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 […]
June 27, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on June 27, 2023
Dan Isard on June 27, 2023Part One During the past five decades of my career, I’ve had to learn the funeral service profession’s key performance indicators. (We cool geeks just say KPI.) Many of them I had to disprove. Many I had to segregate based on operating factors. Many of them I had to defend from stupid but assertive people. This month, I will try to influence you to follow these KPI as of 2023 and for the foreseeable future. First, you need to know what a KPI is and why we, as business operators, use them. A key performance indicator is a uniformly accepted analysis point that helps you run your business. These analysis points usually involve a computation of at least two key points of operation. For example, dividing revenue by total cases results in a well-known KPI called average revenue per call. […]
May 29, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on May 29, 2023
Dan Isard on May 29, 2023I have attended ICCFA Conventions for decades. I go back to the ACA and when most people knew about half of the membership without looking at the lapel name cards! Yet, most cemeterians don’t seem to retire. Since the ICCFA morphed from the ACA and ICFA, today’s membership is a blend of cemeterians, funeral directors and cremationists. So the matter of retirement is not just a cemeterian problem, it is an industry wide problem. It is just the cemeterians have less options to plug the financial asset gap available to funeral home owners and cremation company owners. Allow me to elaborate. Paraphrasing Old Benjamin Franklin, there are only two things that are certain in life, retirement or death before retirement. As to the later, people can buy life insurance to provide for those they are responsible to care for. As […]
May 29, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on May 29, 2023
Dan Isard on May 29, 2023Funeral home owners and staff, for the most part, are technophobic. Despite this, every reason exists for them to embrace and effectively use technology to improve both their business and their customer service. So, I beseech you to either embrace it or hire some 17-year-old kid to do it for you. Funeral service has always hated technology, however. The last technology this profession universally adopted was gravity! Cremation remained a limited service before we could automate a crematory. The first manually operated cremation in the 1880s actually took three days to complete. Even with the automation of the modern retort, a few fires still destroy the crematory, and sometimes the building, each year. Another technology – the telephone – helped save time but, most importantly, gave way to the answering service. Why? Because nothing costs funeral homes more money than […]