.elementor-widget-text-editor{font-family:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif;font-weight:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-weight );color:var( –e-global-color-text );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap, .elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-default .elementor-drop-cap{color:var( –e-global-color-primary );border-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );} When Ken and Staci Marcy looked around their 18-bay automotive repair shop in Arizona, they saw a business that was busy, profitable in stretches, and completely unmoored from real numbers. All Town Auto Fleet Repair had built a loyal customer base, but the books ran on cash-basis habits, nobody could say for certain what any given job actually cost to deliver, and a family succession question was quietly building in the background. A Busy Shop Running on Guesswork All Town Auto was a single, high-volume location, and by most outward measures it looked healthy. But underneath, daily and weekly operations weren’t being tracked consistently, and because the accounting was cash-based, the Marcys had limited visibility into their true gross margins. Cost of Goods Sold didn’t accurately reflect what labor and parts were really costing the business job by job, which meant pricing and profitability decisions were being made partly in the dark. Leadership structure was another soft spot. Roles between ownership and management weren’t clearly defined, there were no standardized position descriptions, and technicians and shop leaders weren’t being measured against consistent performance metrics. Onboarding and off-boarding had no formal process, and issues like rework and “comeback” repairs weren’t being tracked in any structured way. On top of all of that, the Marcys were trying to evaluate future growth and expansion opportunities while working with limited capital — a difficult combination even for a well-run shop. Then there was the family dimension. The Marcys’ son worked in the business but wasn’t aligned with its long-term direction; he wanted to strike out on his own and open an independent repair shop. That created a delicate leadership and succession question that had to be handled with as much care as the financial ones. Bringing in Financial Discipline In April 2017, the Marcys engaged Waters Business Consulting Group to bring financial discipline, operational clarity, leadership alignment, and improved profitability to All Town Auto. The engagement started with the basics: daily and weekly reporting requirements were put in place for shop leadership so that performance could actually be tracked in real time instead of discovered after the fact. From there, the team guided All Town Auto through the transition from cash-based to accrual-based financial visibility, and reorganized Cost of Goods Sold so it finally reflected the real economics of labor and parts. Position descriptions were rebuilt around the roles themselves rather than the individuals filling them, and technician and management performance metrics were tied directly to accountability. Leadership responsibilities — including shop-level P&L ownership — were clarified so everyone knew what they were accountable for and to whom. With better numbers in hand, Waters Business Consulting Group built financial forecasts and updated P&L models to support smarter decision-making, and ran a feasibility analysis on the expansion opportunities the Marcys had been weighing. Standardized onboarding and off-boarding protocols were created to reduce the operational risk that comes with staff turnover in a busy shop. Handling the Family Transition Perhaps the most delicate piece of the engagement was helping the Marcys and their son work through an equitable transition plan that would let him pursue his own path without damaging the family relationship or the business. That work paid off: their son went on to open North Mountain Auto Repair, which remains in operation today. The Results The shift from reactive, cash-based operations to disciplined, accrual-based management gave the Marcys something they hadn’t had before: real visibility into their gross margins and the confidence to make informed decisions about expansion and capital allocation. Reporting became consistent and reliable, leadership accountability strengthened at every level of the shop, and standardized processes reduced the operational risk that comes with an unstructured business. Ultimately, that financial discipline translated into increased revenue and stronger margins for All Town Auto — while also giving the family a clean, workable path to launch a second successful shop under different ownership. If your business is running on instinct instead of real numbers — or if a leadership or succession question is quietly complicating your growth plans — a fresh set of eyes can make all the difference. Waters Business Consulting Group works with owners across Arizona to bring the same kind of financial clarity and operational discipline that transformed All Town Auto. Schedule a free consultation to talk through where your business stands today. Contact Waters Business Consulting Group

.elementor-widget-text-editor{font-family:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif;font-weight:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-weight );color:var( –e-global-color-text );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap, .elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-default .elementor-drop-cap{color:var( –e-global-color-primary );border-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );} When Growth Outpaces Visibility Arizona Total Home Restoration (“ATH”) handles the calls nobody wants to make — the burst pipe at 2 a.m., the aftermath of a house fire, the mold that’s been spreading behind a wall for months. Based in Mesa and serving the greater Phoenix metro, ATH built a reputation for responding fast and coordinating complex work across mitigation and rebuild phases. But as the company grew, leadership found itself managing a business that was harder to see clearly: project flow across departments was murky, cash flow was difficult to forecast, and margins were under pressure even as volume increased. “All the people at this company are awesome! I started with this company a few years ago and decided to stop after a short time as I personally was too busy and didn’t have the proper staff in place. John was incredibly understanding. A couple years later I needed their help, and everything’s going great. I highly recommend the Waters team to any company small or big,” said Nathan Thue, President of Arizona Total Home Restoration. A Second Engagement, A Sharper Focus ATH’s relationship with Waters Business Consulting Group wasn’t a one-and-done project — it was a re-engagement. Nathan had worked with WBCG previously, stepped away when bandwidth got tight, and came back in January 2023 ready to build the operational structure his growing company actually needed. This time, the scope was clear: strategic planning and ongoing coaching aimed at scaling volume, improving cash flow predictability, and building departmental autonomy so Nathan could spend less time managing day-to-day fires (sometimes literally) and more time leading. Turning Project Chaos Into a Trackable Pipeline The core of the engagement was building visibility where there hadn’t been much. WBCG helped ATH implement a Project Dollar Volume (PDV) model to track leads, deals, and active projects by department — giving leadership a real-time read on workload and where revenue was actually coming from. That data fed directly into a Profit by Design (PbD) forecasting model, which gave the company forward-looking visibility into cash flow instead of a purely rear-view understanding of performance. Just as importantly, the work clarified what was driving margin performance across mitigation and reconstruction separately, so pricing and operational decisions could be made with real information instead of instinct. The Numbers Tell the Story The shift from reactive to data-driven operations showed up directly in the financials. Revenue grew from $1,528,824 in 2021 to $2,162,581 in 2022 — establishing that figure as ATH’s documented Profit by Design income baseline. Gross profit climbed from $260,526 to $393,270 over the same period, and gross margin improved from 17.0% to 18.2%. The momentum didn’t stop there: after the January 2023 re-engagement laid the groundwork for structured growth planning and KPI-driven accountability, 2023 revenue grew considerably past the $3 million mark, with strong gross margins carrying through. Beyond the top-line numbers, ATH’s leadership gained something harder to quantify but just as valuable — the ability to see the business clearly. Departmental performance, project pipeline, and cash flow are no longer guesswork. They’re tracked, forecasted, and tied to accountability at every level. Want That Kind of Clarity in Your Business? Whether you’re scaling a service business or trying to get out from under day-to-day operations, the first step is almost always the same: build the visibility that lets you make confident decisions. Waters Business Consulting Group has helped companies like Arizona Total Home Restoration turn financial guesswork into predictable, trackable growth — and we can help you do the same. Contact Waters Business Consulting Group to schedule a free consultation.