What happened in the industry. What it means for your shop. What to do about it. 575 locations across 26 states. That's how big Sun Auto Tire & Service is right now — after buying 23 shops in Colorado in a single move this month. And that's just one company. I know — you've got cars stacked up and you're already short-handed. The last thing you need is more bad news about how big the chains are getting. But this isn't bad news. This might be the best hiring opportunity you've had in years. Here's what happened in the last 10 days that most shop owners won't hear about until it's too late to do anything about it. DRIVEN BRANDS IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE The parent company behind Meineke, Maaco, and Take 5 disclosed major accounting errors — across seven categories. Their stock dropped nearly 40%. They're restating financials going back to 2023. Eight major law firms have filed class-action lawsuits. Lead plaintiff deadline is May 8th. Every technician working at a Meineke, a Maaco, or a Take 5 right now can Google their employer's name and see lawsuits. Financial instability. Uncertainty about whether the place they work is going to be the same place in six months. That tech isn't updating their resume yet. But the seed is planted. And when they do start looking, they're not going to Indeed. They're going to look around — at shops in their area, at what comes across their Facebook feed, at who looks like a stable place to land. Will they find you? SUN AUTO'S COLORADO LAND GRAB Sun Auto entered Colorado by acquiring 23 DAS Drive Automotive Service locations — including Pride Auto Care shops in Denver, Aurora, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Parker, Thornton, and Longmont. Here's what happens when a roll-up acquires this many locations at once: culture shock. New corporate processes. New management layers. New comp plans that don't match what was promised when the tech took the job. Techs who went to work at a shop they liked woke up working for a corporation they didn't choose.

You search your customer database. Nothing. You check your repair orders. No match. You read the review again and your stomach turns — because the language is almost identical to another 1-star review that showed up just 7 days ago. This isn't an unhappy customer. This is an attack. That's exactly what happened to @Eddie Lawrence. Eddie's a member of this community and the owner of MTR in Colorado Springs — a shop he's been building for close to 30 years. Someone was smearing MTR's name with customers, vendors, and even his own team through a variety of methods including fake Google reviews. Eddie didn't just sit there and take it. He reached out to me and we fought back, got the reviews removed, and Eddie documented the entire process step by step so you'd know exactly what to do if this happens to you. I'm going to walk you through his playbook in a minute. But first — here's the thing most shop owners don't realize: Negative reviews aren’t just a sales problem. They’re a recruiting filter. If a tech sees you don’t respond, they don’t assume “busy.” They assume “drama.” And they move on. When a tech is thinking about applying to your shop — or when they've already applied and they're doing their homework on you — one of the first things they do is check your Google reviews. And when they see unresponded-to negative reviews? They ghost. I've seen it happen over and over again across hundreds of shops. A great candidate goes silent and the shop owner can't figure out why. Then I look at their Google profile and there are 3 negative reviews with zero responses sitting right there on page one. Silence is never neutral. It's always interpreted negatively. So here's the playbook. Whether you're dealing with an unhappy customer or an outright fraud, here's exactly how to handle negative reviews — ranked from best-case to worst-case scenario. THE REVIEW RESPONSE HIERARCHY 🥇 Best outcome: Get them to take the review down.

Most shop owners interview technicians the same way every other employer does. Sit down. Ask questions. Shake hands. Hope for the best. Then three weeks later they're wondering why the guy who "nailed the interview" can't balance a tire without fumbling around like he's never seen a wheel weight. You've heard me call it "all hat, no cattle." (hat tip to my Texas friends!) They talk a great game. They've practiced their answers. They might even sound like they wrote the ASE study guide. But talking about fixing cars and actually fixing cars are two very different things. That's why the best shops I know don't just interview. They invite candidates to work. And the ones who do it well make it feel like the easiest, most natural thing in the world. No pressure. No weird tests. Just one simple line: 👉"If you ever want to see what a day feels like here, we'll pay you for your time." That one sentence does three things at once. It shows respect. It removes risk. And it tells the technician everything they need to know about who you are as a shop owner. The shops that run even a one-day working interview? They hire faster. They hire better. And they almost completely eliminate the "bad hire" that looked great on paper. The ones who do a three-day working interview? Phenomenal results. Almost zero regrets. You get to see if they show up on time. Come back from lunch on time. Whether they actually know their way around a bay — or just know their way around an interview. Stop hoping your gut feeling is right. Let the work speak for itself. By-the-way... This works for techs on your bench too. Have you been keeping in touch with a tech for a year or two with no forward momentum? Shoot them a quick text with that simple sentence and see what happens. Here it is again so you don't forget: 👉"If you ever want to see what a day feels like here, we'll pay you for your time."

The two images below are ready for your shop's Facebook page. Pick the one that feels right. Just one. HERE'S THE DESCRIPTION TEXT TO GO ALONG WITH THE IMAGE "We don't work weekends. That's time for family and the things you love. We want our employee's lives to work inside and outside of the shop." Here's your move: → Post it on your FB business page → Boost it for $20 — 10-mile radius → Come back here and tell us what happened This is passive recruiting. Stop telling technicians your culture is great. Show them. Every employed tech within 10 miles scrolling on Sunday will see it. Let that sink in. 👇

Zappos does something most shop owners would call insane. During onboarding, they offer new employees up to $4,000 to walk away. No hard feelings. Just take the cash and leave. Their thinking? If someone takes the money, they were never committed anyway. Better to find out in week two than month six when they've poisoned your shop culture and you've wasted thousands on training. Here's what got me thinking... Most of you already have 90-day probationary periods. You're already doing the "trial" part. But what if you added a financial incentive for the uncommitted to self-select out? And there's another angle here that's unique to our industry: The toolbox. Some shops pay to move a tech's box in. What if you also committed to paying to move it out—no questions asked—if either party decides it's not a fit during that first 90 days? Think about it: A tech's toolbox can cost $500-$1,500 to move. That's real money. But what's the cost of a bad hire who sticks around because leaving feels too expensive? I genuinely don't know if this would work in our world. That's why I'm asking. Three questions for the group: 1. Would offering a "quit bonus" during probation attract better candidates (who see it as confidence) or worse ones (who see it as an easy payday)? 2. If you guaranteed to pay a tech's toolbox in AND out during the first 90 days, would that make you more attractive to committed A-players... or just make it easier for flakes to bounce? 3. What's the REAL cost of a wrong hire who stays too long versus one who leaves too soon? 👇Drop your take below. I want the honest answers, not the polite ones.