If you own a small collision repair shop, you have probably heard this advice more times than you can count. “You need a parts person.” “You need a production manager.” “You need someone handling customer updates.” And my personal favorite: “You need to stop working in your business and start working on your business.” That all sounds wonderful. Who is paying for it?

Let’s be honest. Most of us understand that having the right people in the right positions would make our shops run better. We are not sitting around thinking our estimator should do six jobs because that sounds fun. We are trying to balance what the business needs with what the business can consistently afford. Payroll comes every week. Insurance approvals and payments do not always cooperate with that schedule.

In a previous column, I wrote about money we were losing through our parts process. One estimator was handling supplements, negotiations, parts ordering, and returns. As business increased, that arrangement stopped working the way I needed it to. I still believe parts needs clear ownership. But I also understand that the manager reading that advice is thinking, “Tiffany, I agree. Now tell me where another salary is supposed to come from.”

That is a fair question.

Hiring means more than covering an hourly wage. There is training, payroll expense, supervision, and the time it takes for someone to become productive. Meanwhile, somebody still has to do the work. Before we add another person, we need to understand what we are actually asking that person to fix.

“Everybody is overwhelmed” may be true, but it is not a job description.

Spend a week paying attention to where the day goes. Is your estimator writing estimates or chasing return credits? Is your office answering customer questions – or calling vendors about missing deliveries? Are technicians waiting because nobody has checked whether all the parts arrived? Write it down. Even the little things. Especially the little things. Then ask which responsibilities require that employee’s knowledge and which could be handled by someone else with clear instructions.

An experienced estimator’s time has value. So does a technician’s. We can be trying so hard to avoid another payroll expense that we overlook the time we are wasting that could be costing us just as much. That does not automatically mean hiring a full-time manager tomorrow. Maybe the first step is part-time administrative help. Maybe it is moving one responsibility to an existing employee who actually has room for it. Maybe it is giving someone a protected hour each day to handle returns without answering every phone call.

But please do not confuse rearranging responsibilities with piling more work on your most dependable employee. You know the one. The person who always figures it out, stays late, and says, “I’ll take care of it.” Their willingness does not mean their capacity is unlimited.

Whatever arrangement you choose, name the person responsible, explain what completion looks like, and decide who covers the task when they are absent. “We all handle it” sounds cooperative until everyone assumes somebody else made the call.

Also, run the numbers honestly. What is the current problem costing in missed credits, delays, overtime, or lost estimating time? What would help cost? What work would that help free your existing team to complete? Sometimes that comparison supports hiring. Sometimes it tells you to improve the process first.

I am not suggesting we can organize our way out of every staffing shortage. There comes a point when the workload requires another person. But small shops deserve advice that acknowledges the space between needing help and being able to afford it. We can start by taking one responsibility off an overloaded employee, giving it clear ownership, and checking whether the change works.

That is progress a small shop can actually use.