The Business Partner You Never Wanted: You Do the Work, They Control the Outcome

Who actually controls whether your collision shop makes money?You own the building. You pay the technicians. You buy the equipment. You warranty the repair. You deal with the customer when something goes wrong. You carry the liability.But someone else is telling you what parts to use, what they'll pay for those parts, how much markup they'll allow, how many labor hours the job should take, what labor rate they'll recognize, and what work they're simply not going to pay for.In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin and Jason go down the rabbit hole starting with CAPA certified aftermarket parts and quickly uncover a much bigger problem: shops are carrying the responsibility and the risk while surrendering more and more control over the economics of the repair.Kevin breaks down failed aftermarket parts, hidden labor costs, parts invoices, shrinking labor times, estimating systems, ADAS and sublet battles, unpaid administrative time, free estimates, paint and material margins, and why some collision shops that appear profitable may actually be losing money.And this isn't just about blaming insurance companies.Because the insurance company knows its numbers. Do you know yours?If you don't know what a repair actually costs your shop before you accept it, somebody else can hand you an estimate that looks like revenue while you're slowly working yourself out of business.It's time to stop asking, “What will the insurance company pay?” Start asking, “What does it actually cost us to perform this repair correctly and profitably?”Because you can't take back control of your shop until you understand exactly where you're giving it away.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/repair-shop-reckoning--6688688/support.