Repair Shop Reckoning

Most shops are watching labor rates, car count, gross profit, and technician productivity.  Meanwhile, there could be thousands of dollars sitting on a shelf, underneath a toolbox, waiting on a parts driver, or buried in a credit nobody followed up on. This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin and Jason dig into one of the least talked about profit leaks in the repair industry: cores, returns, wro...

Everybody wants better employees. Better technicians. Better service advisors. Better attitudes. More accountability. But what if the problem isn't your people? What if it's your leadership? This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey dig into one of the biggest problems hiding inside repair shops: great technicians become shop owners, but nobody ever teaches them how to lead...

The cars have changed. The technology has changed. The repair procedures have changed. So why are so many shops still operating like it’s 1995? This week, Kevin sits down with John Voulgarakis of Lightning Auto Service for a conversation that starts with ADAS calibration and quickly exposes a much bigger problem across the collision industry. John says he still encounters body shops that believe A...

Owning a repair shop can look pretty damn good from the outside. The cars are moving. The team is working. The bills are getting paid. Maybe there is even money sitting in the bank. So why does it still feel like everything could fall apart tomorrow? This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin and Jason dig into the stress that comes with owning a business and the pressure nobody really sees. Payrol...

Who actually controls whether your collision shop makes money? You own the building. You pay the technicians. You buy the equipment. You warranty the repair. You deal with the customer when something goes wrong. You carry the liability. But someone else is telling you what parts to use, what they'll pay for those parts, how much markup they'll allow, how many labor hours the job should take, what...

What if the kids who never fit the system were exactly the ones built to fix it? This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin Brown gets more personal than usual. After using AI to explore patterns and tendencies he has noticed in himself his entire life, the conversation starts with school, Ritalin, being labeled hyperactive, struggling with social cues, feeling like an outsider, intense routines, d...

You can be busy. You can have trucks lined up outside. You can be selling work every single day. And you can still go broke. This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin is joined by his wife, Marilyn Brown, and daughter, Jordan Valle-Perez, for a very different kind of episode. They go back to a time when the business was fighting to survive, the line of credit was nearly tapped out, customers owed...

This week on Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin and Jason dig into a problem happening in shops everywhere: technicians are being blamed for not producing enough hours, but nobody is stopping to ask whether those hours were ever sold in the first place. If you expect a technician to produce 40, 50, or 60 hours, what is your service advisor actually putting on the board? Kevin breaks down what he's uncov...

Customers do not buy brake pads, transmissions, tires, or diagnostics. They buy confidence that their family will be safe, their truck will get them back to work, their trip will stay on schedule, and the problem will finally be handled. In Part Two of this Repair Shop Reckoning conversation, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey break down what effective service advisor training should actually accomplish...

Most shop owners think they need more calls, more customers, or more work. But what happens when the phone is already ringing and the opportunities are being lost before the vehicle ever reaches the shop? In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey break down what they are uncovering through real phone audits, real coaching sessions, and real shop numbers. Advisors are f...

Your service advisor may be the gatekeeper of your entire business, but have you actually trained them to protect it? In Part One of this two-part Repair Shop Reckoning conversation, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey break down one of the most expensive problems hiding inside repair shops today: owners expecting service advisors to convert calls, protect margins, build trust, feed technicians, and keep...

Every major shift in business creates two kinds of shop owners. The ones who wait until everyone else has already figured it out. And the ones who adapt early, learn the system, and create an advantage long before the rest of the industry catches up. In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey dive into one of the biggest shifts the automotive industry has seen in decade...

Every shop owner has invested time and money to make the phone ring. But what happens when it finally does? In this episode, Kevin Brown and Jason Tracey tackle one of the biggest profit leaks in the automotive industry: what happens at the front counter. From the very first phone call to the final repair order, they break down how service advisors either create confidence or create chaos. Through...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin sits down with Isaac, owner of Diesel Dynamics in Texas, to talk about what really changed after six months of focusing on the fundamentals of running a better business. Like so many shop owners, Isaac wasn't afraid of hard work. He was working seven days a week, putting in 15 and 16 hour days, doing everything himself, and still wondering why it fel...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin starts with a debate that lit up social media:Should technicians be helping pay for scan tools? But what starts as a conversation about equipment quickly turns into something much bigger. This episode is really about control. Control of your business. Control of your customer experience. Control of your processes. And ultimately, control of your futu...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin takes on one of the most controversial topics in the collision repair industry: Who decides what a repair is worth?  Too many shop owners have accepted the idea that an insurance estimate is the final word. Kevin argues that's exactly the mindset that has created what he calls the industry's "Race to Zero"—a constant push toward lower labor rates, re...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin tackles one of the most damaging beliefs in business: "The customer is always right." For years, shop owners have been taught to bend over backward for every customer, absorb every complaint, hand out discounts, and tolerate behavior they would never accept from employees, vendors, or even friends. Kevin argues that mindset is destroying shops from t...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin tackles a reality every shop owner will face sooner or later: What do you do when the phones slow down, the bays aren't as full, and the panic starts creeping in? Too many owners react by cutting marketing, slashing prices, taking bad jobs, and making emotional decisions that create even bigger problems. Kevin argues that slow times aren't what destr...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin breaks down one of the biggest problems killing repair shops right now: Owners are doing the work… but they are not controlling the money. What starts as a conversation about cash basis vs accrual accounting quickly turns into a much bigger discussion about billing discipline, cash flow, overhead, collections, labor rates, and why so many shop owners...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin gets personal. Before the shop ownership. Before the buildings. Before the consulting. Before the success. There was a broke mechanic blaming everybody else for problems he created himself. Kevin opens up about the years he spent buried in debt, falling behind on tool payments, living paycheck to paycheck, and constantly thinking the problem was his...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin sits down with Anthony Rendino from A/R Customs and Collision to talk about the reality of running an independent body shop in today’s insurance-driven world. This conversation goes deep into what most collision shop owners are struggling with right now: Insurance companies cutting rates. Short pays. DRP pressure. Paint material costs exploding. And...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin breaks down one of the biggest reasons shops create their own chaos… poor communication and broken expectations. Most customers can handle bad news. What they can’t handle is silence, vague answers, missed promises, and feeling like nobody knows what’s going on. Using his own recent experience dealing with a dealership after the engine failure in his...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin takes the conversation beyond numbers and into what every shop owner is really chasing… freedom. Freedom from chaos. Freedom from bad customers. Freedom from living week to week. Freedom from having to say yes to things you know are wrong. Kevin breaks down why knowing your numbers is about far more than spreadsheets and reports. It’s about building...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin breaks down the part of the business most shop owners either avoid or don’t fully understand… the balance sheet. You can be busy, profitable, and still not actually getting ahead. This is why. The balance sheet shows what you truly own, what you owe, and where your money is really going. And for a lot of shops, that picture isn’t as strong as it feel...

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin takes the conversation beyond just understanding your numbers and gets into what actually separates profitable shops from the ones constantly feeling the squeeze. Most shop owners look at their P&L like it’s the finish line. It’s not. It’s the scoreboard of what already happened. By the time you’re looking at it, the money’s already been made or...