General auto repair shop business guide
Illustrative case · Three-bay independent mechanical repair shop with two technicians and an owner service adviser · United States · illustrative case, no city selected
Explore this business · Overview
A leased three-bay general repair shop with two technicians and an owner service adviser. Billed technician hours, parts margin and usable lift time must support the paid roster.
This general auto repair shop case requires $246,600 of illustrative opening funding, including $85,000 in cash. Modeled first-year sales are $491,738; the monthly ramp and paid roster determine how much of that becomes cash. Use the five linked guides to examine the assumptions before adapting them to a real project.
Observed SBA industry evidence
Lending activity in the broader category
| Recorded SBA category | NAICS codes | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Automotive Repair | 811111 | 813 | 938 | 1,023 |
General automotive repair does not isolate a three-bay shop, two-technician roster or specific service mix. These are loan records, not unique businesses, local customer demand or a count of newly opened businesses. Undisbursed commitments and canceled records are excluded.
Explore this industry’s amounts, terms, lenders and outcomes. Topic counts use the recent SBA-description grouping; the wider explorer uses its own explicitly listed editorial code sets.
Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, snapshot 30 June 2026. Recomputed from original records on 1 October 2026. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year in these files. Definitions and exclusions.
What this business actually does
This case is an independent three-bay general repair shop with two employed technicians and an owner who handles the service-adviser/management role. It earns from billed labor and the parts sold with that work. It excludes collision repair, paint, towing, dealership operations and a separate tire-retail business.
The central unit is the billed technician-hour. Paid attendance, time a vehicle occupies a bay and labor sold on an invoice are different measures. The model keeps paid technician-hours in payroll and limits billed hours to a productive share of that roster. The owner is not quietly added as a third mechanic.
Before signing a lease, assess the bay layout, lifts, electrical supply, access, parking and rules for automotive use. A shop can have spare floor space but insufficient skilled labor, or trained technicians but no usable bay because a parts-delayed vehicle is occupying it.
Illustrative operating case. Three-bay independent mechanical repair shop with two technicians and an owner service adviser. Existing leased automotive premises; routine mechanical service and diagnosis for passenger vehicles. No paint/body work, towing fleet or dedicated high-voltage battery repair. All figures are before income taxes. Costs and demand are planning assumptions unless explicitly identified as observed evidence.
Who this operating format fits
Use the case for a general mechanical repair format with a defined labor roster. Validate the local customer mix, diagnostic capability, parts supply and service-adviser workflow. The forecast needs a path to authorized, completed and collected work, not simply a count of vehicles passing the site.
The inputs that drive the case
| Input | Case assumption |
|---|---|
| Service bays | 3 |
| Available paid technician-hours / week | 80.0 |
| Maximum billed share of paid time | 82.0% |
| Mature billed technician-hours / month | 235.0 |
| Customer labor charge / billed hour | $135 |
| Parts revenue / billed hour | $90.00 |
| Cost of parts / billed hour | $55.00 |
| Shop consumables / billed hour | $6.00 |
| Available hours / bay / week | 40.0 |
| Payment processing / sales | 3.0% |
How to use the evidence
| Evidence | What it establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| SBA administrative records | Lending activity in the mapped broad industry. | Startup cost, demand for your site or your chance of approval. |
| BLS and operational sources | A dated occupation benchmark and specific equipment/regulatory context. | Local staffing offers, an installed quote or site approval. |
| Executed operating model | How the stated assumptions connect to capacity, profit, debt and cash. | Verified trading performance or a lender-approved forecast. |
The SBA panel above uses the broader recorded industry. The financing guide connects the illustrative request to eligible uses and evidence a lender may need. Loan records describe financed businesses; they are not a census of all businesses or a prediction of demand.
Evidence to gather for your own project
| Decision | Evidence to gather |
|---|---|
| Premises/equipment assessment | Permitted use, bay layout, lift installation and building-work scope. |
| Technician plan | Qualifications, paid roster, productivity assumptions and adviser responsibilities. |
| Work-order economics | Labor rate, repair mix, parts margin and authorization workflow. |
| Supplier/waste arrangements | Parts terms, special-order returns, used-oil and waste handling. |
| Monthly funding case | Opening investment, payroll ramp, debt service and lower-volume cash. |
The free business-plan library currently contains the two original pilot examples. A full narrative plan for this format is a later release; these guides do not claim to be a completed application.
Validate billed hours and accepted vehicle scope
Use repair-order samples with billed hours, parts gross profit, comeback work and bay occupation. Three bays do not create three continuously productive technicians.
Use actual observations to challenge the case before signing the lease or committing the fleet. The opening funding requirement is $246,600 under these assumptions. The material-cost review shows which major purchases remain unresolved.
Explore this business
This edition contains five planning guides. A full business-plan example for this format is not yet published.
Sources and scope
- Operating-case methodology · Checked 2026-10-01 · Authored illustrative assumptions and a 60-month model. Budget allowances, prices charged, demand, payroll, rent and financing are not observed local averages.
- SBA — 7(a) & 504 FOIA · Checked 2026-10-01 · June 30, 2026 snapshot. FY2023–FY2025 approval cohorts with PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status. Broad industry activity, not startup costs, search demand or approval probability.