Increase your Kelso garage profit in 30 days

The one your team will keep up to date. The August 2026 comparisons of the main UK platforms cover Garage Hive, TechMan, Motasoft, AutoPilot, Auto Garage Network, Torq'd and GDS, and they differ less in features than in how much admin they push onto the front desk. Trial two for a month. Judge them on the reports that matter: sold hours per technician, margin per job and the debtors list, because those are what the framework works from.

Because a full workshop and a profitable month are different things. If the labour rate matches the garage down the road, every hour is sold at a loss, and if the job card says two hours but the tech took three, the difference is yours. Most busy-but-broke garages we see have a rate set once, hours never checked against the clock, and parts sold at cost plus a guess. Fix those and the same cars pay you.

If the rateable value is up to £12,000, yes, 100% relief, provided everything you occupy in Scotland totals under £35,000 rateable value, on Scottish Borders Council's figures; between £12,001 and £15,000 the relief is 25%. Bills went out from 12 May 2026, so check yours shows it. A workshop with a big yard can sit above the line; then the money is inside the business rather than at the council.

Between 7% and 20%, with smaller garages usually at 7% to 12%, on Bsness's April 2026 report on UK garage earnings. Where you sit in that range is decided inside the workshop: the labour rate, how many of the hours on the clock are actually sold, and the margin on parts. Garages that know those three numbers each week price with confidence; garages that don't tend to sell labour at a rate set years ago.

Because the whole trade can't: workshops across the UK are struggling to recruit younger mechanics, and the shortage is part of why repair prices have risen. A small garage competes on what a main dealer can't offer: a proper rate, a four-day week, training paid for, and an owner who fixes cars alongside them. Pay for the good ones out of a labour rate that covers it; a cheap rate and a good technician can't both survive.

More than most do. GarageMax's April 2026 labour rate check puts the UK independent average at £75.87 an hour and the cost-based rate most small workshops actually need nearer £112; it calls the gap the fear tax. Work yours out from real costs: technician wages, the bay, the equipment, insurance and the hours you actually sell in a week rather than the 40 on the clock. Then set the rate to that and stop apologising for it.

Between £350 and £1,500 a month net for a small garage, on Bsness's April 2026 tiers (£4,200 to £18,000 a year), rising to £1,250 to £5,300 for a mid-sized workshop. If yours is at the bottom of its tier with a full diary, the labour rate is the first place to look; if the diary has gaps, sold hours are. Either way the figure is decided by numbers you can read every Friday.

Between £500 and £3,500 a month plus VAT for one-to-one coaching, depending on the coach's experience, according to Alan Wick's May 2026 guide to UK coaching fees, and the bill runs for as long as the coaching does. The Profit Clarity Framework doesn't work that way: a fixed £1,495 + VAT for 30 days of work on your Kelso garage's real numbers, and nothing after that.

£1,495 + VAT, fixed, whatever the size of the garage. That covers the full 30-day diagnose-and-fix process on your Kelso garage: the labour rate, sold hours against clock hours, parts margin, MOT pricing, the rota and cash flow, with the changes implemented rather than left in a report, and leaves you with a more profitable garage. Most clients who commit to the framework and follow our recommendations see a full return on the fee within 90 days.

Yes. The busy weeks are exactly the ones we want to see working, so you stay on the ramps and we work around the diary. The onboarding call takes about an hour, gathering your paperwork takes another, and after that most of the effort is ours. A few hours a week from you, mostly at the start, and the fixes are made with you during the 30 days rather than left in a report.