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The Problem

You post a labor rate the bank account never sees. You find work on cars that customers say no to, and nobody calls them back. The chain down the road advertises a price you can’t match, so you’re tempted to buy more cars with ads.

More cars into a leaky shop is more leak. The fix starts with 2 numbers your shop software already holds: the work you found and didn’t collect, and what an hour of your techs’ time really brings in.

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The Auto Shop Profit Engine

7 systems, in this order. Each rests on a unit your shop already produces, a leak you can pull from software you already own, and a script you can say tomorrow.

• S1: ESTIMATING + APPROVAL. ARO, hours per RO, labor share, the same inspection on every car, 3 tiers and the 4-move approval call.
• S2: DECLINED WORK RECOVERY. 3 touches at day 3, 30 and 90, and a cohort grid that gives you your own recovery rate.
• S3: PARTS + PRICING. Parts and labor gross profit split, and a parts matrix built band by band from 90 days of your invoices.
• S3b: THE LABOR RATE WATERFALL. Posted rate down to collected in 4 named leaks: discounts, unbilled diagnosis, overruns, comebacks.
• S4: BAY FLOW. Efficiency by tech, the handoff audit, comebacks.
• S5: TECHS. Weekly contribution per tech, flat rate vs hourly, and who eats the diagnosis.
• S6: REPEAT CUSTOMERS, THE PLAN, REFERRALS. Lifetime gross profit, a maintenance plan priced from your own visits, and referrals kept apart from reviews.
• S7: OWNER RHYTHM. The weekly 30 minutes, the one-page scorecard and the decision log.

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What’s in the Book

• Part 1: The 15-minute quick win. Your declined-work pile and your 5-minute labor rate.
• Part 2: Why good shops get squeezed: 4 reasons, none of them about wrenching.
• Part 3: The Auto Shop Profit Engine and the Shop Money Model.
• Parts 4 to 7: Estimating and approval, declined work, parts and pricing, the labor rate waterfall.
• Parts 8 to 11: Bay flow, techs, repeat customers and the plan, referrals and partners.
• Part 12: The Shop Money Model: a front door with something behind it, and the warranty priced as a guarantee.
• Parts 13 and 14: The weekly scorecard, then marketing, with the allowable acquisition ladder.
• Parts 15 to 20: 4 worked composites (one goes wrong), metrics, common mistakes, the 90-day install, the look-backs and what the book refuses to print.

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From Part 1

Before you open anything, write down what you think your declined work came to over the last 90 days. A dollar figure. Do not skip this. The guess is half the lesson.

Then pull every repair order from the last 90 days and add up the recommended work that was not approved. Put the counted number next to your guess. Then put it next to what you actually billed in the same 90 days.

You already found the work. You already paid a tech to look at the car. You already had the customer standing at the counter. And then it walked out the door.

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Who This Is For

The owner of an independent general repair shop, roughly 2 to 12 bays, who writes repair orders in shop software, posts a labor rate the bank account doesn’t see, loses techs, and watches a chain advertise a price the shop can’t match. Detailing and collision run on different economics; the book says what transfers and what doesn’t.

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Questions

Does it tell me what my ARO or labor rate should be? No. Every target in this book is your own week 1 count. Benchmarks from other shops don’t know your market, your mix or your door rate.

Do I need special software? No. Your shop management software holds most of the numbers. The spreadsheet and the paper worksheets do every calculation.

Is this a marketing book? Marketing comes last, once you know what a customer is worth in gross profit and what you can afford to pay to get one.

Are the examples real shops? No. They are labelled composites with round, made-up numbers. They show decisions, not results. There are no client results in the book because we do not publish client results.