I came across this article entitled “Lending USA introduces FastScreen, a New Tool for Pre-Loan Qualification for Funeral Home Merchants” and it reminded me of the struggles I had over the years about implementation of tougher credit policies on client families. The age old “push-pull” credit decision is that you don’t want to make it difficult for families, however, too much leniency and you may be doing your work for less than full payment or, in some cases, no payment […]
At Funeral Director Daily we cover a lot of topics. Many, or even most of our articles, deal with the financial operation of a business to help those in the business of death care make the choices they need to make as they move forward. We also publish articles about the preneed industry and articles about public companies in the space. . . .as well as new ideas and start-ups that many of our readers are interested in learning about. […]
I enjoy learning. I know that there is an awful lot left to learn by me in my lifetime. And, it goes without saying that I love to learn more and more about the funeral profession because it was the profession that I earned my living in. I’ve also found out that sometimes I learn even when I don’t think I’m going to. So, when I saw this article entitled “Death rituals in Black community have been altered or forgone […]
This article and video news story from CTV Canada explains that because of a chronic shortage of death care workers coupled with an increased number of deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) “is calling retirees into service to fill out vacancies and for the first time, it’s allowing college students to work in the industry before they have completed their studies.” Funeral Director Joe O’Neil of O’Neil Funeral Home in London, Ontario is quoted […]
I’m not one to get too excited over talk. . . .but, I’m also a realist who believes that where there is smoke, there is fire. And, it appears that the trend in America will not go to a longer work week. . . so, over time I’m guessing that we get to a shorter work week. If we do, how will it impact funeral service and the employment trends in our profession? America has went to a shorter work […]
Today we bring you this interesting article from the Iowa Capital Dispatch concerning a potential funeral director who believed he needed a waiver to receive his Iowa Funeral Directors License. One of the requirements for licensure by the Iowa Board of Mortuary Science is that the applicant has completed 60 college credit hours and maintained a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) relative to those earned credits. The article tells the story of Andrew Merschman who had completed […]
So, we are one week into the new year of 2022. There are a few things that have been predicted since the new Presidential administration came into office last January, especially after the inflationary times that started last Spring. One of the the predicted things we heard about was that a new administration may eventually get around to changing some of the tax laws about capital gains. . . . . in other words, how the money is taxed when […]
I’ve been out of owning and managing my own funeral home for eight years now. Funeral Director Daily keeps me involved with all that is going on in the profession, but sometimes the research I do makes me think I’ve become a little naive to some of the “dog eat dog” competition that is out there now for every percent of dollar margin in our industry. I was lucky in my day of operations that margins were large enough from […]
Every day funeral directors and funeral home owners work hard and diligently in taking care of the families that they are entrusted to serve. Sometimes it is a matter of just finishing with one family when the phone rings again and the funeral director/funeral home owner starts the cycle all over again. As your business profits from this type of back-to-back business it can get a little illusionary that it is just going to keep on doing so, profitably, into […]
One of the great things about beginning a New Year is that we have a chance to speculate where those next 365 days will bring us. That speculation also gives us a little perspective on where the trends are moving that will carry our profession into the future. So here’s my take on some of the issues that existing funeral service faces. . . . I think that there are five trends that are happening in society right now that […]
