Finding a Better Way Forward

For most of my career, I did what a lot of shop owners do.

I worked harder. I stayed later. I solved the problems myself.

(This story was recently featured in ShopOwner Magazine)

When something broke, I fixed it.

When car count dropped, I worried about it.

When the books were a mess, I stayed up late trying to understand numbers I never wanted to own in the first place.

For a long time, that felt like responsibility.

Looking back, it was ownership without structure. I owned a job.

The Early Problem No One Talks About

Most shop owners don’t struggle because they’re bad technicians.

They struggle because they’re trying to do too many jobs at once.

Technician.

Manager.

Bookkeeper.

Marketing department.

HR.

Sales.

Early on, I was mentored by people who had already been through this cycle. They all said the same thing:

If you want more cars, hire a marketing company.

If the books are a nightmare, hire a great accountant.

If you’re stuck, get a coach.

That advice wasn’t wrong.

But it was incomplete.

Who Not How Changed Everything

At some point, I stopped asking how to solve every problem and started asking who.

Who is actually the best at this?

Who does this all day, every day?

Who has already made the mistakes I’m about to make?

That shift changed how I built businesses.

Instead of learning marketing, I found people who were great at it.

Instead of wrestling with accounting, I found people who lived in it.

Instead of trying to coach myself, I learned from people who had already scaled.

Then I gave them what they needed to do the job and got out of their way.

That’s leadership.

Not micromanaging every task.

Managing expectations, outcomes, and standards.

Where the Model Broke Down

As I grew and started coaching other shop owners, I saw a new problem.

Owners would hire a marketing company, an accountant, or an outside consultant. Each one was competent on their own. But they were operating from different playbooks.

The marketing company was doing what worked for restaurants, retail, or online brands.

The accountant was applying universal accounting logic that ignored how auto repair actually functions.

The coach was advising without controlling the execution environment.

Individually, nothing was wrong.

Collectively, it stalled growth.

The advice conflicted. The systems didn’t talk to each other. And the owner was stuck in the middle trying to referee professionals who didn’t operate inside the business.

That’s when it became clear that advice alone wasn’t enough.

Why Lotus Consulting Was Built the Way It Is

Lotus Consulting exists because I got tired of watching good businesses fail for avoidable reasons.

When we work with a shop, we don’t just point at problems. We bring the team that solves them.

We built companies around people who are exceptional at their craft.

Accounting.

Marketing.

Recruiting.

Operations.

Technician Training.

Leadership.

These companies don’t sit on the outside. They support our businesses directly, daily.

That alignment matters.

It means the accountant understands the realities of labor margins and shop workflow.

It means marketing is built around actual car count needs, not generic traffic metrics.

It means coaching is grounded in execution, not theory.

Everyone is playing from the same framework.

Why We Don’t Just Advise From the Sidelines

Another hard truth I learned is this:

Struggling shops rarely qualify for capital when they need it most.

Banks don’t lend on potential.

Lines of credit don’t show up for businesses without structure.

So we closed that gap.

When we come in, we don’t just recommend change. We fund infrastructure. We build the team. We put systems in place. We do the work alongside the owner.

We do business with people, not their past performance.

Because the truth is, once the structure changes, the business changes with it.

Leadership Is Not Doing Everything

I still like being in the shop.

I still respect the craft.

I still believe owners should spend time where they’re strongest.

For some, that’s being a technician.

For others, it’s leading people.

For others, it’s vision.

But no owner should be buried under work they’re not built to do.

Leadership is not controlling every task.

It’s setting standards, building the right team, and trusting execution.

That’s the difference between owning a job and building a business.

Why This Exists

This space is where I document what I’ve learned the hard way.

The mistakes.

The wins.

The moments when the old way stopped working.

It’s not a highlight reel.

It’s not theory.

It’s first hand experience from inside real businesses.

If you’re in that uncomfortable middle phase where the shop runs but you don’t, there is a better way forward.

I’ve lived it.

And I’ve built a team and solutions around it that solve these problems for us every single day.

Written by James Stephenson, Master Technician, Multi-Shop Owner, and Founder of Lotus Consulting.

James Stephenson actively owns and operates Auto Repair and Automotive Service Businesses across Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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