazine I 41

• Cover