How Much Does an Auto Repair Business Coach Cost?

With us, working with a business coach who has owned an auto repair shop costs $997, paid once, in Auto Superstars Academy, or $3,255 a month in The Engine Room. If you only need one problem fixed, our single-problem programs cost between $29 and $197, paid once. What you should spend comes down to the size of the problem you need fixed, and the right spend is always smaller than that problem.

If the price is what's stopped you asking, you're in good company. The fear of wasting money is one of the things we see stop auto repair shop owners putting their hand up, and it usually comes from having worked very hard for every dollar they've got.

Whether you call it a mechanics workshop, an automotive workshop or a garage, and whether you're in Brisbane, Auckland or Manchester, the maths below works the same way.

What does each level of help cost?

Most owners picture one big number. We have three levels, and the right one depends on what you need fixed and how big your shop is.

One problem, one program, paid once. If one thing is costing you, fix that thing first. These programs are online and self-paced, with instant access, at the prices on each program page today:

• Superstar Service Advisor, $197 + GST. Trains your service advisor, or service writer if you're in the United States, to present the work, hold the price and convert the inspection.
• Ultimate Team Advantage, $197. Trains your whole team, including what a $600 job actually leaves the business once parts and wages come out.
• No More Bad Hires, $29. A complete recruitment system, so you stop hiring the wrong people.
• The 4 Day Work Week, $197. The system for moving your shop to a four-day week without losing profit or customers.

Building the foundations, under $50,000 a month. Auto Superstars Academy costs $997, paid once. I hold a firm line on this one. If you're not yet cracking $50,000 months, jumping into our top coaching program would do more harm than good. We're not here to set you up to fail.

Changing the whole business, over $50,000 a month. The Engine Room costs $3,255 a month. It includes one-on-one coaching on demand, group sessions over Zoom and three two-day intensives a year, and it's built for owners aiming to add $250,000 or more within 18 months while working toward 20% net profit.

Both coaching programs are delivered online, so you can join from anywhere, and every coach on our team is a current or former auto repair shop owner. Over 13 years we've worked with more than 10,000 auto repair shops across five countries and generated more than $175 million in additional profit for our clients.

How do I know if coaching will pay for itself?

Start with the problem, not the price. On the podcast, Dean put it like this: "the size of the investment is actually determined by the size of the problem you need to solve." If you're leaking a million dollars a year through poor productivity and sloppy systems, investing $100,000 to fix it is a good return. If you've got a $50,000 problem and you're investing $50,000 to solve it, maybe not.

An example, with round numbers. These are my figures for illustration, not a real client. Say your shop turns over $70,000 a month, which is $840,000 a year. Between them, your technicians work two hours a day that never make it onto an invoice. That's ten hours a week. At a labour rate (labor rate, if you're in the US) of $150 an hour, that's $1,500 a week. Across 48 working weeks, it's $72,000 a year in profit that never reaches the business.

That's the size of one problem. Put any price beside $72,000 a year and the decision gets a lot simpler. A $197 program that recovers a small part of it pays for itself within weeks. A coaching program earns its place when it fixes more than it costs inside the year. A shop turning over $70,000 a month is past our $50,000 line, so the coaching program built for it is The Engine Room, with one-on-one coaching on demand from a coach who is a current or former auto repair shop owner. If your biggest problem turns out to be worth $5,000 a year, coaching is the wrong spend for you right now, and a single-problem program or our free material is the right one.

There's a second test, and it's the one we use on ourselves. At The Workshop Whisperer, we allow up to 10% of our annual revenue for working with our own coach. Almost every year we don't spend that much. We allow it because we know the return. For the shop in the example, 10% would be $84,000 a year. Treat it as a ceiling, and notice how far below it most single-problem fixes sit.

Before you pay anyone, check who you're paying. Dean and I both worked with general business coaches before The Workshop Whisperer, in separate businesses, and neither of us got the result we were after. As Dean says, the coaching industry is totally unregulated, and a healthy lack of trust is the right place to start. Dean is a mad keen golfer, and he puts it this way: "If I want to improve my golf swing, I don't go and see a swimming coach." Ring the coach and put them on the spot. What results have they got for shops like yours? Who does the program work for, and who doesn't it work for?

I wrote it in my book Turbo Charged: "Be prepared to pay to work with a mentor, knowing that any investment you make should be returned to you through increased profits many times over." That still holds, and so does the other half of it. Someone once asked in our free Facebook group, Your Profitable Auto Repair Shop, whether The Engine Room was worth it. Our own clients answered: "don't think that just by paying the fee, your business will be magically fixed." The return comes from the work you do after you pay, and we'll come and find you if you start to hide.

What does it cost to keep waiting?

Every owner who asks what coaching costs is weighing it against doing nothing, and doing nothing usually costs more.

