Business
Tomorrow is the last day of the federal government’s fiscal year. That is not necessarily a big deal except that the new federal budget year begins on Wednesday and as I write this on Sunday no agreement to fund the federal government of the United States is in place moving forward. If there is…
With all that is happening in our econony it is very difficult to get an idea of where that economy is heading. With all of the different indexes in place today and many seeming to go in opposite directions it is hard to get a barometer of where the United States economy is…
Okay — that headline is somewhat of a trick question. I’m guessing that your funeral home is “streaming” services. . . . . but, are you “streaming” in your advertising and branding strategy? As of March 2025 “streaming” represented 43.8% of overall TV watch time in the United States. And, it is…
Where people are living has an incredible affect on the number of families a local funeral provider will serve in a given time period. Today’s article will introduce you to some graphics and articles about how demographics are shifting in the United States. And, it is really important to know these demographic shifts if…
I operated my funeral home from 1980 to 2013 and in that time period we increased prices every year. I always looked for an average of about 3% but was able to increase my cremation prices more than that as cremation was growing in popularity. And, it seemed that our price increases also…
According to this issue of the Indianapolis Star an Indiana court of appeals ruled in late August that the State of Indiana “violated the First Amendment rights of a Fort Wayne “death doula” after it required her to obtain a funeral director license to provide end-of-life transition services”. Indiana state (mortuary)…
Dwight Thompson, a seasoned social worker, psychotherapist, and former funeral director with more than 20 years of experience in mental health and grief care will highlight the monthly interactive Peer Support meeting for September. The online peer support meeting for funeral service workers sponsored by the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) will…
I read a lot of different articles. Recently I read an article about investing that contrasted “Dividend Investing” and “Growth Investing”. The article was very interesting but it also made me think about my time as a funeral home owner and how I managed the profits, or cash-flow, of the business. In…
The beginning of a recent article on the ASD Blog, authored by Jessica Farren, had a quote without, to my knowledge, an author’s acknowledgement. I will post it here with no acknowledgement but do believe it captures the essence of America’s funeral directors: “Deathcare professionals are not heroes because they are…
There are some interesting survey results out that question if the United States will soon reach the “Peak Percentage” of cremation rates as the disposition of choice. Last year at this time the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) was readying some of their results on the “Changing Funeral Preferences” survey. I remember…
