So what makes TCC different than the competition? Well, there are many reasons. But let’s get down to brass tax. Check out the video below for a quick summary but, as you look through our website, you’ll find that the resources and support you will be given at TCC far exceeds any other franchise on the market.

Dwaine has been consulting with TCC since day one and has played a vital role in the development of its success and now, after a long and successful history, he has joined the executive team and holds high hopes for the company’s future.

Prior to joining the team at TCC, Mr. Canova was CEO of Synteleos, Inc., an ASP providing Transaction Management capabilities, which allow companies to improve their operating effectiveness and customer satisfaction while collaborating with many independent parties to accomplish a common task. Mr. Canova was formerly the Chairman, President and CEO of a website development and management consulting company. It is unique in its offering of marketing services, customer support services, and website design services.

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER. Mr. Canova was President & COO of a marketing and sales organization. The company increases revenue for merchants through the use of frequent user programs. Also, Mr. Canova was the President & COO of Enalasys Corporation. Enalasys provides a computerized diagnostic tool to assess the operating effectiveness of home HVAC systems and reports results via the Internet to a central location.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM). Mr. Canova was Founder and CEO of Zacson Corporation. Zacson was one of the earliest B2B outsourcing call center services companies. He started it in 1980, with no employees, and grew it to 2,800 employees in 5 countries. The company specialized in designing and implementing alternative sales channels, marketing, customer service and technical help desk support for Fortune 500 companies in the technology and telecommunications industries.

MANAGEMENT CONSULTING. From 1970 through 1979, Mr. Canova was the Executive Director of the Center for Professional Studies (CPS) in Pennsylvania. CPS designed and conducted management seminars (many under the sponsorship of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania). His area of emphasis was in the design and utilization of management reports to enhance corporate performance.

SPEAKING/TEACHING. Mr. Canova has spoken around the world on the “why” and “how” of leveraging database information to improve customer service, acquisition and retention. He formerly conducted management and management accounting seminars under the auspices of the Wharton School. He was also an instructor at the Academic Computer Center of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a teaching fellow at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

WRITING. Overcoming the Four Deceptions in Career Relationships. This is a motivational book that encapsulates his experience and observations on interpersonal communications in business. The book provides techniques designed to help people work more effectively within organizations.

VIDEO. Mr. Canova spoke to the Stanford Alumni Association. The speech was taped and is sold as part of their video series entitled Executive Briefings. The title of the video is “Customer-Focused Companies: Using Integrated Marketing Practices to Increase Profits.”

EDUCATION. Mr. Canova holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Agronomy from Fresno State.

Let me give you an example. I’ve met multiple proprietors who have created a coffee shop or restaurant because of their passion for cooking and creating. Many have not succeeded in building a profitable business because their focus was more on their passion rather than the business itself. From websites to photographers, there are a great deal of people with passion and zeal for their particular niche but without understanding the business and the factors that make a business successful, many are left with picking up the pieces of their dream rather than seeing it fully realized.

When you are looking at launching a company, here are 3 main factors that MUST be considered before moving forward. Don’t let your passion for an idea blind you from seeing reality.

1. Industry Opportunity: Is there a market for what you want to offer? How many companies provide the same or similar service? What makes them unique? What would make you unique? You have to understand the industry, who would be your customer, and who you would be competing with before you can ever truly enter the marketplace.
2. Resources: Many entrepreneurs are naïve about what kinds of resources it takes to build a successful company. Don’t get into a business without fully understanding what it will take financially to sustain it through its infancy. Businesses take time to grow and time is money. If you underestimate this, you will end up with a half-built business without the resources to keep it moving.
3. Support: You can’t go alone. Whether you have a mentor, partners with complementing experience and skill sets, or a team of people all bringing the necessary requirements to the table, you must not venture out and create a business completely isolated. You have to first realize that you know enough to know you don’t know enough. You never will. But with the right support system, you can succeed.

