About
Jake Rankin
After being in other industries for several years, I started to question why I was killing myself just to sell a “widget” or make my company more money. Throughout college, I was involved with organizations that helped others and I wanted to get back to that motivation. It wasn’t until a conversation with my uncle, who is in the health care industry, that I decided to start a career that actually meant something to me. I wanted to do something that makes a difference. So, in 2003, I got my start in health care.
My first job in health care was as a scheduler for a non-medical home care agency and I realized right away that my passion was long-term care. Over the years I dedicated myself to learning as much as possible to assist people who desire to stay home and remain independent. Every company I worked for and every position I held only increased my experience and knowledge, providing me with a well-rounded background that helped me to be more of an asset to my clients.
Then one day I was forced to experience something no one wants to experience. My mother had been battling health issues for years and it became more serious. As she lay unconscious in the ICU, I was forced to make extremely difficult decisions, alone and with little help. I found myself struggling to get enough information from the medical staff to understand, plan, and figure out what to do next. One would think being in the industry at this point for almost a decade, receiving my Certified Senior Advisor certification, and spending countless hours helping other families in the same situation, I would be ahead of the game and be prepared for this. But, as we all know, nothing is as easy as it seems.
Besides having to make extremely difficult life and death decisions for my mother, the biggest frustration was the lack of support I got from the health care staff. Leading up to this, even for someone with a background like mine, trying to find resources and navigating the healthcare system was intensely frustrating and confusing. It angered me and made me truly understand what my clients were going through. It was this experience that pushed me to be even more dedicated to helping as many people as I could.
In order for me to start this new journey, however, it meant a change. I was working for large corporations that seemed more interested in making money than helping those we were serving. I decided that the only way for me to make a difference was to start my own company and I began a consulting company. My goal was to help small, long-term care business owners with their mission of providing quality care to those they serve. I thought that by helping other companies, I could have the greatest reach affecting the most people possible. It wasn’t long though until my true passion came back to the surface. One of my consulting clients saw my passion and suggested I start my own company. This got me thinking if non-medical home care was where I started this must be where I needed to be.
Our first thought was to buy a franchise. However, after doing our research and being in the industry for so long, we didn’t like the way most home care franchises operated. For example:
- Small territory sizes
- Multiple franchise owners in the same metro areas
- Minimal support from the franchisor
After exploring all our options, I decided to create my own brand. I had already started two other agencies from the ground up and felt it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to do it again.
Now we’re running an extremely successful agency. But my mission did not stop with one office. My goal, and the goals of my partners, is to continue to help make a difference to as many people as possible. Instead of opening other locations, we chose to become a franchise. To me, this was the best of both worlds. We are affecting care and support for those in other communities, helping the elderly and disabled population, and using my knowledge and experience to help others achieve their dreams of owning their own business.
Our mission is to take those concerns I had about starting a franchise and make them go away. I felt then and still feel today that franchising in an incredible opportunity for budding business owners. This is why Talem has addressed the typical frustrations of franchising and created a model that takes our knowledge and experience and passes it on to the franchisee and Empowers them into the freedom and control of their own business more than any other brand.
