How Do I Stop Working 70 Hours a Week in My Auto Repair Shop?

You stop working 70 hours a week by fixing your pricing first, then making running the business somebody's actual job, then booking the week around the hours you want. Working harder won't get you out, because underneath those hours, almost every time, is a mechanics workshop that is flat out and charging too little, with nobody running the business.

That's the order Sammy and Zac McPherson followed at McPherson Mechanical in Mount Gambier, South Australia. They went from 60 to 70 hours a week to 38 to 42, and paid off pretty much all of their debt within nine months. Here's how they did it, in their own words.

Why are you working 70 hours and still short of money?

Sammy and Zac went in flying, much to the nerves of their family. They're both a little bit competitive, and they like being told they can't do things. In their words, "We're going to give this a really red hot go."

The work came, but the money didn't keep up with it.

"We'd been struggling with money, pricing. We were way oversubscribed, way underpriced, and we were digging a hole, like a big hole really quickly."

Then everything at home piled on at once. Looking back, this is how they put it: "If you were to look at last year, it was pretty much 20 hours a day, seven days a week."

And then came the night most auto repair shop owners will recognise.

"It got to one night where I was just like, 'I can't do this anymore.' And I phoned the Workshop Whisperer the next day, and we were signed up by the next morning. It felt like the universe was giving us every reason to give up."

Plenty of auto repair shop owners will know that picture: a full car park, a diary booked out, and a bank balance going the wrong way. When every job is sold for less than it costs you to do, each extra one digs the hole a little deeper.

What did Sammy and Zac change to cut their hours?

They made three changes, and the price came first.

1. They fixed their pricing first

"When I first joined and started changing pricing, that was the first major thing that we did."

It wasn't easy at home. Zac was the one who pushed back, and his worry will be familiar to plenty of you:

"Zac was really reluctant. A lot of comparative stuff going on, like, 'This workshop down the road charges this much, and they do this, and how can we do that? That's not okay.'"

That's the most common fear I hear from new clients. The shop down the road doesn't know your costs, and you don't know theirs. You can see the cars in their yard. You can't see their bank balance.

The conversation took time, and it went their way. "Slowly through conversations, we've got to the point now where I can say, 'This needs to be this, and Zac, that's what it is, okay?' And he's completely on board."

Financially, it has been a huge change. "We've pretty much paid off all of our debt within the first nine months of being in Workshop Whisperer."

2. Sammy stepped into the CEO role

Sammy puts it plainly: "I knew there was a missing piece to the puzzle." That piece was putting on what she calls her CEO pants.

"It was putting on those big girl pants and being like, 'This is actually my job, and I am worthy of the CEO role.'"

This is the change that holds the others in place. A new price only sticks when someone owns it and says "that's what it is" when the doubts creep back in. While running the business is nobody's job, the hours fill up with everything else.

She remembers the moment she said it out loud: "We stood on the beach, and I just said to Zac, 'We're worthy of this. We deserve this. We work so hard.'"

3. They built shorter hours into the week on purpose

With the price and the running of the business sorted, they changed the week itself.

"The other thing we introduced was 6:00 to 3:00 on a Friday, so if they want to go away for the weekend, they go away. And we purposely do not book enough work in on Fridays that it rolls into late in the day."

The second half of that is what makes it work. They book less work on a Friday on purpose, so the early finish actually happens and nobody is left choosing between a customer's car and the weekend.

It changed the team as well. "The change in the work ethic, the commitment to work, the productivity in those hours... has just been phenomenal." Sammy's read on why: "They've got an exciting goal to look forward to towards the end of the day. Who doesn't want to finish early?"

How much did their week actually change?

Put the before and the after side by side.

• Hours: "We've gone from pretty much 60 to 70 hours a week, in excess of that, down to 38 to 42 hours."
• Weekends: from seven days a week to "This year, I reckon I've done one weekend. That's it."
• Debt: from "digging a hole, like a big hole really quickly" to "pretty much paid off all of our debt within the first nine months."
• Home: "Just the change in our home dynamics from having Zac at home instead of just flitting in and out has just been huge, absolutely huge."

Of the four, the change at home is the one I'd want you to take in, because that's what the shorter week gave them. And notice they didn't cut the hours first and hope the money would hold. The shorter week only worked because the price and the running of the business were already sorted.

How do you do the same in your own shop?

If you're working those hours in your mechanics workshop, here's how each of Sammy and Zac's changes maps to your own.

• "Way oversubscribed, way underpriced." A full diary and an empty bank account are a pricing problem far more often than a workload problem. Start with Why Am I Busy but Not Making Any Money?
• Fixing the pricing. Work your labour rate out from your own costs and the profit you want to make, then put it through. You don't announce it, you do it. Read How to Raise Your Labour Rate Without Losing Customers.
• "This workshop down the road charges this much." If Zac's worry is yours, How Do I Stop Customers Price Shopping My Workshop? walks through why the cheap shop isn't your benchmark.
• Stepping into the CEO role. A business that runs without you starts with someone choosing to run it. See How Do I Build an Auto Repair Shop That Runs Without Me?
• The 6:00 to 3:00 Friday. A shorter week is a booking decision as much as a staffing one. How to Move to a 4 Day Work Week Without Losing Profit shows you how to do it with the numbers intact.

Sammy and Zac made these changes as Workshop Whisperer clients. If you'd like a business coach beside you while you make them, that's what The Engine Room is for.

Questions auto repair shop owners ask about working long hours

How do I stop working 70 hours a week in my auto repair shop?

Look at your pricing before you look at your roster. If you're flat out and still short of money, every extra hour is being sold too cheaply. Fix the price, then decide who in the business owns running it, then set the hours you want and book the work to fit them.

Will I lose customers to the garage down the road if I put my prices up?

That was Zac's fear too. You can't see the cheap shop's costs or its bank balance, so its prices tell you nothing about what yours should be. Sammy and Zac changed their pricing first, and paid off pretty much all of their debt within the first nine months.

Do I need a business coach to cut my hours?

Some owners make these changes on their own. A business coach gives you someone outside the shop who has been where you are, to help you set the price, hold it and see where your time is going. For Sammy and Zac, that call came the day after it had all become too much.

What can you do tonight?

Get a pen and write down the hours you actually worked last week, including the nights at the kitchen table doing the books. Then write down when your labour rate was last set, and how. If the answer is "a while ago" and "by looking at the shop down the road", you've found where to start.

If the hours are the part that hurts most, our free 4 Day Work Week ebook shows how auto repair shop owners build a shorter week without losing profit.

Related questions:

• How to Work Out What Your Labour Rate Should Be
• What Is Effective Labour Rate and How Do I Calculate It?
• How Should I Charge for Diagnostics?

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. Sammy and Zac are one of them.

More on this topic: all Pricing 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.
• Working every hour and still digging the hole? The Engine Room is our coaching program for auto repair shop owners. It changes how the whole business runs, from your pricing to your team, delivered online with one-on-one coaching on demand from a business coach who is a current or former auto repair shop owner.
• 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.