Funeral home appraisal, funeral home valuation, cemetery appraisal, cemetery valuation Multiples and how they are chosen For the past 20 years Funeral Home Values have been expressed most often as a multiple of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). It was not always so. Prior to the 90’s values were often expressed as [...]
A Management lesson from the bible One of the most common and pervasive staffing problems in funeral service is the man or woman who undermines almost every current and future issue management tries to address. They are the "Mayor of the Prep Room". No matter what initiative you attempt, they quietly work behind the scenes to [...]
for the past 4 weeks I have been attempting to spark a conversation about Pricing Strategy against the backdrop of a recent Harvard Business Review article: "How to Stop Customers From Fixating on Price." Candace Franco responded with great insight: "Very thought provoking … but here is one I’d like to talk over with someone [...]
Partition Prices to Highlight Overlooked Benefits This is the 4th and last in a series on pricing strategy based on an article from Harvard Business Review of the same title. The purpose of this series is to stimulate thought and conversation among practitioners about pricing as a strategy rather than simply as a way of [...]
Part 3 Willfully Overpricing to Stimulate Curiosity Last week we discussed the commoditized customer and the second of 4 pricing strategies: “Using Price Structure to Clarify Your Advantage.” If you didn’t think I was certifiable last week there is a good chance you will be thinking about sending me for treatment this week. Please remember: [...]
Part 2: “Using Price to Clarify Your Advantage” Increasingly, funeral markets are being commoditized. This series is adapted from an article in Harvard Business Review entitled “How to Stop Customers from Fixating on Price.” You can purchase a pdf copy directly by clicking on the link. In the article the authors point out that: “Most [...]
How "The Hawthorne Effect" got us off focus The formal casket and vault merchandising systems so common today in funeral homes are a relatively new innovation. But their impact is disproportionate to their value. The industry began experimenting with formal merchandising systems sometime in the late 1960’s. I don’t know whether it was Buddy Hunter [...]
As I was preparing this week's article my friend, Dale Clock, posted this question and a followup on his blog Dale Time. (please click on the highlighted words and read his full comments) This is a phenomenon that has become all too familiar and one that deserves discussion and feedback. How do you handle price shoppers? [...]
Why it is so important that you practice Critical Thinking I am concerned that we, as a profession, are making vital decisions about our future largely on the basis of opinion and conjecture. Worse, we are allowing ourselves to be influenced by strong personalities or companies who have a need to fit their product into our solution. [...]
Breaking The Cycle DeathCare is in its 13th year of declining profitability. Last year is reported as our worst year ever and it's beginning to tell. Answer these questions: ___Do you sometimes feel trapped? ___Do you sometimes dread going to work? ___Is it easier to do it yourself than tell someone how to do it? [...]