Business
I’ve mentioned it before but when I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Mortuary Science in 1980 I believe that there was one woman in our graduating class of about 40 people (2.5%). I’m not amazed at the progress that women in the industry have made since that time because the…
CBC Marketplace News of Canada in an article and video footage that you can see here, last week alleged that Canadian funeral services provider Arbor Memorial made misleading statements to hidden camera reporters. The article maintains that it is a follow up to a 2017 hidden camera report which caused the Bereavement Authority of Ontario…
Last week I shared some of the ways I had developed a budget that allowed me to produce maximum profits to the business even in years when our death numbers fell short of what we really wanted or expected. I talked on the revenue side of the budget and how discipline in planning can lead…
Sometimes if you listen to some of the younger self-proclaimed death care industry experts, you would think that funeral service is only about getting your brand name on social media. And sometimes I’ve been accused of being a little old fashioned in my thinking about how to build a brand in the death care industry.…
In the past week two things have happened that have made me ponder the relationship between those two things. About a week ago I visited a rural funeral home that for years had done a very high majority of traditional funeral services that included embalming, visitation, casketed remains, a burial vault sale, and all the…
Great Britain’s largest operator of funeral homes, Dignity PLC, who own and operate 540 funeral homes continues to move forward with their transformation process that they announced earlier this year. The public company filed their 3Q 2018 report on Monday and with it we can see some signs of what direction the company is moving. …
It’s November and it reminds me that for over 30 years this was the time that I put the plan together that led to growing profits in our funeral business. I’ve often been amazed that in many businesses, including funeral service, profits sometimes just happened for certain firms because they just did a number of…
Yesterday, Sunday, November 11, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the Armistice among nations to end the First World War. . .which was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Today, on a Monday, we in the USA will celebrate the day as a Holiday. Just to remind you. . . the end…
Many of us are pretty proud, and rightfully so, that we have helped families in our communities cope with the death of a loved one for over 100 years and maybe are into our 3rd, 4th, or 5th generation of family service. Funeral service is a noble profession and one that those of us who…
