There is an old song released in April 1981 and sung by Barbara Mandrel entitled, “I was Country when Country wasn’t cool”. I have to admit that when I entered my freshman year of college at Texas Christian University in September of 1976 I started hearing music that resonated with me. . . .Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson. . . artists that I had never heard of in Minnesota at that time. Circumstances led me back to Minnesota […]
Many funeral directors who own funeral homes operate a one roof funeral home. There’s nothing wrong with that — I operated a one roof funeral home for 20 years and, contrary to many people’s beliefs, there was always much to do and profits to be made. But, like me, many of those one roof funeral home owners think about expanding at times and wonder how they would do managing a business with more than one roof. What stops a lot […]
An article entitled “Relational Spending in Funerals: Caring for others loved and lost” appeared in the March edition of the Journal of Consumer Psychology. The research for the article was done by assistant marketing Professor Sarah Whitley of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. In this article about the study you can read where Professor Whitley finds a deep contrast in funeral decisions for those who are preplanning a funeral in the future and those who are making […]
Sometimes at Funeral Director Daily we get too wrapped up in mergers and acquisitions, in financial news, and in things like new products to the profession. Those things are all interesting and are necessary to know if we want to make the services that we offer to the public profitable for us. But, it is also of utmost importance that, aside from profits, that those of us in the death care realm make a positive difference to those we serve. […]
Over the years that I have done the research for the articles that appear in Funeral Director Daily, among others, I have noticed two trends that are definitely growing in the death care world. One of those trends is that of Green or Natural burials. Virtually every day when I look for articles that will be of interest to readers I will find an article from somewhere in the United States that is opening up a funeral home or cemetery […]
My own historical family businesses are a perfect example of the evolution of a business to fit the consumer and stay relevant. Back in 1872 my great-grandfather arrived in the New World with a skill as a cabinet maker. He set up shop and when people died family members approached him about building a coffin for the deceased. The cabinet business evolved into two businesses, a furniture store and a full service funeral home. As time went on, we became […]
I served as a funeral director in a small town and when somebody died, the news got out. There can be a difference between a death notice and an obituary or an obituary can serve as both. In America we have closed over 2,000 newspapers since the year 2000 and many communities no longer have any local news coverage. So, how does the word get out that grandma died so that people can pay their respects at the visitation and […]
Funeral directors have always liked conventions. I have great memories of Minnesota Funeral Directors Association (MFDA) conventions going back to the 1960’s. My dad always attended for a day and for his family it was an opportunity to get to the big city (Minneapolis) stay at the downtown Radisson Hotel, and probably get to take in a Minnesota Twins afternoon game on Day 2 before heading for home that evening. My father worked a lot. . . taking care of […]
I’ve said all along that as death care moves forward there will continue to be full service funeral homes, but there will also be a growing niche of death care disposition options available to the consumer public. Just last week Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill into law that will make Colorado the second state in the United States to legalize human composting as a legal form of disposition of a dead human body. The process of Natural Organic […]
Covid-19 and the ramifications it brought with social distancing was tough on funeral and memorial services. It was even more devastating to the wedding and wedding reception business. However, during the calendar year of 2020 most brides and grooms continued to take the plunge into matrimony. . . . they just did so without that large gathering and wedding reception. Because of that situation an interesting opportunity may exist for those in the funeral home business with the proper facilities […]