The company, Total Care Connections, that I’ve built with my partner, Nick Puente, has grown into a 7-figure enterprise that employs over 40 people. These three factors I’ve mentioned have played integral roles in our success and we’ve decided to expand our company by offering aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to join the family through our franchise system. Our “Total Care Franchise Support System” is designed to provide the highest level of support and guidance you could ever find when starting your own business.

I know what it’s like to fail. But I also know what it’s like to succeed. If you have a heart of compassion and a drive to be successful as an entrepreneur, consider joining the Total Care Connections family.

The dinner was exquisite and every last detail had been put into the event from the décor to the ice sculptures on every table, Wells Fargo was making a statement. This wasn’t a casual event to say the least.

Dan Marries, anchorman for KOLD News 13, began to introduce the 33 finalists selected out of nearly 400 companies nominated for the awards. Companies were nominated for one of 4 categories: Business Growth, Leader of the Year, Community Service, and Best Place to Work. As the companies were announced, videos were played highlighting the success of each one, showing footage of each company’s team and successes. As I watched highly successful companies being featured, I wasn’t so sure we really could win after all. I resolved in mind that a) our company is young and b) this is our first time being nominated. We were just excited to be a finalist!

But then it came time to announce the winner. The suspense grew inside of me as the drum roll emphatically scored the drama of the moment. The announcer shouted, “And the winner of the Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Business Growth Award is…… Total Care Connections!”

The music kicked in, Nick and I jumped up and hugged our team, and we walked up to the stage to give our acceptance speech. Looking around the room and seeing hundreds of successful business owners and their teams celebrating the evening was inspiring and also humbling. We stood together, thanking our team and our families, and I then gave myself a split second to come up with what to say to memorialize the moment. I had joked earlier that I hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech; probably because I really didn’t think we’d win. But in that moment I said what we’ve been saying from day one: “At Total Care Connections, we believe that if we focus on providing the highest quality of care with integrity and commitment, the economic growth will come as a byproduct.” Accepting the business growth award solidified that for us and will continue to be the commitment that propels the company into the future.

It was the tone of her voice that resonated with me even more than what she said. The phones were ringing off the hook in the office and I went to answer an incoming line to help out when, before I realized it, I was talking with an elderly woman for a while as she tried to make sense of the season she found herself in with her husband of decades of marriage.

“He’s been diagnosed with some rare brain disease that hasn’t been defined yet and the doctors really have no solution for him.” She began to tell the story of how her husband had been seemingly slipping away slowly but surely as his mental state began to digress and his awareness or acknowledgement of reality faded. She described how wonderful he’s always been with a personality that won the hearts of anyone he’d met over the years. He was a genuinely wonderful person. But lately he hasn’t been the same. And it’s getting worse; a lot worse.

I spoke with her as she told the story of their years living on the East coast mingling with the political socialites over the years and how their journey led them to Arizona to retire together and enjoy the latter season of their lives. She couldn’t have planned to be in the position she finds herself in today. No one can. Death is more often a process rather than simply a moment in time that abruptly comes without notice. It often sneaks up slowly in the form of a degenerative disease or illness that seeks to steal the last years of a person’s life without negotiation or apology.

I hung up the phone with her after allowing her to tell her story and how she needed to find a place where he could go to be safe; where his dignity would be kept as he could not uphold it himself.

Its moments like these and countless others that remind me and all of our staff who’ve committed their careers to making a positive impact in what can be the most vulnerable moments of our clients’ lives why we do what we do.

It’s a business, yes. It’s a growing industry and a dynamically developing opportunity for entrepreneurs and the like to engage in what will be one of the fastest growing segments of the healthcare world. But it’s more than that.

Every patient we provide care for is a person with a real and legitimate need. It’s a need that comes whether they are ready for it or not. It’s the painful reality that every person must face: we are not meant for this world. We are here for a time but as the journey comes to an end, we find ourselves vulnerable; unable to care for ourselves.

