Bunch: Why So Few Shops Break $3 Million and Why That Number Matters More Than You Think - Part 1

Spring is officially around the corner, the time when all of us are thankful that winter is over, and the “busy season” is upon us. Knowing my next article is due soon, my mind wandered as I was landing at the Phoenix airport and watching the thousands of cars below driving around, doing the math in my head … If the average car on the road needs $2,000 worth of work every year, multiply that by the thousands of cars I can see … I ask myself why are so many shops not doing better? Why aren’t they busting at the seams and experiencing exponential growth?

I began to think of how I want to talk about this to the industry and it starts with one of the biggest myths of this industry—the idea that once you “make it” to a million in revenue, you’ve arrived. Everything just clicks into place, you’ve got a full schedule, a good team, and the money starts pouring in.

I’ve worked with enough shops to know that $1 million isn’t the top of the mountain, it’s the first ledge. And the real view doesn’t come until you hit three. That number, $3 million, is a line very few independent shops ever cross. It’s rare, it’s hard, it’s lonely, and it’s the line that separates the “I own a shop” crowd from the ones who’ve built something truly scalable.
So, here’s the question that’s been burning a hole in my brain for a while: Why do so few shops make it past that line? And more importantly, what are the ones who cross that line doing differently?

This column is the beginning of a six-part series where I’m going to explore exactly that. I’ll be talking to over 30 shop owners across the country who are doing over $3 million in annual revenue, not by luck, not through inheritance, and not because they landed a unicorn manager or technician. They built it, brick by brick, with all the bruises and breakdowns that come with real growth.

I want to know their stories. I want to know what they had to unlearn, what they stopped doing, and what they focused on when things got hard. I’m not looking for the easy answers. I want the real stuff. The out-of-the-box thinking. The hard-won truth that you only get when your payroll is $30,000 a week and you’re responsible for 20 families. Before I start sharing what they’ve told me, I want to lay the foundation for why this number, $3 million, matters so much in the first place.

Let’s start with what the data says. There are anywhere between 165,000 and 270,000 independent auto repair shops in the U.S., depending on how you define the smallest players. Most of them are small. According to recent surveys, nearly half fall below $1 million in annual revenue. Another large chunk lands somewhere between $1 million and $3 million. But only about 10% push past that third milestone, and that number might be generous.

Now, I don’t say that to make anyone feel bad. I say it because I’ve been there. I’ve fought that fight. I’ve had the months when we barely broke even and the ones where we booked six figures of profit the very next month. I’ve seen what it takes to climb that mountain and I’ve seen what makes people slide right back down.

The truth is that there’s a reason most shops never get past $3 million. It’s not because they aren’t good, or because they don’t care. It’s because getting to that level requires a completely different operating system—starting with the way you think as an owner.

I can tell you this for sure, the habits that get you to $750,000 won’t get you to $1.5 million. The things that work at $1.5 million will absolutely cap you before you hit three. There’s a breaking point, somewhere around the $2.2 million mark, where everything starts to feel like chaos. Your systems strain, your people stretch, you stop being the technician or the service advisor, and start having to lead like a CEO. Most shop owners never signed up for that.

However, the ones who make it, who really make it, they figure something out. Sometimes they burn it all down and rebuild it smarter. Sometimes they learn to let go. Sometimes they just get sick of being stuck and finally hire the right people to help them scale. And sometimes they realize the shop can’t grow until they do. That’s really what this series will be about.

If you’re expecting another checklist of shop management tips, you’re going to be disappointed. This isn’t going to be about “use this CRM” or “raise your labor rate.” This is about the owners who’ve gone past what most people think is possible. The ones who’ve built teams that run without them micromanaging every estimate. The ones who take vacations and come back to a business that didn’t fall apart while they were gone. The ones who’ve taken their shop from being a job to being a machine. Here’s an important point I want to make, it’s not about the number for the sake of the number.

Three million isn’t some magical figure that turns a pumpkin into a carriage. But it is a symbol. It’s a line in the sand. the place where you’re no longer playing small ball. It’s where you’ve figured out how to scale people, systems, and performance in a way that most owners never do. For most of the people I’ll be interviewing in the coming months, it came with a cost.
Some of them almost lost their marriages before they got their leadership act together. Some of them had to fire people they considered family. Some of them had to step back from the ego of “no one can do it like I can” and learn to trust their teams. But they all have something in common: they refused to settle. They built something that could stand even when they weren’t holding every piece in place. That’s what I want to understand better, and that’s what I want to share with you.

I’ve sat with hundreds of shop owners, I’ve facilitated groups, and I’ve run coaching sessions. I’ve watched people hit the wall at $1.8 million for five years straight and wonder why nothing’s changing. But when you get under the surface, it’s usually not about car count or ad spend. It’s about how they think, how they lead, and what they tolerate. That’s where this series is going. Straight into the mindset, the mechanics, and the missteps of the rare few who’ve crossed that elusive line.

In my next article, I’ll dive deeper into the first real choke point most shops hit on the way to $3 million—and how the ones who survive it navigate the shift from reactive chaos to intentional scale.

But for now, I’ll leave you with this ... If you’re reading this and thinking that this is the place where you are stuck, then pay attention. Because over the next few months, you’re going to hear from people who were exactly where you are, but who refused to stay there. They didn’t wait for permission or wait until the perfect hire showed up. They made hard decisions, they built systems, and they turned their shops into businesses that work.

If you’re one of the few who’ve already built a $3 million plus shop, I’d love to talk with you. I’m putting together a series of interviews with high-performing owners to get their unfiltered take on what really made the difference. No theory. Just real talk from people who’ve walked the walk.

If that’s you, email me and let’s have a conversation. Until next month, stay uncomfortable, I can tell you with 110% certainty, that’s where the growth really starts.