By Hunt Demarest & Special Guest Brian Rooney

If there’s one path I see over and over again in this industry, it’s this: a technician becomes a shop owner—often without any real roadmap for what comes next.

That’s exactly what happened with Brian Rooney, a shop owner I recently sat down with. He bought his shop in 2019, right before COVID hit. Like a lot of owners, he went from turning wrenches to suddenly being responsible for everything—sales, profit, team performance, and yes… the numbers.

And like most, he didn’t start with a deep understanding of any of it.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Brian said something that really stuck with me: “I didn’t even know what questions to ask.”

That’s where a lot of shop owners get stuck. It’s not that they don’t care about their numbers—it’s that no one ever showed them what actually matters. Gross profit? Effective labor rate? Parts margins? These aren’t things most technicians are trained on.

So what do you do? You start small.

Brian didn’t overhaul everything overnight. He focused on one metric at a time—first billed hours, then parts margins, then labor efficiency. Over time, those small improvements stacked up into real progress.

The Game-Changer: Communication

But here’s where things really shifted—and it wasn’t a financial tool or a new system.

It was communication.

Brian realized that his team couldn’t hit targets they didn’t even know existed. So he started sharing the numbers. Not just the goals, but the why behind them.

Instead of saying, “We need to do better,” he started saying:

• “We’re aiming for $100,000 this month.”
• “Here’s how that breaks down—labor, parts, tires.”
• “Here’s how we track it.”

And something interesting happened…

The team bought in.

When people understand the goal—and how their role impacts it—they start to care. They start asking questions. They start tracking progress themselves.

That’s when you stop managing and start leading.

Expectations Drive Performance

One of the biggest issues I see in underperforming shops is a lack of clear expectations.

Owners will say, “My guys just aren’t producing.”

Okay—what’s the target?

Silence.

If your team doesn’t know the number, they can’t hit it. It’s that simple.

Brian built his entire approach around this idea: set clear expectations, communicate them consistently, and reinforce them when needed. Not with lectures—but with reminders and accountability.

And when things dip? It’s not about blame. It’s about going back to the process.

It’s Not About Pay Plans

Another interesting takeaway—Brian runs an hourly shop. No flat rate for technicians.

And guess what? They still perform.

Because motivation doesn’t just come from compensation—it comes from clarity, consistency, and culture. If your team understands the expectations and believes in the process, you don’t need to rely on one specific pay structure to drive results.

Start With This

If Brian could go back to day one, he said he’d do one thing differently:

Communicate expectations to his team from the start.

Not six months in. Not after a bad month.

Day one.

Because when everyone is aligned—on goals, on process, on purpose—that’s when a shop really starts to take off.