In 1983, when I joined the Austin branch of the pest control company my father had founded in 1949 in San Antonio, we had just six or seven employees. Today, our modest operation has grown into ABC Home & Commercial Services, a leading regional player with more than 1100 employees, offering more than 18 service lines across six Texas markets.

The story of how we grew the company is fundamentally Evergreen®. There was no overnight disruption or venture-fueled expansion. Reflecting back, I see that our story could serve as a high-level blueprint for what patient, values-driven growth might look like. At the very least, it’s a strong confirmation that Paced Growth, when paired with patience, perseverance, and smart, hard work, can lead to significant growth over time. By continually reinvesting in people, listening to customers, and adding services and locations at a disciplined pace, we have grown into a rare kind of one-call provider, delivering value through both breadth and depth.

ABC started as a pest control company, but once we had set up and stabilized our operation in Austin, we started to see new opportunities, most of which emerged through our deepening customer relationships. Early on, as is often the case, our growth was not entirely intentional. Years ago, in our first small expansion as a pest control company, we added fertilization and weed control, and we called it “lawn services.” As soon as we did that, customers started asking about mowing and landscaping. We added lawn mowing, and then they said, ‘Can you plant some shrubs?’, so we evolved into landscaping and design.

Our early growth was a bit haphazard, but we understood that it was all happening because of the deep trust we had earned from our customers. They liked working with us, and the more we could help them with their home and property needs, the easier their lives would be. Eventually, out of these conversations, the vision for our long-term growth strategy emerged: add services that increase our value to customers and further deepen our relationship, with the ultimate goal of serving as their one-call service provider.

With this philosophy firmly established, we began the gradual, methodical addition of new services over time: lawn care, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pool cleaning, window washing, and even garbage bin cleaning. Most of our growth has been organic, but we have made a few small business acquisitions–for example pool companies or tree services–that made strategic sense. As we consider new offerings, we ask ourselves: does it enhance the customer relationship, and can we do it profitably?

In addition to avoiding undue strain on our available capital, our Paced Growth approach has been important as we decide on each next venture. We have a long list of possible next initiatives, but we proceed carefully, vetting each one, exploring what it would look like from a leadership and staffing perspective, and ensuring that we would have the appropriate expertise and capacity to make it a success. Our approach is never rushed; because our success is grounded in the trust we have earned over time with our customers, it is critical that we maintain our high standards across all of our work. The new service lines must emerge as strong or stronger than the existing ones, to honor and protect that trust.

Equally intentional is the regional expansion we have undertaken in the last couple decades. We started in Austin, then expanded to nearby San Antonio, then College Station and Corpus Christi. More recently, we added the Rio Grande Valley and Waco. In each new location, ABC begins with pest control—our foundational competency—and only gradually adds new services if and when the market proves viable. Whether or not we add them at the same pace or even in the same order as we did in Austin varies from place to place, because the process must fit the new community, and not the other way around.

Although we have several locations now, all of them remain within our region. There are two reasons for this. First, when my father handed the business to me and my two brothers, we each set up our respective shops in the towns where we live. I have one brother operating in Dallas, and one in Houston. Although we are all ABC and we share a website, we operate as three separate companies, and my brothers have not expanded the way we have. That said, they have their regions, and I have mine, so we will not move into any cities where they are established.

The second reason we have only expanded within our region is more of a lifestyle and values decision. I decided long ago that I didn’t want to run a business that required me or my team to be on planes every week. It was a conscious decision about how we want to manage not just the business, but our personal lives and time. So, we kept it tight. Managers can drive to San Antonio and be back home that night.

Key to this growth strategy is getting the right people to lead each new service line. This is an area where we cannot afford to compromise. Yes, we are looking for practical expertise in our leaders, but even more important is having someone leading each new initiative who understands that we’re going to grow this business. Each of ABC’s four service buckets—pest control, lawn, mechanical (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, water quality), and home improvement—has a manager whose sole job is to expand and strengthen that business unit. Some of these leaders come from acquired companies, while others have been hired and developed internally. Experts who don’t think this way and who don’t understand how to grow it can still be valuable, but they will be our caretakers, not our strategic leaders.

Sometimes, finding the right person is hard, and can be a reason that growth moves slowly. The goal is never just to maintain. Give me consistent growth, I tell them. I’m patient. We’ll get there.

What makes ABC unique isn’t just the breadth of services—it’s how those services work together to serve each customer more fully. Technicians across divisions are trained to spot opportunities. A pest technician sees brown spots on the lawn? That’s a lead for the lawn team. Tree branches too close to the roof? Call in the arborist. There’s no better customer than a current customer, so we have carefully and intentionally created internal systems to capture and route those cross-service referrals in real time, often with photos and immediate follow-ups. A dedicated team manages the flow of internal leads, generating thousands each month.

If it’s a lead for a service we already provide, we are able to convert an enormous percentage into sales. The customer already trusts us and is happy to have us take care of just ‘one more thing.’ If it’s not a service we provide, it goes into the queue of ideas for potential new service lines, and becomes part of the evaluation process as we consider next steps.

There are certain schools of thought in business that preach focus, like Jim Collins’s hedgehog concept, or Hermann Simon’s Hidden Champion strategy. They say that the best way to excel in your space is to zero in on one thing and do it better than everyone else. Some may wonder if all of our diversification at ABC doesn’t create a risk grounded in a lack of focus. To this I have a quick and easy reply. We are focused on one thing: great customer service. We’re a service company. It might be a different guy doing a different thing on your doorstep, but it’s always ABC taking great care of you and great care of your home.

Although my brothers have each begun the process in their own companies, I am not quite ready to retire. When the time comes, however, I feel confident that our patient grounding in purpose has helped ABC grow with intention, and without sacrificing its soul. We’re not trying to do it overnight. Just keep moving forward—day by day, step by step. You’d be surprised how far that can take you over the long haul.