“It’s good enough” — That’s an attitude bound to bring disaster to your business

September 8, 2026/Business/

Last Saturday morning my wife, Angie, and I were having our morning coffee and she was paging through the local newspaper. She made the comment that our recent county fair had a record attendance of over 69,000 for its 4-day run. My immediate reaction was that the “Fair Board” has seemed to try some new things that are bringing that attendance up.

Angie agreed and we then concurred that our community has grown over the years from an agricultural community to a more broad-based community and that is now reflected in how the “Fair Board” has developed the programming for the fair. We agreed for years that well-meaning, but generally, agricultural-oriented members of the “Fair Board” seemed to be content with agricultural-only programming that they deemed as “good enough” but which no longer fit our broad-based growing community.

A new, younger, and probably most importantly, broad-based “Fair Board” is now in charge and, while agriculture is still celebrated at the fair, the events planned are more “broad-based” in nature and the result is increased attendance with a more diverse crowd.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I think that is an important lesson for those in Death Care to learn. If you think that what you do or how you operate is “good enough” for your community you will risk losing out to those in your community who want something different or better in their Death Care wishes. I think it is important to notice how other businesses are “upping their game” or “improving their facilities and services” to continue to grow as consumer choices and discretion changes.

Or, it might even make more sense to take a look at those that are standing still and what is happening to them.

Take a look at Wendy’s restaurants — According to this recent article from Yahoo Finance, about 5% of all Wendy’s franchises closed during the first half of 2026. In my opinion, Wendy’s has not had many creative innovations in menu or service since they brought about the square-shaped hamburger in the 1980’s. Again, in my opinion, not much innovation has happened with that business even as new competition from, among others, Shake Shack and Culver’s have come on line in the burger business. If you see recent ads, Wendy’s seems like it is now trying to catch up for what it has missed in innovation over the years. . . .At this point, I’m not so sure they can.

I can see preferences change even in my community — During my younger, single, and more outgoing days which now seem like a long time ago, my friends and I would frequent the honkey tonks and the lakeside bars of our lakes area community and we had an appetite for beer as our beverage of choice. Recently, a new business in our community opened called The Little Round Still. It serves “only” distilled products with no beer or wine on their drink menu. I was questioning the viability of such a place. . . .but I was wrong as the age 25-50 crowd keeps it filled and packed most every night. It is simply a statement to me that I alone cannot predict the choices of all consumers and if I was still operating a funeral home I would search out, in some capacity, what type of services the coming of age group of consumers is looking for to make sure I offered them. . . . and didn’t rely on my thinking that we are “good enough”.

Today’s article is just a simple reminder that “change” even in a slow, moderating way can be good for business. . .. and is probably necessary for business to survive the long haul.

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