By Per Peterson
Selling his business wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.
Almost two decades after arriving in Tracy and establishing a successful downtown business, Secondwind CPAP, Mark Seager has sold his business. The new owners are Brandon and Briar Engelkes.
The sale became official Feb. 16. Briar, who has been employed at the store for nearly two years, said she will handle most of the numbers work for the business, while Brandon will deal with shipping.
“I knew (Mark) was thinking about selling, and he didn’t want it to move out of Tracy,” Briar said. “When I heard about that, that’s when I asked him if he would consider selling it to me and my husband, and he was open to it.”
The transition, Seager said, has been bittersweet.
On one hand, he has absorbed a tremendous amount of stress that has taken a toll on his health. On the other hand, his business, in some way, defined him, and has been a major part of his life, meaning stepping away is a challenge. In the end, he favored the value of having the freedom of not owning the business and being able to let go over continuing on his current path.
“It really was my life’s work,” he said. “It incorporated the two things I know how to do — I was a computer programmer and I am a respiratory therapist. It’s tough to relinquish something like this.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.