Business

How do you hold on to Heritage Families?

By Funeral Director Daily / January 28, 2019 /

All businesses that want to grow and prosper need to acquire new customers.  That is a pretty simple concept.  But one thing I’m always amazed at is how so many times business take for granted the customers that they have already acquired. Think about that for a moment. . . . if you can continue…

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Foundation Partners adds Arizona Firm

By Funeral Director Daily / January 17, 2019 /

Earlier in January it was announced that Foundation Partners Group had acquired the Angel Valley Funeral Home & Old Pueblo Crematory in Tucson, Arizona.  According to a press release from Foundation Partners that you can read here, Mike and Dee Dee Orcutt had owned the business for about ten years prior to this change of…

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Being Efficient versus Cost Cutting

By Funeral Director Daily / January 15, 2019 /

So many things about business fundamentals cross over from one industry to another.  I’m writing this article on Sunday and thinking about a meeting I will have tomorrow in the role I play as Chairman of the Finance and Operations Committee of a Big Ten university.  We are working on the budget and tomorrow I’m…

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Know your vendors. . . an update. . . .perspective

By Funeral Director Daily / January 10, 2019 /

Today I was looking through some ideas and came upon three subjects that, while not all open for in-depth stories and opinions, I thought were interesting enough in their own right to just mention and let you take a look yourself if you wanted to delve deeper into the subject matter. The first item that…

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Thinking outside the box

By Funeral Director Daily / January 9, 2019 /

Sometimes what seems like the obvious isn’t always the best.  Yesterday we wrote about trying to bring the volume of your services number to a larger number and how that could help by reducing your costs per service.  One way we suggested doing that was by an acquisition in the same geographic area of your…

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Working towards an acquistion

By Funeral Director Daily / January 8, 2019 /

A really nice article about Leo and Jeff Marshall, the father/son team that has owned and operated the Marshall Funeral Home in Greenville, Michigan since 1967 was published in the Daily News of Montcalm and Ionia Counties of Michigan the other day.  You can read the article here. It is a really fine article that…

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Maintaining -and Adding To – Your Heritage Business

By Funeral Director Daily / January 7, 2019 /

Great funeral homes and cemeteries don’t just pop up and start making lots of money overnight.  Matter of fact, it is very rare that a death care business can open in a new locale served by others and make a profit within the first couple of years.  New operations have to be ready to spill…

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Could we have an LBO or Hostile Takeover in the Death Care Industry

By Funeral Director Daily / December 31, 2018 /

One of the things that I find interesting about the death care industry is the continuing consolidation and spin-offs that seem to always occur.  Get a few funeral directors together and they are always talking about who is acquiring who. I’ve been around long enough to see upstart Prime Succession grow fast and then be…

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Christmas, Grief, and Your Funeral Home’s Options

By Funeral Director Daily / December 21, 2018 /

It was back in April 1977 that I remember losing my father to a sudden heart attack while he was serving at a funeral.  As a teenager you remember where you were when you were first told and then the rest of the visitation, funeral, and following time is somewhat forgot except for a few…

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SCI to again sponsor float at Tournament of Roses Parade

By Funeral Director Daily / December 20, 2018 /

In a press release that you can read here it was announced that Service Corporation International will, for the 11th consecutive year, be a major sponsor of the “Donate Life” float at the 130th Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 2019, in Pasadena, California. SCI and its brand, Dignity Memorial, will be the sponsor…

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