Posts

Some History on Matthews International

By Funeral Director Daily / September 8, 2017 /

One of my adages about being in business is that you have to know who you are doing business with.  One of the truly great things about being involved with funeral services is that most of the people and companies that we relate to have a history of solid business and ethical principles to relate…

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Interesting Cemetery Issues

By Funeral Director Daily / September 7, 2017 /

For about 15 years I served on a small cemetery association board.  Most of the time things ran pretty smooth and we had, even though they were old and handwritten, very good records of sales and interments.  We did, however, have our little problems such as when we sold the same grave spaces twice.  Both…

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Cremation Tattoos Becoming Popular

By Funeral Director Daily / September 6, 2017 /

Diane Lange, the owner of Moonlight Tattoo in Ocean View, New Jersey has been tattooing for 35 years.  In the past six months, however, she has explained that the number of calls she is getting for cremation tattoos has been rapidly increasing. While we know that cremation rates have been increasing in the U.S., what…

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Article on Seeking Alpha Expects StoneMor Dividend Cut

By Funeral Director Daily / September 5, 2017 /

An article that appeared on Seeking Alpha on September 2, 2017, concludes that StoneMor Partners will be forced to either eliminate or greatly reduce their quarterly dividend soon.  StoneMor, a Master Limited Partnership built through funeral home and cemetery acquisitions has seen its stock plunge from about $26 per share in 2016 to a close…

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Your Advertising Mix – Part 4: Participatory Ads

By Funeral Director Daily / September 1, 2017 /

In previous segments we have talked about advertising staples such as the newspaper and radio.  We’ve talked about ancillary ads such as text messaging, e-mail, and social media.  Today, we will discuss what I believe is the most personable and the ads that have the best potential to turn a non-customer or non-advocate of your…

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The Mergers and Acquisition Environment

By Funeral Director Daily / August 31, 2017 /

Yesterday I was reading the Business Section of the Minneapolis Tribune and saw an article entitled, “Corporate Deal Market Slows”.  It was an interesting article that had a couple of interesting premises and for someone who enjoys the business world it led to a good read and also allowed me to think of how the…

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Wisconsin Upholds Ban on Funeral/Cemetery Combos

By Funeral Director Daily / August 30, 2017 /

Just yesterday the Wisconsin 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled on a lawsuit that would have allowed dual ownership of cemeteries and funeral homes in Wisconsin.  They upheld the ruling that bans the practice – which is allowed in many states –  and leaves the plaintiffs next option to seek Wisconsin Supreme Court judication.  You…

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Your Advertising Mix – Part 3: Ancillary Ads

By Funeral Director Daily / August 30, 2017 /

We started talking about advertising mix a couple of days ago when we breached the subject of looking at our budget for 2018.  Obviously, advertising is a variable cost that we decided you need to know how effective each portion is, what types of advertising work in your community, and how, or if, by knowing…

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Mortuary Schools Primer

By Funeral Director Daily / August 29, 2017 /

On Sunday my wife and I dropped off our youngest child for his Freshman year of college at a school about 100 miles away from us.  Those of you that have been through this procedure know what it is like.  He is not entering the death care profession and I am okay with that.  There…

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Monday Morning “Snip-Its”

By Funeral Director Daily / August 28, 2017 /

As has become our custom we use Monday mornings for an overview of some of the stories we have seen concerning the death care industry over the last week.  Today is no exception and we have linkable articles on topics ranging from a funeral home that was closed down to a Japanese company’s idea to…

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