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A lot of shop owners run into the same question: Do I need to hire another tech, or can we stretch the team we’ve got? Here’s the framework I use when helping auto repair shops decide. It’s quick math, not guesswork. Key metrics to track (monthly per tech): Paid Hours (from payroll) Billed Hours (from POS/DMS) Efficiency = Billed ÷ Paid HPRO = Billed ÷ RO Count ARPO = Parts ÷ ROs Labor Revenue = Billed × ELR Industry averages (2025): A Tech: 2.2–2.5 hrs/RO, 70–100% efficiency B Tech: 1.6–2.0 hrs/RO, 50–70% efficiency C Tech: 0.7–1.0 hrs/RO, 40–50% efficiency Example scenario: Old C Tech → 139 jobs, 118 billed hrs, ARPO $95 = ~$13.2K parts New B Tech → ~75 jobs, 132 billed hrs, ARPO $240 = ~$18K parts Net impact: +$536 labor GP, +$4,795 parts = +$5,331/month The takeaway: you lose job count, but you gain billed hours and higher-value work. If your Bs are already maxed out, hiring another one usually pays for itself. 💡 Full article with tables, step-by-step setup, and a free Google Sheets template is here 📌 For more posts like this, subscribe to my free blog Inside the Repair Shop

I’ve been through the process myself—after my father’s passing, I stepped in to run Brad’s Service Center, modernized it, and eventually partnered with Teamshares to sell in a way that kept the business local and employee-owned. Now, I lead the automotive vertical at Teamshares, working with shop owners across the country to improve operations, set up employee ownership, and make sure their legacies live on. If you’re curious about selling your shop—or just want to understand what options look like—reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Always happy to share my experience and talk through what a transition might look like. If you’d like to read more of my writing on shop KPIs, revenue models, and operations, check out my Substack here: 👉 Inside the Repair Shop

Hitting revenue goals is only part of the game—keeping what you earn is just as important. A lot of shops lose thousands every year to missed hours, unbilled parts, or even internal side jobs. The losses are often small week-to-week, but they add up. I use a simple “should-be vs actual” test to catch this. Every week, the revenue model forecasts what the shop should have made based on KPIs (ELR, efficiency, paid hours, ARPO, and RO count). If deposits come in short, even by 2–3%, it’s a red flag worth digging into. Typical problem areas I see: Tech spends 3 hours on diagnostics, only 1 gets billed. Advisors discount labor for friends or regulars. Parts installed but not invoiced, or shrinkage from inventory not matching counts. You don’t need a full audit team—just guardrails: spot-check a few ROs a week, separate duties for ordering vs invoicing, lock up high-value items, and make it clear that tracking protects the whole team. I broke it all down with examples and a checklist here: 👉 Guardrails: Catching Missed Billing & Theft Do you already have a weekly guardrail process, or is this something you’re thinking about adding?

It’s easy to set aggressive sales goals, but the truth is that not every target can be hit with the team, bays, and car count you have today. Before you push your shop to a number, it’s worth running a simple ceiling check. I laid out 3 quick ways to test your goals: Billed Hours per Tech per Year – A full-time tech has ~1,472 paid hours/year. At 85–90% efficiency, that’s 1,250–1,325 billed hours. If your plan needs 1,500 billed hours per tech, it’s not realistic. Bay Utilization – Multiply bay count × shift hours × days open. That’s your max capacity. If you only have 1,056 bay hours available in a month but your goal assumes 1,200 billed hours, something has to change. Hours per RO – Industry average is 2.2–2.5. High-performers are 2.7–3.0. If you’re at 2.4 and plan for 3.5, you’ll need real system changes (better inspections, bundled services, advisor training). The point isn’t to lower your goals, but to make sure they line up with what’s physically possible in your shop. Once you know your ceiling, you can raise it with more bays, better dispatch, or stronger advisor processes. Here’s the full write-up with examples and benchmarks: 👉 Gut-Checking the Ceiling How often do you gut-check your goals before rolling them out to your team?

A lot of shop owners track sales, but sales totals alone don’t tell you why you’re ahead or behind. Was it labor rate, efficiency, car count, or something else? Without that context, you can’t make changes until after the fact. That’s where KPIs come in. Tracking metrics like ELR, efficiency, paid hours, ARPO, and RO count not only describes how you performed last week—they become the building blocks for forecasting. Once you set realistic goals for each KPI, you can use them to project what your revenue should be for the week ahead. Here’s the flow: Set KPI Goals → Benchmarks for ELR, efficiency by tech level, ARPO, and RO count give your team clear, fair targets. (I shared ranges and examples here: 👉 Setting KPI Goals for Growth) Tie KPIs to Revenue → Plug those targets into a simple model to calculate weekly labor, parts, and total revenue. That becomes your “should-be” number, which you can compare against actual deposits. (Full breakdown + example table here: 👉 The Team 33 Revenue Model) The value is that when you fall short, you don’t just see a revenue gap—you see whether it came from lower efficiency, fewer hours, or weak inspections. That makes it actionable instead of just another sales report. Curious—how many of you are already using KPIs to project revenue, versus just looking at daily/weekly sales totals?