Most shop owners glance at their P&L once a year at tax time and have no idea what it's actually telling them. In this episode, accountant Jerry Cecco breaks down exactly how a profit and loss statement should be structured for a performance shop – and how to generate accurate numbers from your daily operations.

Jerry spent years installing accounting systems for automotive dealerships before bringing that same financial discipline to small motorsports businesses. He's also an HPDE instructor at Eagles Canyon Raceway, so he gets the industry from both sides.

We cover:

• Cash vs. accrual accounting – when each makes sense and how the same job looks completely different under each method
• Revenue categories – why separating parts, labor, and divisions (like web sales vs. service) changes everything
• COGS vs. expenses – what goes where and why most shops get it wrong
• The parts procurement spectrum – from simple bank syncs to purchase orders to full inventory tracking
• Gross margin benchmarks – what's healthy for parts vs. service
• Multi-division businesses – how to see if your e-commerce side is actually making money
• Using your P&L to make real decisions – pricing, hiring, and spotting problems early

If your books are a mess or you've never really understood your financial reports, this is the episode to fix that.

If you need help with your business accounting, reach out to Jerry at JerryCecco@gmail.com

In this episode, Kevin and co-host Richard Fielder break down the manufacturing systems used by large-scale factories and show you how to implement them in your small shop. Richard is a controls engineer at Peterbilt where he works with the systems that manufacture semi trucks at scale, and he brings that expertise to help small fabricators, tuners, and parts manufacturers work smarter. Whether you're making one-off custom parts or producing small batches, these principles will make you faster, more consistent, and more profitable.

We cover 5S for organizing your workspace, shadow boards for tool management, standard operating procedures for documenting your processes, and how to build a proper bill of materials so you actually know what things cost to make. Richard explains how each system works on the factory floor at Peterbilt, then we translate it into practical steps for shops with 1-5 people. The goal isn't to turn your shop into a factory, it's to steal the best ideas from industrial manufacturing and apply them at your scale so you stop wasting time, reduce errors, and can actually grow without chaos.

We will be following this episode with additional podcasts related to manufacturing processes we didn't discuss in this episode. Additionally, we will be talking to more guests who do manufacturing to talk to them about how they do things and the processes they use at their shops. Be sure to keep listening, and to subscribe to the channel!

Check out My Shop Assist at myshopassist.com for shop management software built for the performance and racing industry! www.myshopassist.com

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down for a followup with brothers Alejandro and Pablo Moreno, co-owners of Tandem Offroad. Their shop specializes in off-road truck builds and general maintenance, serving customers who demand both performance upgrades and reliable day-to-day service. The brothers share their journey of building a business together, the challenges of manufacturing their own products, and how they've grown their customer base in a competitive market.

One of the biggest challenges they faced was manufacturing their own products without properly understanding their true costs. Like many small shops, they were pricing based on what felt right or what competitors charged, not on what it actually cost them to make parts when you factor in materials, labor, overhead, and time. We dig into how they discovered they were losing money on products they thought were profitable, the wake-up call that forced them to completely rethink their pricing strategy, and the systems they put in place to ensure every product they make actually contributes to the bottom line instead of draining it.

Find out more about Tandem Offroad at www.tandemoffroad.com

Find out more about My Shop Assist at www.myshopassist.com
Check out all our content at www.doitforaliving.net

Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe!