About this episode

Hunt Demarest discusses the importance of tracking gross profit dollars per hour sold in the auto repair business to enhance profitability.

Thanks to our partners Promotive and Wicked File Would you swap out wiper blades for $500? Probably yes. Would you replace an entire engine for $500? Absolutely not. But here’s the real question: what if the math behind why you said yes to one and no to the other is the same math that’s silently costing your shop thousands of dollars every month? I In this episode, Hunt Demarest breaks down one of the most powerful and most overlooked metrics in the auto repair business: gross profit dollars per hour sold. Most shop owners track sales, gross profit, and hours. But very few ask the one question that ties them all together: how fast are you making that money? Inspired by the late Aaron Stokes of Shop Fix Academy, Hunt makes the case that the speed of your profitability, not just the size of it, is what separates thriving shops from ones that are always busy but never ahead. Hunt walks through real examples that make this impossible to ignore — including why tire shops with terrible margins can still be wildly profitable, and how a $40 cabin air filter can outperform a $600 water pump job. Whether you're setting targets, pricing jobs, or wondering why a record sales month still left…

People in this episode

Host: Hunt Demarest

Topics covered

• profitability metrics
• auto repair business
• gross profit dollars per hour
• shop management
• pricing strategies
• business performance

Keywords

• profitability
• auto repair
• gross profit
• shop performance
• pricing
• metrics
• business strategy

Sponsors

Promotive, Wicked File

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tekmetric, Shop-Ware

Products: cabin air filter, water pump, wiper blades, engine

More episodes of Business By The Numbers

• How Cutting Costs Doesn't Always Mean Keeping More Profit [E221] · May 7, 2026 · 29 min
• No Cash, No Car: The Rule That Could Save Your Shop From Fraud [E219] · April 23, 2026 · 32 min
• The Hidden Volatility Killing Auto Repair Shop Profits: The 3 Category Framework That Fixes It [E218] · April 16, 2026 · 24 min
• AI, Agents and the Death of Mundane Work: Tekmetric's COO on the Future of Shop Software [E217] · April 9, 2026 · 43 min
• Stop Spray and Pray: The Marketing System Helping Auto Shops Fill Bays in 2026 [E216] · April 2, 2026 · 44 min
• Discover the Shocking Hidden Price Tag on Every Comeback Job (It's Not What You Think) [E215] · March 26, 2026 · 26 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Business By The Numbers podcast page.