Today we bring you an article from HartfordBusiness.com about a new funeral home business that just opened up in suburban Hartford, Connecticut.  The funeral home is a 5,000 square foot building in Plainville, CT and is owned and operated by a 20-year veteran funeral director Andrea Wasley, a lifelong resident of the community.  You can read the article here.

According to the article, a couple of things about this new funeral home are unique.  First of all, Ms. Wasley is a former employee of the Bailey Funeral Home of Plainville, which was – up until this time – the only funeral home in the community of 18,000.  Bailey Funeral Home is owned by Texas based public company Carriage Services and, according to the article, Ms. Wasley’s opinions on how the community should be served conflicted with the management which led her to leave to start her own firm..

The second thing that is unique about the new funeral home is that it has been constructed right across the street from the Bailey Funeral Home.  Wasley, according to the article, says that is not necessarily out of animosity towards Bailey Funeral Home, it just happens that the street is high visibility and in very close proximity to a large catholic church congregation.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Having a long-time community known employee setting up business against a former employer can make for a rough ride – not only for one funeral home, but possibly for both – depending on the number of calls available.

What I found interesting about the article was not so much the main headline of a new competitor setting up shop but some of the side statistics about the funeral industry from the U.S. Census and pertaining to Connecticut.  What I noticed is that over time two things seemed to happen.  Number one was that the number of funeral homes in Connecticut had decreased and number two was that overall revenue paid to funeral service  in Connecticut increased.  That would indicate that if you can “survive” then eventually you can “thrive”.

The death care business is not seen as a “cyclical industry” such as luxury businesses like vacations, second homes, private airplanes and the like that thrive when the economy is good and cause major losses when the economy goes south.  However, in selected markets at selected times – such as a new competitor opening up in your area or direct cremation taking a huge percentage increase – business can tend to be more difficult.  I think what we need to learn from these statistics is that when this happens in your area, first of all do what you have to do to “survive”.  If you are the funeral home that closes its doors, then you have no chance.

However, if you “survive” – then you have the ability to once again, at some point in time, to thrive.  Maybe you will sell to someone with more resources to help you or maybe your competitor will close, but you must survive.  After you survive, as revenues increase you may have the chance to thrive.

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