From the Magazine: Working smarter and harder

Build your shop business to run the way you want it to run — but don’t let it run you

In this month’s column, I’d like to address a comment that was made in the October issue of CARS regarding my advice on how to run a shop.

I’m not here to tell anyone what they must do in their business; you started your business because you wanted to do it your way. If your way works for you and you’re happy, please continue doing things your way. What I’m here to do is simply provide an alternative option to “the way it’s always been done.”

My advice is for shop owners who are struggling to be profitable, are unhappy with the amount of time they spend in their business and are unable to see a future where retirement is a possibility.

It’s also for techs who would love to own their own business but are not interested in the life that most shop owners live: Working extremely long hours, feeling financial stress and missing out on having a personal life.

If you love this amazing industry but you’re struggling to make it work for you, I’m here to tell you that there is a way to provide great service, employ awesome people, make a great living for yourself, spend quality time with the people you love and have a saleable business when you’re ready to retire.

You can work 14 hours a day, seven days a week for 15 years and this could provide you with enough income to pay your bills, pay yourself and put some money away for retirement. But what was the trade-off? Time with your kids; time with your friends; your marriage; your health?

You can work 14 hours a day, seven days a week for 15 years and this could provide you with enough income to pay your bills, pay yourself and put some money away for retirement. But what was the trade-off?

Much like the commenter, I wore all the hats for a long time: service advisor, technician, manager, accountant and marketer. Despite participating in management training for the majority of those years and being told that the owner needed to work on the business, I still worked in it — a lot.

What I found is that I couldn’t do everything well, so all areas suffered — including my personal life. I lost friends, missed out on time with my family and, at one point, I almost lost my marriage. At times, I hated my business. It had taken so much from me and I couldn’t see a way out.

Once I stepped back from day-to-day operations to work on my business, my life started to become much more balanced. Yes, I still work a lot but it’s work I enjoy doing: Strategic planning, marketing and leading my team.

I work on my business every day; tweaking systems and processes to improve shop efficiency, shop culture and client service. The way I look at it, if we don’t continue learning, growing and improving, we’ll fall behind as the world changes. Just like vehicle technology changes every year, so do the way clients interact with us and the way employees want to be treated.

My business isn’t perfect and it never will be — that’s not a realistic expectation. However, just like I keep learning and growing, so do my employees. And we will continue to provide the best service we can to our clients, regardless of what changes come in the future.

Erin Vaughan is the owner of Kinetic Auto Service in Regina

This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of CARS magazine