I operated a small town funeral home for about 35 years.  Every year I completed budgets and put expectations on the number of death calls the firm would do as well as predicted our market share in the community.  I was tough with myself. . . .I had high expectations.  Fortunately, I operated in a growing community and over time was able to build considerable call numbers and market share.  We took a moment to celebrate and then went about trying to do the same thing the next month. . . and the next year.

It’s mid-December and every funeral home owner that I know knows exactly where they stand with their expected call numbers for the year right now.  Some are ahead, some are about even, and, unfortunately, some are behind where they thought they would be.

You also have to be a realist, though.  Are you ahead simply because the community death numbers are up, but your market share has not changed?  Are you behind because the community numbers are down for the year?  Those total community numbers should be pretty steady in a community from year to year, but the law of large numbers says there can be an exception.

I recently came across a great article on leadership strategy in Forbes magazine.  You can read it here.  The title, with the word funeral in it drew my attention.  However, it was not really about a funeral. . . it was about the realization of having a bad month – or a bad year – and putting it behind you.

First of all, if you have had that bad month or bad year you need to know what caused it. Was it just the numbers or is your service trending lower and lower.  If you are trending lower and lower you need to talk through how that trend can be stopped.

However, if it was just the numbers. . . well, then it was just the numbers.  I can remember a month in the mid-1990’s at a time when our funeral home did about 225 annual death calls.  In November of one year we did three. . .yes, only three.  However, our competitors did a total of 2!  So, while I didn’t like the financial fact that we had revenue from only three death calls in the whole month, I did not get bent out of shape about the lack of business.  At 225 annual calls we would have averaged about 18 per month.

I’m guessing that I did what the Forbes article tells you to do.  That is, “Say goodbye to that month (or year), reset your counters to zero, and make the next month come alive.”  In the funeral business it is hard to “make the next month come alive”, but it does mean to approach the next month with a positive attitude. . . don’t just sulk about last month.

Sometimes that is easier said than done, though. . . .I know I’ve made the mistake and sulked too long before.  We’ve all been down on a bad month and I can vividly remember my wife telling me once, “Tom, you act like nobody is ever going to die again.”

The Forbes article also says this, “No one wakes up and says I want to do a miserable job at work today.” So when the numbers don’t come in if you hang on that fact then the attitude problem only exacerbates itself and extends the likelihood of a bad attitude and failure.

So, if you have had a bad month or maybe 2019 has not been that great of a financial year for you.  Take stock of it and then put it behind you and move forward.  It will be good for the soul. . . and more than likely good for business.

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