December 28, 2023
Published by 
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023I have been blessed. I have worked my lifetime doing what I love and with people I respect as clients or co-workers. Truth be told, I can’t believe I earned a living. It was not work but a pure joy … most days. Now, I get to ride out of Dodge on my own horse, sitting upright. This is my last column, for I am now retired. The company that I founded, The Foresight Companies, and have reinvented for four decades, is continuing in the hands of my partners, Chris Cruger and Doug Gober. In fact, Chris will continue to provide thought-provoking ideas in this space going forward. In my swan song of a column, I would like to thank the members of the cemetery profession and all ICCFA’s members. More than that, I would like to beseech you to […]
December 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on December 28, 2023
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023After 39 glorious years, which went by in a nanosecond, this issue marks my final column before I turn over this printed space to Chris Cruger, my business successor. I’m also fortunate to hand over ownership and control of The Foresight Companies, which I founded four decades ago, to Cruger and the irrepressible Doug Gober. Selecting them as my successors was one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made, but it took risk, patience and trust by all three of us to achieve a great outcome. With that said, I now seize my chance to bid you, my audience and friends, adieu in my own way. Well, not really “my way” since there will be no math involved. Past I entered the world of funeral service at an amazing time and, ultimately, the evolution of my career was totally on […]
November 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on November 28, 2023
Dan Isard on November 28, 2023I am old enough to remember the very first episodes of The Jetsons. This futuristic primetime cartoon showed us the world of tomorrow. While so many of the concepts still have not come to be, many have! But The Jetsons never had a cartoon character die, so we never got to see how George or Jane would have been interred in the future. With all due respect to Hanna-Barbera Productions, here is my best guess at the cemetery of the future. Why is this concept even print worthy for this magazine? Well, you have a major investment in this business for which you have stewardship. Your stewardship will last until you retire and pass that responsibility on (in a nonprofit) or until you sell it (in the case of a management agreement or a for-profit). In most cases, you have […]
November 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on November 28, 2023
Dan Isard on November 28, 2023Every year for almost 40 years, I have worked with funeral home owners and managers, as well as cemeterians, to create their annual business plans. As I prepare to exit my chosen career, I want the next-to-last lesson plan I offer you to be about, er, well… planning. I have learned more than I ever thought possible about planning for my lifetime, so allow me to be your wise “Uncle Murray” this month. The “big picture” is actually not one image but more like a jigsaw puzzle, made up of all sorts of pieces, small and large, that together form your life. While those of you who chose to become business owners have a picture within the big picture called your business, each individual’s pieces should all fit together to form their life plan. It’s only after retiring that you […]
October 25, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on October 25, 2023
Dan Isard on October 25, 2023Last month, I provided a postmortem of the most common causes leading to the death of a funeral business. Here, I share a few thoughts on eulogizing those firms. Funeral directors are mission-driven people, not profit-driven people. Just as a church can fail if its revenue does not exceed its expenses, so, too, can a funeral home. Unlike other for-profit businesses, funeral providers cannot generate more revenue by advertising or somehow “stimulating” business. At-need services cannot be driven. The death of many iconic businesses can be tied to technology. Do funeral homes face the same risk? Big-box retailers were hurt by technology, for example, and Amazon is now the independent-business killer that Walmart was accused of being 30 years ago. That said, Amazon can’t even deliver caskets in a timely manner, so I doubt it could handle cremation very well […]
October 25, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on October 25, 2023
Dan Isard on October 25, 2023Owning a fully subscribed cemetery is not a good thing. In fact, no one wants to be the owner of a fully subscribed cemetery! City and state planners, being what they are, have made many mistakes when it comes to cemeteries. Crazy how that cemetery, which was planned to be on the farthest reaches of the city a century ago, now is located practically in downtown! How does that happen? Well, cemeteries are not mobile, of course. Once that land is consecrated, it is fixed. The city’s growth must grow around the cemetery, short of disinterring the cemetery. In my experience, managing what is now an “urban” cemetery is a great problem to manage. But the bigger issue is when that cemetery becomes fully subscribed and there are no interment rights to sell. State regulators planning for a cemetery usually […]
September 26, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on September 26, 2023
