Business
I love business and the challenge of building a business. To me it is very much like a jig-saw puzzle. . . . you have to work with the pieces you have and continue to move them around until they, like a jig-saw puzzle, fit together and make everything work. I served on the Board…
Read MoreWorcester, Massachusetts, funeral director Peter Stefan, age 85 died this week. Stefan made a name for himself, not as a businessman, but as a man and funeral director, of compassion. Even in a profession which exudes compassion among its workers, Stefan stood out to his peers. Stephen Teasdale, the Executive Director of Worcester’s Main South…
Read MoreAmerican Enterprise Group (AEG), parent company of preneed insurer Great Western Insurance Company (GWIC) and innovative financial lender Live Oak Bank have announced a partnership that will make it possible for funeral home and cemetery business owners to access up to $20 million in capital. A recent press release on the strategic partnership announced that…
Read MoreI recently read an article from Yahoo Finance written by Andy Serwer that asks the interesting question, “(Is) inflation the business opportunity of a lifetime?” You can read that article here. Serwer explains that after almost fifty years of very low static inflation that we may be in for a much higher rate for the…
Read MoreI’ve written before about Peter Lynch’s 1989 best-seller “One up on Wall Street”. It was a learning book for me and one where I had a coming of age introduction to different types of investing. One of Lynch’s topics in the book was the death care company Service Corporation International (SCI). He likened the company…
Read MoreOver the weekend I conflated two situations and tried to make the argument that one situation could actually help the other. What happened is that I have noticed that almost all funeral homes of a larger case volume seem to be short professional staff. And, it’s not just in the United States — InvoCare in…
Read MoreWe are in the final week of the award winning musical “Fun Home” playing at the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia. The play, which you can see a 30-second trailer of here, collected five Tony awards seven years ago when is played on Broadway. This article in Australia’s Pursuit magazine is entitled “How popular culture…
Read MoreI’ve been an entrepreneur and started new companies so I know the drive and dedication behind one who does so. And, to invent a new industry, which in some cases may include legislative law changes, to start the company in that environment is an even tougher hill to climb. That’s why I’m such a fan…
Read MoreIf you have been on the front lines of funeral service for any time period you probably have some of the same thoughts that I do. When I would serve a family there was period of about 7 days from my first connection to the family after the death through a few days after the…
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