We built Total Care Connections recognizing the opportunity that lay before us – serving a demographic that would grow by over 400% over the next 40 years. But underneath this reality, our main objective is to provide the means for which people’s needs are met, their fears are put to ease, and their loved ones are treated with the greatest dignity and tender care available in our world today.

If we can build a business that meets the needs of those most vulnerable, then we have succeeded. Total Care Connections’ success is not just defined by our economical growth. It’s defined by the countless stories of those whose lives have been impacted for the better because of what we do.

Choosing to buy a franchise

You are lucky if your job is what you love doing and if it pays really well. However, a regular corporate job also has some disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is the lack of freedom to check out other options and opportunities. Employees’ main issues in the corporate world are strict working hours, insufficient benefits, and fixed compensation or salary. On the other hand, owning a franchise as a personal business is a totally different approach. The quickest way to jumpstart your entrepreneurial career is to buy a franchise. Take for instance the individuals with business management positions from the companies they worked with. They now enjoy the benefits brought by such experience by owning a franchise.

Last statistics showed that 217,182 employees in the country were laid off. There is an alarming increase in the unemployment rate of 10.2 percent. This resulted to thousands of experienced people currently searching for new careers. They may consider buying a franchise business.

Take note, though, that there are no shortcuts to success when buying a franchise but if you have the skills, passion, and determination to make franchises work for you, you can breeze through the challenges that you may encounter along the way. Now that the country’s economy is recovering, chances of success in business ownership is getting wider, making it a smart career move to buy a franchise for a business. Read on below to learn about the benefits entrepreneurs enjoy from owning a franchise business:

Benefits to enjoy in buying a franchise

Buying a franchise gives you immense freedom that you cannot possibly receive in a fulltime corporate job. Owning a franchise means that you are under the guidance and supervision of the franchisor or the parent company.

The risk is lower in buying a franchise than starting an independent business. No need to worry about training and support, for the franchisor will provide all these. All franchisors are well-experienced and established enterprises. Their proven business model is an important formula for the success of your location.

The trusted brand name of the company can be your ultimate edge against competitors. The parent company’s nationwide advertising and marketing programs will help attract your business’ target market.

Buying a franchise may entail a lot of investment money. As such, make sure you exhaust all the available resources to secure funds for your prospect franchise business.

With all these things mentioned, don’t you agree that owning a franchise business is way better than looking for a regular corporate job?

Call us today to learn more about opening a Total Care Connections franchise. It may be the first step to not only loving what you do but in being control of where your headed!

Over the next 12 months, Daniel and Nick hired staff, built systems, documented processes, and developed the model that would continue to grow in a way the competition was not experiencing. In the first year alone, TCC generated over $355,000 in revenue. In its second full year, the company generated over 1.17 Million.   Total Care Connections has proven to be a systematic success and in the 3^rd quarter of 2011, Total Care Franchise Systems was born. Daniel and Nick have created the systems and processes necessary to expanding nationwide offering franchises to entrepreneurs who share the same drive, ambition, and commitment.

TCC is more than a business. It is an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of our employees, our clients, and the entrepreneurs who join the family through the franchise system. It’s this commitment that has awarded the company with success and it’s demonstrated through the appreciation the community has shown. Daniel and Nick were both recognized in the Top “35 Entrepreneurs under 35” in October of 2010 and Daniel was recognized as a finalist on the Inside Business “Up and Comer” list in March of 2011. TCC was featured as a successful company built during the greatest recession since the Great Depression and was recently recognized as a finalist for the Wells Fargo “Copper Cactus Business Growth” Awards for 2011.   Total Care Connections has and will continue to make a lasting impact on the Senior Care industry and on the lives of the thousands of clients and their families who become recipients of the commitment to quality and integrity the company has been built to uphold.

“My brothers and I can’t thank you enough for the years of great service you provided for our mother and father’s care! You’ve always been there for us through thick and thin. There were times when we did not know what we would have done without you. Your support made all the difference. Your staff was always excellent, such beautiful and truly caring people! In the future we will be sure to recommend you to anyone in need of excellent and reliable care assistance for a loved one!

