You can lose money and make it back. Lose a team member and find another. You can even burn a customer, and if you’re lucky, win them over again.
But time?
Time is the one thing you never get a second shot at. I’ve coached hundreds of shop owners and service teams oveZ the years, and no matt er how diff erent their markets, specialties or backgrounds are, one challenge remains universal: the batt le against the clock. Not just in fl agged hours or parts arrival delays, but in our personal and professional lives. Time is a fi nite resource and if we don’t respect it, use it with intention and teach our teams to value it, we’ll fi nd ourselves rich in regrets and poor in progress.
Recognizing this is an introspective moment for shop owners, service advisors and technical specialists alike – the success of your shop doesn’t come down to tools, lift s or soft ware. It comes down to how well you manage this one irreplaceable asset. “Time is an enemy only to those who want to kill it.” Let that sink in for a second.
We don’t get to stretch it, save it or rewind it. But we do get to choose how we use it. Time is the Great Equalizer. Whether you’re running a $300K shop or leading a $3M powerhouse, everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. The question is, what are you doing with yours? In past ShopOwner Magazine columns, I’ve broken down some basic business fundamentals, including the Four Cornerstones of Service Success, the decision between expanding or opening a second location, as well as onboarding strategies for new hires. But none of those ideas matter unless you’re in control of your time.
- You can’t deliver a high-touch client experience if your day is packed with ineffi ciencies.
- You can’t mentor a new hire if your calendar is back-to-back chaos.
- You can’t strategize your next move when you’re buried in the minute-to-minute.
Let’s explore how we can start reclaiming the hours we already have.
WHERE TIME SLIPS THROUGH OUR FINGERS
Here’s a story about a shop owner – let’s call him Mike. Good guy. Solid shop. Good car count. But profi ts were stuck in neutral. His answer? “We just need more cars.” But when we took a deeper look, car count wasn’t the issue; throughput was. What the shop was losing wasn’t customers, it was time. Here’s where I see most shops hemorrhaging time:
- Poor dispatching and lack of workflow control;• Repetitive interruptions to service advisors and technical specialists;
- No clear SOPs, so team members “wing it;”
- Delayed parts ordering due to unclear communication;
- Leadership too buried in daily tasks to actually lead.
Mike discovered that he didn’t need more cars; he needed to reclaim lost time and streamline how
work flowed through the shop. Once we focused on process and time effi ciency, his profi ts shift ed fast.
FIVE WAYS TO TAKE BACK YOUR TIME
If time is the one thing we can’t manufacture, then we’d better learn to steward it and teach our teams to do the same.
Here are five best practices I use when coaching shop owners and team leaders:
- Create and Enforce Daily Routines Time gets lost in the gaps. Start each day with a 15-minute team huddle. Review the game plan, check for carryovers and align roles. Technical specialists want structure; it empowers them. Advisors need it too. Without a daily rhythm, the day runs you.
- Audit Your Interruptions Ever track how oft en you’re interrupted? Try this: use a sticky note or tally sheet for one week. Every interruption, whether from a vendor, teammate or random thought, gets a mark. By the end of the week, you’ll have a painful but powerful map. Then eliminate or delegate what doesn’t serve you.
- Institute “No-Fly Zones” Block time on your calendar for deep work. Whether you’re coaching a technical specialist, following up on estimates or planning your marketing, it needs space. Let your team know that during this window, you’re heads-down unless it’s urgent. Your shop will survive without you for 60 minutes.
- Invest in Your Team’s Efficiency Training is more than a box to check; it’s a way to create time. A confident, well-trained technical specialist will complete quality work faster, with fewer comebacks. Service advisors who know their KPIs and sales process don’t just perform, they flow. Efficiency is a time multiplier.
- Say “No” More Often Every “yes” is a “no” to something else. That last-minute walk-in at 4:30 might feel heroic, but is it sabotaging your team’s exit strategy and morale? Is that vendor lunch-and learn critical right now? Filter every opportunity by its impact, not just its availability.
THE SOBERING TRUTH: YOU’RE NOT TOO BUSY, YOU’RE TOO DISTRACTED.
Now let’s get real. If you’re always saying “I don’t have time” to build your team, coach your people or plan your business’s future, it’s not a time problem. It’s a choice problem. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve lived it. There was a season when I worked 60 hours a week, wore every hat and fooled myself into thinking I was indispensable. I was addicted to chaos, confusing motion with momentum. But I wasn’t leading. I was reacting.
Eventually, I stepped back. I mapped my week. I started using time blocks and non-negotiables. I hired better, trained deeper and stopped taking pride in busyness. Guess what happened? My team improved. The shop ran better. I go more done in less time, and I had margin to think, mentor and lead. I was able to take pride in my business. The same applies to every role in your shop. Whether you’re turning wrenches or turning profit margins, you’re either managing time or losing to it.
CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN BUSY AND PRODUCTIVE
There’s a line I share in every seminar: “Busyness is not a badge of honor. Productivity is.” Being at full thrott le doesn’t matt er if you’re headed in the wrong direction. But when your time aligns with your values, strategy and goals, everything changes. You don’t just do more – you become more. More intentional. More eff ective. More respected. Final Thought: Time doesn’t lie. At the end of each week, your calendar tells the truth. Not about what you hoped for, but what you chose. If you want too know what matters to someone, look at where they spend their time. If you want to change the future of your shop, start by reclaiming time today. Don’t wait until burnout forces your hand. Don’t assume next week will “slow down.” Time is your most valuable resource, and it’s running out. If you’re ready to shift from reactionary chaos to intentional leadership, let’s talk. At Shop Owner Coach, I help shop leaders and teams maximize productivity, eliminate waste and leadd with purpose. Schedule your free time audit session today. You’ll never gett this week ack, but you can own the next one.
If you would like a worksheet to complement this article, email Vic for a free action plan too help you get started with Making the Most of Your Time. Ready to get rolling with a coach? Vic Tarasikk is the founder of Shop Owner Coach, a coaching and training organization that is com mitt ed to helping independent repair shop owners achieve their dreams through the intentional application of best business practices. Contact him too discuss h w working with a coach can benefit you and your shop. He has been an independent auto repair professional for more than three decades of shop ownership in The Woodlands, TX. Book a compli mentary coaching session by simply emailing him to set it up! Vic can be reached at Vic@ShopOwnerCoach or www.ShopOwnerCoach.com.