Laura and her husband Barry run their business in Queenstown, New Zealand. She first came to one of our sessions as a guest in 2020, wanted to talk to us more, and then the fear kicked in. "Can I actually commit to this now?" It took her a year to say yes. When she did, she went at everything, implement, implement, implement. Looking back, her words were: "if I knew then a year earlier what I found out I would have ... we would be a year ahead in progress." Five years on, they own their workshop premises in Queenstown, where industrial property prices are incredibly high.

Alberto Magistro runs Autodelta, an Italian car specialist in Malaga, Perth. He took over his dad's workshop and kept running it the way his dad had. Two years in, he was looking at the figures and saying, "Well, we're busy, but the figures aren't reflecting what's going on in the workshop." Every day was "almost like flying blind". He's honest about what waiting longer would have changed: "I think if I didn't join the program, I'd probably be doing the same thing now." He's still new to the program, and he's already noticed "the bank account is a lot more healthier than it was two years ago."

Bek and Trent came in as a team of three at Busselton Automotive Repairs in Western Australia, with no systems, no procedures and parts priced at recommended retail. Bek was pregnant with their first child. Five years later they've bought their premises and moved to a four-day week.

Cassie and Josh had been in business for years before they joined The Engine Room. Looking back on ten years in business, Josh's verdict was blunt: he'd been "winging it". While they were deciding, they visited a generic business coach, and chose us because of the industry-specific numbers. In their first six months their bottom line rose by roughly 50%. Over the next 12 months it rose by another 75% on top of that. Josh's advice to anyone sitting on the fence: "any small investment in the right direction would reap dividends well above what you'd expect."

Watch this eight-minute episode if you've been sitting on the fence: I talk about what it costs you to keep waiting, and why messy action beats doing nothing perfectly.

Questions auto repair shop owners ask about what a business coach costs

How much does a business coach for an auto repair shop cost?

With us, a single-problem program costs between $29 and $197, paid once. Auto Superstars Academy is $997 once, and The Engine Room is $3,255 a month. Which one is right depends on your monthly turnover and the size of the problem you need fixed.

Is coaching worth it if my shop is under $50,000 a month?

Yes, at the right level. Our top coaching program would be the wrong place to start, which is why Auto Superstars Academy exists. It builds the foundations first, with one-on-one coaching on demand from a coach who has owned an auto repair shop.

How much of my revenue should I spend on coaching?

Let the size of the problem set the budget. In our own business, we allow up to 10% of annual revenue for our coach and rarely spend that much. If the investment is close to the size of the problem, it's the wrong investment.

How long does coaching take to pay for itself?

It depends on the size of the leak and on whether you do the work. Cassie and Josh lifted their bottom line by roughly 50% in their first six months, and the return came from what they did after they paid, not from the fee.

Why not use a general business coach? Isn't it cheaper?

A general business coach can sometimes cost less up front. What they can't give you are the numbers built for this industry, like where your gross profit should sit or what your technicians should bill. Cassie and Josh saw a generic coach before they joined us, and chose us for exactly that reason.

Where to start tonight

Put a dollar figure on your biggest problem. Grab last month's numbers and pick the one thing you know is costing you most, whether that's hours worked and never charged, a labour rate that hasn't moved in years, or work your customers said no to. Work out roughly what it costs you in a week, then multiply it by 48 working weeks, the same as the example above. Write that yearly figure on a piece of paper and keep it beside you.

That number is your budget ceiling and your measuring stick. Any program, coach or course, ours included, has to fix more than that number costs you, or it isn't worth the money.

Related questions:

• What Results Do Auto Repair Shops Get From Business Coaching?
• Is Business Coaching Worth It for an Auto Repair Shop?
• How Do I Stop Winging It in My Auto Repair Shop?

See what changes for the people who do this work. On our Our Clients page, auto repair shop owners, named and on camera, tell you what actually changed in their shops and their numbers.

More on this topic: all Performance articles.

Whenever you're ready, here's how we can help.

• Not ready to spend anything yet? Start free with Shop Talk, a 30-day reset for auto repair shop owners on our YouTube channel, and our free resources for auto repair shop owners.
• Is the person at your front counter giving away the price? Superstar Service Advisor trains your service advisor to present the work and hold the price, without more cars or more hours from you. $197 + GST, once.
• Does your team not understand how the business makes money? Ultimate Team Advantage trains your whole team, every employee you'll ever hire. $197, once.
• Keep hiring the wrong people? No More Bad Hires is a complete recruitment system. $29, once.
• Want a four-day week without losing profit? The 4 Day Work Week shows you how to move your shop across without losing customers. $197.
• Running an auto repair shop under $50,000 a month? Auto Superstars Academy builds the foundations, with one-on-one coaching on demand from a business coach who is a current or former auto repair shop owner.
• Over $50,000 a month? The Engine Room changes how the whole business runs, with one-on-one coaching on demand, group sessions over Zoom and three two-day intensives a year.