About this episode

Hunt Demarest explores the key differences between the top and bottom performing auto repair shops based on the 2026 Auto Shop Benchmark Report.

Thanks to our partners Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, and Overdryve Is your shop growing in revenue but shrinking in profit? Are you convinced that raising your labor rate is the fastest path to the bottom line — only to discover that your highest-charging competitors are losing money? And what if the real difference between a shop that keeps 35 cents of every dollar and one that loses money has nothing to do with location, specialty, or size? In this solo deep-dive, Hunt Demarest, CPA at Paar Melis & Associates, walks through the 2026 Auto Shop Benchmark Report — specifically, what separates the top 10% of shops from the bottom 10%. It's about the metrics that actually matter: how much of every sales dollar ends up in the owner's pocket, why overhead is silently eating 42 cents on every dollar in struggling shops, and why the shops doing the most are almost always doing it with the fewest people. Hunt strips the report down to what you need to know — and what to do about it. Whether you're a two-bay shop trying to crack profitability or a multi-location owner wondering why growth keeps outrunning your margins — this episode is essential listening. What You'll…

People in this episode

Host: Hunt Demarest

Topics covered

• auto repair industry
• profitability
• business metrics
• shop performance
• benchmarking

Keywords

• auto repair
• profit margins
• labor rates
• overhead costs
• shop performance

Sponsors

Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, Overdryve

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Paar Melis & Associates

More episodes of Business By The Numbers

• Debt-Free, Cash-Broke: The Reserve Mistake Nobody Warns You About [E231] · July 16, 2026 · 23 min
• The 4 P&L Mistakes Quietly Sinking Your Shop's Profit [E230] · July 9, 2026 · 24 min
• The IRS Flagged His Return: Here's the Playbook That Won the Case [E226] · July 2, 2026 · 28 min
• Same Labor Rate, Different Profit: What the 2026 Benchmark Report Reveals About Where You Do Business [E228] · June 25, 2026 · 34 min

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