Business
I operated a small town funeral home for about 35 years. Every year I completed budgets and put expectations on the number of death calls the firm would do as well as predicted our market share in the community. I was tough with myself. . . .I had high expectations. Fortunately, I operated in a…
Read MoreRecompose, the public benefits corporation that is moving the process of recomposition (human composting) into the commercial realm recently held a forum at the Feldman Mortuary in Denver, Colorado. The forum was used to introduce the idea of recomposition to the Colorado market and also to announce that two Colorado legislators plan to introduce a…
Read MoreWhen you are the owner of a funeral home you have to have a plan for marketing the business. Most funeral director proprietors think about their advertising, their on-line presence, and their pre-arrangement program as a way to market. What many don’t think about, however, is that the services they provide after the funeral to…
Read MoreIn the last couple of years it seems that we have seen no slow down in the marketplace for the acquisition of large family owned metropolitan death care businesses by the public company, venture backed, or equity partner backed large scale operators in the business. You need think no farther back then last weeks announcement…
Read MoreWe came across this article in the Scotsman that you can read here. It is an interview with Tim Purves who is the Chairman of William Purves Funeral Directors of Scotland. Mr. Purves is the 5th generation family funeral director of the company which was started in 1888 by a craftsman and cabinet maker. The…
Read MoreIt’s been a few years since I’ve actively managed our funeral home, but this recent article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune brought me back to one of the issues that I dealt with in the hiring of employees. That was the issue of non-compete agreements or covenants not to compete. Non-competes have historically been used…
Read MoreAccording to this article in the Kokomo (Indiana) Perspective, the Ellers Mortuary and Cremation Center was acquired by Service Corporation International in 2016. Some feared that the acquisition would cause the Kokomo business, that had been in business since 1924, to lose its personal touch. However, according to General Manager Jaime Handy, “the acquisition has…
Read MoreAustralia’s largest purveyor of death care services, InvoCare, has been accused by some of irregularities in the way that it handles its invoicing. According to this article from Choice.com, InvoCare routinely includes a $320, plus taxes, “administration fee” on invoices. Again, according to the Choice.com article, the administration fee functions somewhat as a “late…
Read MoreRussell & Pica Funeral Homes now operate out of Brockton and West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. According to this article, land is now being cleared for the company’s third location which will be in Lakeville. The funeral home company plans to build a 6,700 foot funeral home on a 70,134 lot across from a Walgreen’s on Bridge…
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