I had a fascinating chat the other day with Jon Trevillyan, who runs Bethany Associates, a pressure washing and window cleaning business down in South Jersey.
Jon’s the real deal. He’s been at it since 1997, growing the company to over $3.5 million in annual revenue with 23 trucks on the road. But he shared something that I know every single one of you has either felt or will feel soon.
He used a killer metaphor.
“When you have a car that can only go 60 miles an hour and you're making it go 70… everything's starting to shimmy a little bit,” he told me. “Our business, we're right at that point where we gotta upgrade a few things.”
That "shimmy" is the sign that you’ve hit a growth wall. It’s the point where you start to realise that what got you here won’t get you where you want to go.
So how is Jon breaking through the $3.5m plateau?
You Can’t Muscle Your Way Past a Few Million
For most owners in the trades, the first few million in revenue is a game of sheer will.
You can put the team on your back, outwork everyone, and just muscle your way through problems. You’re the lead salesperson, the head of operations, and the chief firefighter, all at once.
And it works. For a while.
But you eventually hit a ceiling. Your personal effort doesn't scale. You can’t be on every job site or answer every client call. The wheels start to wobble, and the whole business begins to shake.
That’s the sign it’s time to evolve. You have to stop muscling it and start building systems. Jon is navigating this exact transition, and he’s focused on three key upgrades to break through his growth ceiling.
3 Systems to Stop the "Shimmy" and Scale Smoothly
System #1: Empower Your Team to Give Themselves a Raise
The first thing Jon is tackling is his team’s compensation structure. He’s moving toward a performance-based pay model, and the way he framed it was brilliant.
He recently trialed it with one of his guys, who saw his hourly rate jump by a couple of bucks. Jon told him:
“You know who gives you a raise now? You give yourself a raise.”
I love that line. It’s no longer about waiting a year for a performance review. It’s about having a clear, immediate link between effort and reward. An A-player sees the scoreboard and knows exactly how to win, every single day.
But here’s the deeper insight Jon shared: implementing performance pay forces you to sharpen every other part of the business. Suddenly, you have to crystallize your sales process, define your KPIs, and track performance meticulously.
(This is exactly why we built ShareWillow, to give you the tools to easily design, manage, and track these kinds of incentive plans.)
Download Our Guide + Template for Creating a Performance Pay Scorecard for Technicians
The first step in building a performance pay system is defining what "winning" actually looks like for your techs and giving them a scorecard to track it.
To help you build this exact foundation, we’ve put together a free toolkit.
It’s a plug-and-play pack that gives you everything you need to start implementing the system Jon’s so excited about, including:
A scorecard template with the most important KPIs for technicians
A simple guide explaining how to roll it out to your team
The exact framework to create a clear scoreboard for A-players to win
System #2: Turn Your Techs into Trusted Advisors
Jon’s next focus is on upskilling his technicians with soft skills. This isn’t about turning them into pushy salespeople, it’s about teaching them to be problem-solvers who can confidently present solutions.
He’s a fan of the “good, better, best” model. You’re not hard-selling; you’re educating the customer on their options.
He also mentioned the book Go for No, which argues that you should keep offering value until the customer says, “No, that’s good. I’m happy here.” Too many of us stop at the first “yes,” leaving both money and customer satisfaction on the table. Your customers hired you to solve their problems, so show them all the ways you can help.
System #3: Build a Modern Marketing Machine
Like many established businesses, Jon’s company grew on the back of “old school” methods like cold calls and referrals. It’s been effective, but he recognizes it’s not a scalable lead engine for the future.
We brainstormed one of the biggest opportunities for any home service business: content.
Think about it. Pressure washing a grimy driveway, the satisfying squeegee on a dirty window, or a time-lapse of a house being decorated for Christmas, this stuff is social media gold.
Your customers are already on their phones, scrolling through feeds. Creating short, satisfying videos that show the transformation you provide is one of the most effective ways to stop them in their tracks and build your brand. It’s cheap, authentic, and wildly effective.
The Real Goal Isn't Just a Number
Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Jon where he wants to take the business. $10 million? $20 million?
His answer was telling.
“If we go to $10m and our customers aren't being taken care of and our employees aren't getting taken care of, then I would say we'll stop there.”
That’s the whole game, right there.
The goal isn’t just growth, it’s building a sustainable, well-run business that serves its people and its customers with excellence.
ShareWillow helps 200+ service businesses design performance pay plans that actually work
Most service businesses struggle with inconsistent technician performance, high turnover, and unpredictable revenue. ShareWillow solves this by aligning your team's incentives with your business goals through data-driven performance pay.
Ready to see how performance pay can transform your business? Get in touch: 👇