By Tipp Spradlin
At 16, in the thick of the Florida heat, I grumbled my way through the decidedly-not-fun task of taking a tire off over and over again until my dad was satisfied I wouldn’t need anyone’s help if I ever got a flat. Then, after a short break for sweet tea in a mason jar, he walked me through changing the oil. It was a Saturday. I could have been at the beach with my friends.
He explained what happens to a car over time if the oil isn’t changed — how dirty oil can infect the engine, how the whole thing can eventually seize. Then he told me how expensive that repair would be, and that I’d be walking to work or begging for rides. The entire exercise felt performative and dramatic and I didn’t have the best attitude.
That was more than 30 years ago, and I have never changed my own oil since.
But my dad’s lesson was never really about the oil. It was about understanding what it takes to keep a complicated machine moving safely and efficiently. I wasn’t destined to be a mechanic like him, and I don’t geek out about cars. But I have never once forgotten to get my oil changed. I take it to a local quick-change shop that handles all the things I don’t want to do and the machine keeps running.
I think about that lesson a lot now, because I spend my days looking at a different kind of complicated machine: businesses. And I’ve noticed something. The owners who built them are almost always the ones changing their own oil. Every single time.
They’re the engine, the mechanic, the dispatcher, and the person under the hood at 11 p.m. all at once. The business runs on their back, their phone, their memory. And for a while, that works beautifully because nobody knows the machine like the person who built it.
But here’s what I’ve learned watching this play out across the Panhandle: a business that depends entirely on its owner is a machine running on increasingly dirty oil. It still moves. It still makes money. But the owner is exhausted, maintenance keeps getting deferred, and one day the thing that felt solid starts making a sound nobody likes.
Owners ask me about timing all the time. Usually, some version of: If I stay in business a few more years, will I get more when I sell? And my answer is that it depends on how much gas you have left in the tank — and whether the drive is worth the mileage.
Sometimes it absolutely is. A few more strong years, the right improvements, a little less dependence on you personally, and the business can be worth meaningfully more. That’s a great drive, and I’ll help you map it.
But sometimes the tank is closer to empty than the owner wants to admit and gas is getting expensive. The miles are adding up, something is leaking, and pushing for two more years means risking the engine to chase a payoff that may not come. That’s not a drive worth taking.
The only way to know which one you’re looking at is to check the gauges before you decide — to get the financials clean, understand how much the operation leans on you, and find out what the business is actually worth today. The best moment to look under the hood is while it’s still running well. While you’re not desperate. While you can still say “not yet” to a buyer and mean it.
I’ve watched people who held on one year too long leave serious money on the table — not because the business wasn’t valuable, but because by the time they were ready to sell, they were running on fumes and no longer had the stamina to wait for the right deal. A business that has to sell never commands what a business that’s ready to sell does.
You don’t have to become a mechanic. That was never the point of my dad’s lesson, and it isn’t the point here. You don’t have to geek out about market multiples or seller’s discretionary earnings or add-backs. That’s my job. That’s what I do for the things you don’t want to do.
But you do have to get the oil changed. For a business owner, that starts with a Market Price Analysis. A clear, confidential look under the hood that tells you what your business is actually worth today, how much it leans on you, and what the drive ahead really looks like. It’s the gauge check that turns “I think I might sell someday” into a decision you can actually make.
So consider this your reminder, 30+ years in the making: don’t wait for the seizing sound. Let’s get your oil changed and see how much gas is really left in the tank.
Tipp Spradlin is a Business Sales Advisor with First Choice Business Brokers, NW Florida, helping owners find out what their business is worth before they’re ready to sell. Reach her at tipp.spradlin@fcbb.com or 850-532-8882.
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