About this episode

Hunt Demarest discusses the financial volatility in auto repair shops and introduces a framework to manage it effectively.

Thanks to our partners Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, and Overdryve Every auto repair shop owner knows the feeling: a monster month followed by a stretch that barely covers the bills. But most owners assume they're doing something wrong. The truth? Even the best-run shops in the country don't make money every month of the year. In this episode, Hunt Demarest, CPA with Paar Melis & Associates, pulls back the curtain on the real financial volatility hiding inside your shop's numbers and why understanding it is the first step toward building a business that doesn't run you. Fresh off a financial strategy session with shop owners in Tucson, Arizona, Hunt breaks down the three controllable levers that separate proactive operators from reactive ones: labor, advertising, and inventory. Whether you're planning to scale, stabilize, or just stop getting blindsided by slow months, this episode gives you a practical, numbers-driven framework to get ahead of the curve, not just catch up to it. What You'll Learn... (3:15) Volatility is built in — even the best shops don't profit every month (4:00) The flat-budget trap: why dividing last year's profit by 12 backfires (5:10)…

People in this episode

Host: Hunt Demarest

Topics covered

• auto repair shop profits
• financial volatility
• business management
• labor
• advertising
• inventory

Keywords

• auto repair
• profit management
• financial strategy
• business growth
• seasonal volatility

Sponsors

Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, Overdryve

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Paar Melis & Associates

Places: Tucson, Arizona

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• Discover the Shocking Hidden Price Tag on Every Comeback Job (It's Not What You Think) [E215] · March 26, 2026 · 26 min
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