We are eternally grateful”- The Schill Family, One of many clients TCC has served.

As services for seniors expand, entrepreneurs are preparing for more scrutiny from regulators

By John Tozzi

As the first baby boomers turn 65 this year, entrepreneurs see opportunity. The number of companies providing home health care or services such as assistance in dressing, bathing, and cooking increased by more than 50 percent in the past decade, U.S. Census Bureau data show. Now regulators are scrambling to catch up with the growing industry.

Home-care companies aren’t regulated in about two dozen states, and just a handful require licenses for companies that provide nonmedical services. Today the industry faces a hodgepodge of inconsistent rules that advocates say puts vulnerable people at risk of financial exploitation or physical abuse. In states that require licensing, many operators ignore regulations because the costs of complying are high and the risk of getting caught is low, people in the industry say.

Advocates of home care say it is more compassionate and less expensive than nursing home care. More than 45,000 companies offered home health care or other aid in 2008, including 2,800 small outfits that pay franchisers for a brand name, training, and support, researcher Frandata estimates. They’re targeting a $55 billion market that will surely grow as the number of Americans 65 and older increases by 79 percent in the next 20 years, to 72 million, according to Census projections.

A report by the Senate Special Committee on Aging notes that “addressing elder abuse in home-based care settings is becoming a growing concern.” Much of the worry centers on how thoroughly companies vet workers before sending them into people’s houses. The Senate report says that after seven states began requiring comprehensive background checks for caregivers in institutions and private homes, 4.3 percent of the 220,000 applicants were disqualified because of a history of serious crimes. Some 92 percent of nursing homes employ at least one worker with a criminal conviction, according to a Mar. 1 report by the U.S. Health & Human Services Dept. Not all crimes preclude workers from employment.

While nursing home workers are required by federal law to undergo 75 hours of training before taking a job in the sector, there are no similar rules governing nonmedical home aides. Seniors getting in-home care are “way more vulnerable than people who are in nursing homes because it’s not supervised,” says Lori Ann Post, a Yale School of Medicine professor who researches domestic violence. “We need legislation mandating background checks for people in the home … more than in nursing homes,” she says.

Home-care providers recognize the risks of mistreatment—and the potential for damage to their reputations. “When you have an industry that is growing like nonmedical home care and senior care, a lot of people … think it’s a way to make a quick buck,” says Kim B. Stoneking, executive director of the 1,200-member National Private Duty Assn. (NPDA), which represents nonmedical home-care companies.

Stoneking says all NPDA members do background checks on their workers. The group has no formal position on whether states should require home-care businesses to be licensed. In states considering regulation, Stoneking advocates a less rigorous standard for nonmedical helpers than for aides who provide direct health care such as dressing wounds or giving medication.

Operating in states that ignore that distinction can be a burden for business owners. When Caroline Philpott opened a New York City senior-care franchise last May, she had to limit her services to housekeeping, cooking, and companionship. Anything that involves touching an elderly client, such as dressing or bathing, requires a license that New York had temporarily stopped issuing because state officials didn’t have the capacity to monitor the fast-growing industry. “Helping someone get dressed requires the same license as giving them IVs,” says Philpott, a former executive at American Express (AXP) who earned an MBA from Columbia University. Philpott invested a “low-six-figure” sum to start her franchise, licensing the brand from an Omaha company called Home Instead Senior Care. She now has 25 caregivers on call and 15 clients in New York.

More consistent oversight and enforcement would help the industry, says Peter Ross, chief executive officer of Senior Helpers, a franchiser in Towson, Md. His company holds its 300 franchisees in 40 states to the same standards regardless of local regulations, and Ross advocates licensing requirements for nonmedical care in states that don’t have them. “In California, you need a license to catch a trout,” Ross muses, “but you do not need a license to give a senior a bath in their own home.”

The bottom line: As demand for home-care services grows, entrepreneurs are preparing for more scrutiny from regulators.

Tozzi covers small business for Businessweek.com.