death care
Carriage Services reported their 1st Quarter of 2022 last week and in doing so highlighted the strength of their funeral home operations. “Same Store” service contracts increased about 3.3% and average revenue on those services increased 1.2% over the same period of last year which led to a Funeral Home Operating Revenue increase of $3.3…
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I just returned from an annual event that takes place each year and benefits the Funeral Service Foundation and the ICCFA Educational Foundation. The event, dubbed The Memorial Classic and started by Johnson Consulting Group founder Tom Johnson over 40 years ago completed its 2022 event last week. I’ve been fortunate to have been a…
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After two years of absence because of the pandemic, the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting was once again held in person last weekend in Omaha, Nebraska. 91-year old Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett again presided over the meeting and, as usual, gave sage advice on many aspects of business. In responding to a question about what…
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If you are like me, you might not even know where you are sitting with Continuing Education credits to keep your license current. I need to check because I know that because of the Covid pandemic some of the CE credits required for my funeral director and insurance agent requirements were temporarily suspended because of…
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Matthews International, an international conglomerate which serves the death care industry with memorial products, reported their January through March 2022 financial numbers last week. Because they choose to report on a Fiscal Year that begins on October 1 each year, this report is considered their 2022 2nd Quarter Report. You can access a copy of…
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Just as you would take an inventory of your physical health at least once a year, I also think it is imperative that you take a look at your business’ health at least that often. And, while we meet with our bankers and accountants to take a deep look in the financial health of our…
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When you read this it will already be May 2022 and we will be two-thirds of the way into the 2nd Quarter of most company’s 2022 business year. As a matter of fact, the reports of January thru March have already started to roll out as Matthews International provided us information on the January thru…
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Over last weekend while doing some research I stumbled across this article on Matthews International. As you may know Matthews is the parent company of Aurora Caskets and Matthews Cremation. What you maybe don’t know is that they are a world-wide conglomerate who is making a big bet on the electric car market with a…
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For a long-time I’ve been a believer in TOMA — “Top of Mind Awareness” for funeral home brand building which can lead to market share building. “Top of Mind Awareness” is defined as one measure of how well a business brand ranks in the minds of the consumer. And, I’ve always felt that TOMA was…
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We’ve written about the problem before in this forum. “The problem” being the lack of revenue for historic city and association cemeteries since the country’s cremation rate increased to a majority of dispositions. The increase in cremations has decreased cemetery sales in full body burial lots and interment fees. . . .as a matter of…
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