You didn't buy a business. You bought a job you can't quit. 60-80 hours a week. Back on the tools. Writing estimates between oil changes. Putting out fires that never stop coming. Meanwhile... Your kid's game? Missed it. Date night? Rescheduled. Again. That "freedom" you imagined when you opened the shop? Nowhere to be found. Here's the brutal truth nobody told you: If you take a day off and everything falls apart... You don't own a business. You ARE the business. And that's not sustainable. It's not scalable. And it's slowly killing the thing you built. Your spouse knows it. Your body knows it. Deep down—you know it too. But here's what most shop owners miss: The answer isn't working harder. It's not another productivity hack. It's not "grinding until it works." The answer is building a team you actually trust. Not just bodies in bays. Technicians who show up. Who give a damn. Who can run the show when you're not there. Because when that happens? You're not just hiring help. You're buying your time back. You're buying fewer fires. You're buying the freedom you thought you were signing up for in the first place. So let me ask you: If your team was solid and fully staffed—how would your week look different? Drop your answer below. 👇

This post is a bit long but its full of hiring gold nuggets if you stay with me till the end. You might know that Technician Find has started doing comprehensive salary and benefits surveys for the shops we work with so they can see at a glance what their competition is offering their techs and how they stack up. We pull this data from the top job boards online and then aggregate the data into an easy to read chart. Then we run a statistical analysis of how our client shop's salary and benefits stack up so they can see where they are weak. This level of detail helps us write ads that get applications and it helps shops make offers that get accepted. Anyways, a client asked a great question this morning... To paraphrase he asked if there was a way to see what shops were actually paying their techs. NOT what they were offering online in job ads. You know me, I love a good challenge so I took a deep dive on Perplexity.AI to see what I could drum up. This is my reply and the interesting stuff I found in my deep dive: ______________________ Thanks for the detailed context. You're absolutely right that posted salaries only tell part of the story. Short of doing a W2 audit of each shop in your area there's no way to get an accurate read on real compensation numbers. That being said, there is a workaround of sorts. I did a deep search for actual compensation information in Perplexity.AI and received the output below. This output is based on supposedly factual data gathered from real shop owners and technicians via online sources where compensation is being discussed candidly. You can be the judge of its veracity but this data does reveal some interesting conclusions about how salary should be structured and listed for maximum impact. Let me know what you think. Take care, -Chris ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Based on recent placement data and industry compensation research, here's what strong technicians are actually accepting when they're recruited off-market versus what appears publicly.

Let me tell you a quick story. A few months back, I got a text from Jeff Lee. He and his wife Amy own J&R Service Center—three shops, including a motorsports division. His message? "That ad got five responses in one day. Between 15 and 30 years of experience. You might wanna spread that around, bud. It definitely hits the buttons." Two minutes later, another text: "Two more just came into the inbox. That's seven. Over 10 years experience." Now look—that doesn't happen every day. That's an outlier for sure. But here's what's NOT an outlier: Ads that stand out get responses. Ads that look like everyone else's get ignored. Go search Indeed right now. Type in "automotive technician in [your city]" You'll see 380+ jobs that all look EXACTLY THE SAME. Same boring headlines. Same "requirements first" structure. Same invisible, forgettable copy. Meanwhile, the techs you actually want? They're scrolling past all of it. So I put together something special for you. Inside the classroom, you'll find: → A 16-minute video walkthrough showing you exactly how the ad that got those 7 responses was built—section by section → The actual swipe-and-deploy template you can customize for your shop → A custom AI tool (Mini Travel Brochure) that writes the relocation section if you're open to hiring outside your area → Another AI tool (Tech Ad Tuner) that diagnoses what's wrong with your current ad and shows you exactly how to fix it Your ad is usually the first impression a technician has of your shop. It's the highest-leverage thing you can work on if you're serious about attracting real talent. Go grab these tools and write something that makes a tech stop scrolling. 📍 Find it all in the classroom under "Grab a technician ad template that works!" Remember—techs aren't reading every word. They're scanning. They're deciding in seconds whether you're worth their time.

You just haven’t said the number out loud. So let me help. Take your ARO. Multiply by how many cars that bay could move per week. Multiply by 4. That’s what’s bleeding out of your shop every month. 🔥 And for what? Another week of hoping the right guy applies? “We’re booked 2-3 weeks and still not hitting our numbers.” Yeah—because you’re saying no to work while your equipment sits cold. Here’s what I’ve seen after talking to hundreds of shop owners: The ones who stay stuck treat hiring like another line item. The ones who break through treat it like the $20K–$40K++/month problem it actually is. Which camp are you in? Drop your number in the comments. What’s that empty seat really costing you? Be honest. The math doesn’t lie. If you’re ready to do more than just talk about it—I’ve got something that’ll help. Just ask.

Jim Farley thinks America has a skilled labor shortage problem. I think Ford has a humanity problem. A few days ago, Ford's CEO went on a podcast lamenting that they can't fill 5,000 mechanic positions despite offering $120,000 salaries. He blamed it on everything from lack of trade schools to generational work ethic. Let me translate what's really happening: Ford is discovering what happens when you treat human beings like "employee 389" for decades. (Yes, that's how Farley literally referenced his grandfather who worked there.) See, Ford thinks this equation still works: Big Money + Big Brand = Automatic Talent Magnet. Meanwhile, independent shops with a fraction of their recruiting budget are stealing their best technicians. How? They remembered something Ford forgot: Technicians are humans first, workers second. Here's what Ford's $120K can't buy: - Direct access to decision makers - Not 7 layers of management who've never turned a wrench - Being seen as a craftsman - Not employee #12,847 in the meat grinder - Flexibility when life happens - Not "submit form HR-7B for your kid's baseball game" - Input that matters - Not suggestions that die in committee meetings - Recognition for excellence - Not the same raise as the guy who shows up drunk The best part? Farley admits they agreed to a 25% pay bump over 4 years with the UAW. Translation: They'll throw money at anything except treating people with dignity. I've placed hundreds of technicians. The ones earning $110K at independent shops that take care of them? They laugh when dealers wave $120K at them. Why? Because they've learned what shop owners are starting to realize: Culture and lifestyle eat compensation for breakfast. Yes, you need competitive pay. But Ford's panic proves what I've been saying for years: The technician shortage isn't the real problem. The humanity shortage is. While Ford scrambles to understand why money isn't working anymore, smart independents are building something money can't buy: