Owner Freedom by Design: Jeff Owen and Melissa Velasquez on Workflow, SOPs, and Tech Development

Jeff Owen and Melissa Velasquez are the kind of leaders every shop owner hopes they can find, then keep forever. They run the day to day at Jeremy's Garage in Pueblo West, Colorado, a family owned NAPA Gold and AAA approved shop that has served the community since 2008. In this episode, Jeff and Melissa get tactical about what it takes to keep a busy shop smooth and accountable, even when the owners are not in the building. You will hear how they built systems that remove chaos, including a defined repair order flow that keeps every ticket moving through the right hands at the right time. From diagnostics, to the lead writer, to sales, to parts ordering, to parts receiving, to final delivery. They also talk about quality control checkoffs after repairs, key tracking, and why digital inspections help customers see the full picture without turning every update into a phone tag nightmare. Melissa also shares how they built an apprenticeship program after realizing the old hiring pipeline was not coming back. They started with a national program, then customized it into a paid, hands-on path that supports real life, real families, and even includes EV training as part of the progression. If you want to build a shop that can grow past the owner bottleneck, and you want a clearer playbook for ops, culture, and training, this episode is for you. Links: Honest Mechanic Marketing (HMM): https://honestmechanicmarketing.com/ Jeremy's Garage: https://jeremysgarage.com/