Dan Isard on September 26, 2023In the last generation or so, the funeral industry has lost more than 2,000 funeral home rooftops – from about 22,000 to just under 20,000. How many more are on the brink of going under in the next decade? This month, I offer my assessment of why funeral home businesses die. Charles Darwin is well regarded as a naturalist and biologist, but his thought-provoking propositions dealing with evolution do not just apply to zoology. I believe they equally apply to economic matters. When it is too easy for people to make lots of money, a Darwinian “economic pall” will occur so that only the best and brightest can dominate the business landscape. In short, I think businesses must “migrate, mutate or die.” Some think prejudicially that cremation is a factor in funeral home failures. I disagree. Cremation is only the […]
August 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on August 28, 2023
Dan Isard on August 28, 2023In the June 2023 Memento Mori, I explained why no one has yet to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for a cemetery. That doesn’t mean that cemeteries should wonder aimlessly in their operations, bumping into financial walls at each turn. Below are my management objectives for running a cemetery—with or without advance sales. Revenue Revenue is the key starting point of operations. You should not be confident that since you have plenty of lawn space that you are a well-run cemetery. Revenue is the key. More revenue is more beneficial than less. Revenue is driven by four items. These are: Sales of Merchandise Cemetery Service Revenue Endowment Care/Perpetual Care Trust (“EC/PC Trust”) Income Sales of Interment Rights In your bookkeeping, you should separate the At Need Sales Revenue from the Advance Sales Revenue. Each of the first three items above […]
August 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on August 28, 2023
Dan Isard on August 28, 2023The chemistry of funeral service is changing dramatically and I fear the profession is at the point of crossing the Rubicon, i.e., the point of no return. Funeral providers currently face declining funeral gathering rates, meaning they won’t need (and might not be able to afford) their 10,000-plus-square-foot buildings. Thus, the average revenue per call is declining because when a family doesn’t hold a gathering before the disposition, some five points of sale are eliminated from your general price list. Funeral service today is just that, a service. For you youngsters, prior to the early 1980s and the issuance of the Funeral Rule by the Federal Trade Commission, funeral homes were in the merchandise business. They sold the casket and all the other services – embalming, facility use, livery, etc. – were pretty much included in the price of the […]
July 27, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on July 27, 2023
Dan Isard on July 27, 2023Being born into the deathcare business is the way that most of the owners and leaders of cemeteries and funeral homes chose their careers before 1970. Almost 75% of cemeteries or funeral homes were transferred from family member to family member. Families that wanted to increase the odds that the next generation would take over the business had large families. But family or not, those who chose to come into the cemetery business started in one of three career paths: outside, administration, or sales. If you were a kid who didn’t like sales, then it was either wear the outdoor uniform or sharpen your pencil. In thinking about the future, I am going to focus on the path to working with a cemetery more than on the path to working in the funeral services business. That said, it should be […]
July 27, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on July 27, 2023
Dan Isard on July 27, 2023As I explained in last month’s column, key performance indicators (KPI) are simple mathematic equations that can help you run your business. When calculating these analysis points, the results are usually shown as a fraction, but if you divide the numerator (the top number) by the denominator (the bottom number) and multiply it by 100, you end up with a percentage. For example, let’s say you want to determine what percentage of your revenue your auto expenses take up. If your total auto expenses are $50,000, and your revenue is $1,000,000, then that fraction is written as 50,000/1,000,000. If you divide the numerator by the denominator (50,000 ÷ 1,000,000) and multiply the result by 100, the percentage is 5%. Now, knowing whether 5% is good or bad business-wise is another story. That takes a frame of reference, and I have […]
June 27, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on June 27, 2023
Dan Isard on June 27, 2023We all look to compare ourselves to others. In the world of business, we can only do this by relying on a common set of indicators. These indicators are called Key Performance Indicators or abbreviated as KPI’s. In the cemetery business, there are only a few reliable KPI’s.I have studied this phenomenon for 40 years. As I reach the end of my career, I feel compelled to raise the subject and explain why it is so. Here Comes the Math KPI’s are expressed as a percentage. As you remember from seventh grade algebra, the percentage is computed from a ratio. To understand the KPI for overhead, you have a nominator that is the Expense over the denominator which is Revenue. Therein is the problem of establishing a KPI for cemeteries. The Revenue is inconsistent because some cemeteries have an emphasis […]