The Weekly Blitz is brought to you by our friends over at Shop Marketing Pros. If you want to take your shop to the next level, you need great marketing. Shop Marketing Pros does top-tier marketing for top-tier shops.

Click here to learn more about Top Tier Marketing by Shop Marketing Pros and schedule a demo: https://shopmarketingpros.com/chris/

Check out their podcast here: https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/

If you would like to join their private facebook group go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autorepairmarketingmastermind

To listen to more episodes, make sure and go over to iTunes and or Spotify.

Don't forget to rate and review us!

Finish Strong Series: “Planning, Not Wishing — The Simple 3-Page Plan for Q1”

Presented by Shop Marketing Pros — your marketing engine for 2025 and beyond.

Episode Summary

In the final part of the Finish Strong Series, Coach Chris Cotton delivers the ultimate shop-owner reset: a simple, no-fluff, highly actionable 3 Page Plan to launch Q1 with focus, clarity, and momentum.

No corporate complexity.

No overstuffed binders.

No 27-goal “strategy lists.”

Just a tight, practical plan built around what ACTUALLY moves the needle in the first 90 days of the year.

If you want 2025 to be different — truly different — it starts with this.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

✔️ Why Most Shop Plans Fail

The traps: too big, too confusing, too vague, not shared with the team.

✔️ Page 1 — The Reality Check

Chris walks through the exact questions and assessments needed to understand:

What worked

What failed

What must be fixed first

The ONE thing that will drive the biggest Q1 win

✔️ Page 2 — The Goals That Matter

A focused, data-driven list of goals every shop should set for Q1, including:

ARO

Car count

Tech productivity

Labor GP%

Parts margin %

Customer experience targets

The 3 behaviors that directly improve all of them

✔️ Page 3 — The Action Calendar

This is where the magic happens:

Who is responsible

What happens weekly

What gets tracked

How accountability works

How meetings tie it all together

How to create a 90-day cadence that keeps the team aligned

✔️ How to Turn This Into a Team Tool, Not an Owner Document

Because a plan that lives in your head doesn’t change your shop — only a plan your team understands and owns can do that.

Why This Episode Matters

Most shop owners “hope” January will be better.

Hope isn’t a plan.

A clear, simple, actionable plan is the difference between repeating another year… and creating a breakthrough one. This episode hands you the structure to do exactly that.

Planning, Not Wishing: Part 4 — The Simple 3-Page Plan for Q1 [E238]