Sean Phelan's Journey from Tech to Caring Transitions Franchise Ownership

After experiencing the challenges of helping his father-in-law move into assisted living, Sean Phelan and his wife Veronique realized just how overwhelming these types of transitions can be for families. Now, with the launch of their new Caring Transitions franchise in West Austin and Georgetown, the Phelans are stepping in to be the resource their family wish they’d had. Backed by a long career in tech and a master’s degree in psychology, Sean is blending business acumen with empathy to scale a mission-driven company that helps seniors and their families through some of life’s toughest moments — with dignity, trust and heart.

Sean Phelan: My father-in-law had a major stroke, and we didn’t realize there was anything like Caring Transitions out there. We ended up having to find a place, move him in and do all the services ourselves. When I started looking for a business to start, we found Caring Transitions and it really resonated with our experience.

Sean: I spent 25 years as an exec with Dell Technologies and then did a startup. I spent the past year looking for businesses to buy or invest in.

Sean: There’s a lot of infrastructure already there and a template for success, instead of having to start something from scratch. There’s a support network of 400 other owners — that was very attractive to us.

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Sean: Having worked in the tech sector for 25 years, I actually have a master’s degree in psychology and stopped being a therapist to enter that world. So there’s always been a part of my wife and me that wanted to give back to the community. This seemed like a great blend of providing a real benefit.

People are in a tough place when they’re making one of these relocations — they can’t be in independent living, or they have to move to assisted living. The ability to help families in the transition really resonated. We want to be the most trusted provider of these services to aging loved ones.

Sean: We plan on scaling the business. We grew to a $3 billion portion of the Dell business, so I’ve always been a growth-minded person. We plan on coming out of the gate strong, hiring a good staff, developing partnerships with facilities that help seniors, and scaling the business pretty quickly.

Sean: This will also be a family business. My daughter is going to be involved — she has a pop-up selling vintage clothes and she’s been buying from other Caring Transitions and CTBids to replace her stock. We also hope my son will join the business. My daughter’s going off to college, but after we build for a few years, we want to make it so that if she’d like to come in and take over, she can.

Sean: You need to find a brand that aligns with your personal ethics and goals. Make sure to ask about those things and understand how the company performs in good and bad economic times. Those were important questions for me to get answered as I was looking at businesses to go into — with or without a franchise being present.

Caring Transitions provides older adults and their families with the most trusted, respected and comprehensive downsizing, right-sizing, estate sales and online auctions, and move management solutions in the industry. Founded in 2006, the brand is committed to helping people in a compassionate and caring manner during life's many transitions while providing a total and easy solution for clients in their time of need. Through their proprietary online sales platform, CTBIDS, Caring Transitions also prepares clients for the process of liquidating assets through their own online estate sales auction site.

With more than 350 locations, Caring Transitions’ compassionate, experienced professionals minimize stress and relieve the burdens of life’s transitions.