Money: Getting it and Keeping it
Why The Answer Is Not Just Increasing Volume
I am an accountant. As I have watched the financial metrics of funeral service continue in their long slow decline over the past 30 years my natural response was “make it up in volume.” But then I had the good fortune to get my hands dirty. I actually managed a funeral home and worked along side […]
Doing Nothing Costs Too Much
On my office wall I have framed photos of three men. If I asked you what they have in common I anticipate I would get many different answers but, for me, there is only one answer. Each, in his own way, despite significant personal tragedy and unimaginable public pressure and emotional stress understood the importance […]
Burials down 4%…Cremations up 2.5%…Calculate Your Funeral Cliff
With all the hype about our nation’s pending FISCAL CLIFF, I was recently asked when we could expect funeral service to reach it’s fiscal cliff. For a number of years now it seems that if it weren’t for bad news we wouldn’t have any news at all. Rumor has it that Batesville was reporting last […]
REINVENTION: PROFIT CLINICS
There is a level of neglect in our profession that will (and is) causing too many to approach the end of their careers facing great disappointment, forcing the postponement of retirement or spending retirement much more humbly than anticipated. It is too dangerous to be considered benign. Dangerous, certainly, at the individual firm level. […]
5 Emotional Stages of Selling Your Business
Selling a business is a highly practical exercise wrapped in a thick emotional blanket. Much like the grief cycle we know so well in DeathCare there are stages that are common and, if you know about them, you can prepare. The more prepared you are the better you will be able to negotiate what you […]
Are You Too Proud to Succeed?
A problem, certainly not unique to DeathCare but just as certainly profoundly prevalent, is an artificial sense of professionalism. Born out of defining success by what people might think of us, it blocks our ability to succeed by making us unwilling to “Stoop To Greatness”. I just received this two page post from Patrick Lencioni’s […]