AutoInc.

A Decrease font size. A Reset font size. A Increase font size. Rising healthcare costs, intense competition for skilled technicians, and the unique health risks associated with automotive work are making a strong employee benefits package more important than ever for attracting and retaining qualified employees. Industry research reinforces this trend.

A Decrease font size. A Reset font size. A Increase font size. We all know that healthcare costs can add up quickly. In 2025, the average family health insurance premium through an employer approached nearly $27,000 total, with workers contributing an average of $6,850 via payroll deductions. Comprehensive total medical costs for a family of four—including out-of-pocket costs, clinical care, and total premiums—reached roughly $35,119 according to the Milliman Medical Index. [1, 2, 3].

A service advisor gets buried, so you answer the phones. A technician needs a decision, so you stop what you are doing. A customer has a concern, a responsibility falls between two positions, or a process breaks down and once again, everything falls back on you. Stepping in occasionally is part of ownership. The problem begins when stepping in becomes the shop’s normal operating system.

Most auto shop owners didn’t start a business because they wanted to spend their days studying financial statements. They enjoy solving problems, serving customers, building a team, and watching their business grow. Unfortunately, that often means the financial side of the business gets less attention than it deserves. Financial Avoidance Over the years, I’ve discovered that many owners aren’t avoiding their numbers because they don’t care.

Most auto shop owners pay close attention to financial signals. We watch sales, car count, profitability, and cash flow because those numbers help us understand how the business is performing. What many owners miss is that long before a financial problem appears on a report, the business is usually sending leadership signals. Leadership signals are the clues that reveal what’s happening beneath the surface.

In 1956, the United States government created the Highway Trust Fund, a federal accounting mechanism funded through excise taxes, with the majority of its revenue coming from what is commonly known as the “gas tax.” The trust fund is divided into two separate accounts: the Highway Account and the Mass Transit Account. Most of the funding is allocated to state and local governments for infrastructure projects, including maintenance and expansion of the Interstate Highway System.

Most auto shop owners know they need to delegate more. They know the business cannot keep depending on them to answer every question, approve every decision, and carry every detail in their head. So, they try to hand things off. They ask someone on the team to call a customer, order parts, follow up on declined work, handle a vendor issue, or manage a recurring task. At first, it feels like progress. Then the work comes back. The team members have more questions. They wait for approval.

Auto shop owners are starting to recognize something important: Time doesn’t come back, by working harder. It comes back when the business stops depending on the owner for everything. That’s what many owners begin to see when they focus on time ownership. They audit their calendar They try to protect time They start noticing where interruptions come from And for a short time, things improve. But then something happens. The same questions come back. The same decisions land on their desk.

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The Federal Register recently published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) titled Accountability in Higher Education and Access Through Demand-Driven Workforce Pell: Pell Grant Exclusion Related to Other Grant Aid; and Workforce Pell Grants. iStock.com/Greggory DiSalvo Through this NPRM, the U.S. Department of Education is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the Federal Pell Grant Program.