Revealing Million-Dollar Hacks In The Hydrovac Business

Imagine starting a business in the thick of 2020’s COVID chaos. Now, imagine it’s a business you know nothing about, one that requires $800,000 trucks to even get started.

Sounds crazy, right?

That’s exactly what Kristy Black did. Her background was in nonprofits, but when her husband suggested starting a hydrovac company, she dove in.

Four years later, Black Hydrovac is on track for $5 million in revenue.

But the most powerful lessons she shared had nothing to do with expensive machinery. They were about mindset.

Your Biggest Weakness is Your Greatest Strength

Kristy had no construction experience. For many, that would be a dealbreaker. For her, it was a superpower.

She's a fan of Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, who has a great philosophy on this:

"When you go into doing something new that you've never done before, you're guaranteed to do it differently. So, with me not having a background, we were able to approach this business in a unique way."

Being an outsider meant she wasn't burdened by "the way things have always been done." She could build the company from first principles, focusing on what actually mattered to clients.

The Bar is on the Floor

I asked Kristy how she built such strong relationships. "We just show up," she said.

She told me about an early client who was blown away by her service. He told her:

"I really like you because you show up on time. Your driver calls me as soon as he gets there and he's ready to work... and then at the end of the day, he's done."

Kristy thought to herself:

"Well, isn't that exactly what he's supposed to do?"

The client told her that for it to actually happen, consistently, day after day, was a really big deal. In a world of missed appointments, being radically reliable is a moat around your business. When the bar is on the floor, consistency makes you a superstar.

This is why on-time arrival is one of the core KPIs many of the business owners we work with at ShareWillow use — with many offering incentive pay for tech who consistently show up on time. 

Grow Slow to Grow Fast

So how do you build a team that's consistently reliable? You don't burn them out.

Kristy was very intentional about her growth strategy. She told me:

"I wasn’t trying to build something as fast as possible, I wanted to maintain high quality. I'm not the kind of person that wants to run around like everything is an emergency. I want us to be consistent."

She knew that to deliver high quality, she couldn't push her team at 110% all the time. Sustainable growth comes from a strong foundation and a healthy pace, not constant chaos.

Juggling Jobs and People

Here’s something every service business owner can relate to.. When I asked Kirsty about her biggest challenge she instantly said:

“We're constantly fighting the battle of getting enough work, having enough people... It's one or the other. It is either sales or people. One is always a little bit off."

It's the universal balancing act. This struggle is exactly why building a motivated, reliable team isn't just a "nice to have," it's the only way to manage the chaos and scale successfully.

An Inch Wide and a Mile Deep

This focus on sustainable, high-quality operations extends to her services. As Kristy’s reputation grew, clients started asking her to do more.

But she said no.

"Right now, I really feel like it's a good direction for our business to really stay focused on the hydro excavation," she explained.

It’s a principle I live by: an inch wide and a mile deep. We do one thing at ShareWillow: help service businesses create incentive plans. We want to be world-class at our one thing.

You don't need to be in a new, trending industry to build an incredible business. You just need to solve a painful problem and be the most dependable person who does it.

So, how do you get your team to care as much about reliability as you do?

You give them a reason to. When employees have a stake in the outcome — when showing up on time and doing great work means more money in their pocket — their mindset shifts. 

That’s what we help businesses do at ShareWillow. We make it simple to design and manage employee incentive programs that align your team around the things that matter most: happy customers, efficient work, and a reputation for being the one company that always shows up.

Want to see how it works? Let's chat.