March 22, 2021
Published by 
Dan Isard on March 22, 2021
Dan Isard on March 22, 2021In this industry spotlight, we want to highlight key insights on the trends occurring in our profession. A trend is defined as “a general direction in which something is developing or changing”. We use trends all the time and many are very clear to us. For example, funeral home “Calls”. If a firm over the past 3 years performs the following: Year 2018 2019 2020 Calls 200 200 200 Do you see a trend? No, not as it pertains to Gross Number of Calls. But, drill down into the data a bit and look at the following: Year 2018 2019 2020 Calls 200 200 200 Revenue (net of Cash Advances) $1,300,000 $1,270,000 $1,250,000 Do you see a trend here? Yes, the trend is that Revenue is declining and since case count is level, the revenue/call is therefore declining. Year 2018 […]
March 22, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on March 22, 2021
Dan Isard on March 22, 2021The magnitude of the pandemic means you must reexamine your business from every angle. The past 12 months have been the longest in the history of mankind as we endured agonizing experiences caused by COVID-19. It was on March 11, 2020, that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And funeral service changed. Just as those who survived the Great Depression were never the same, everyone in America (and the world) will never be the same. In the world of funeral service, we have seen every dynamic of the business change – from the behavior of consumers and their support teams to the professionals. As consumer behavior changes, funeral service professionals must adapt. And while funeral service typically does a bad job reacting to change as a profession, the magnitude of the pandemic means you must revisit everything you […]
February 22, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on February 22, 2021
Dan Isard on February 22, 2021Can there be a more boring subject to discuss during a worldwide pandemic than accounting? If that is what you are thinking, I disagree. Accounting is the oxygen to keep your business alive. You don’t understand it, so you denigrate its existence. Invest eight minutes into reading this article. If I have not changed your opinion, send me an e-mail yelling at me for wasting eight minutes of your time. If I have succeeded, go out and get a tattoo that says, “Accountants are cool!” The problem with your lack of appreciation for accounting is because your accountant is not making it important. Most cemetery managers think there are three reasons for accounting: Tax Return Accuracy Regulatory Compliance Trust Management If this is your honest opinion, that is fine. It is just like saying, when you go into a restaurant, […]
February 21, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on February 21, 2021
Dan Isard on February 21, 2021In this industry spotlight, we want to highlight key insights into family business succession. As a young parent, you hold your baby in your arms as you sit at your desk. You are doing all the tasks that you couldn’t get accomplished during the normal business hours. You look at this innocent life and think, “someday baby, you will be sitting in this exact desk, doing these exact chores”. But will they? As a business owner, you now have another “stakeholder” in your decisions in this new life. Your business must provide great service for your families, must be profitable to provide for your household and now provide more for that household as this new creature has increased your economic liabilities. Yet, with compassion you are thinking you have just begun to train your next generation of business owner. First, […]
February 21, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on February 21, 2021
Dan Isard on February 21, 2021And green funerals since the beginning of time. This month, my challenge is to write about memorialization and green funerals. On the surface, the subjects appear unrelated, so, like any writer who wants to understand a topic, I first made sure I understood their definitions. “Memorialization,” a noun, is defined generally as “the process of preserving memories of people or events.” The phrase “green funerals,” a noun more or less defined by the Green Burial Council, is “a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact.” As I said, unrelated subjects… until I dug deeper. What do these two concepts have in common? Here, I quote Banksy, an English street artist and activist, who said, “…They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your […]
January 22, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on January 22, 2021
Dan Isard on January 22, 2021In this industry spotlight, we want to highlight key insights into business succession. Every business will be sold or liquidated someday. Given the choice, sold is usually much better. Today there are about 19,000 funeral homes in the United States. This is down from about 21,000, only 20 years ago. To understand business succession metrics, you need to understand the following: How we lost 2,000 funeral homes? When did the total population has increased by about 20,000,000 Americans? What is the Average Age of American’s increased slightly? When did the mortality rate increase? We lost these businesses as active businesses because three dynamics: The business real estate was more valuable for general commercial purposes than it was as a funeral home The profitability of funeral homes is limited and as expenses increase, especially for staff and benefits, the profit decreases […]
January 22, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on January 22, 2021
Dan Isard on January 22, 2021Dear readers: Since 2006, you have endured my monthly column, Finance 101, and worked hard to read each installment without moving your lips, perform math without pencil and paper, and avoid laughing out loud as you read the column in the back of church during a service. (Cue Pomp and Circumstance background music.) Well, congratulations and move your tassel to the other side because we’re now going to take things to the next level and enter the realm of Finance 201! So, what’s the difference between 101 and 201? Like any good professor, you spoon-feed the freshmen and then exasperate the sophomores (i.e., it’s your time to be exasperated). Finance 201 will not look at your business but rather at the businesses of others. This column will also feel more “interview-ish” as we learn from those who are doing things […]
January 22, 2021
Published by Dan Isard on January 22, 2021
Dan Isard on January 22, 2021“Dan, I own a 45-acre cemetery that has about 10 acres sold. We sell about 100 graves a year. We are interning about 10 urns a year. We have no above-ground crypts or niches as that takes a substantial investment. At this rate, it could take 350 years to use up all this land. Can I take some of it out of the cemetery trust and sell it off?” –Tom in Small Town, Minnesota Dear Small Town Tom, First, your math is wrong. You have much more than 350 years of inventory! I am assuming you are multiplying the 35 acres of undeveloped land by 1,000 graves an acre (35,000 potential graves) and then dividing that by a consumption of 100 graves a year. The mathematical result is about 350 years. This is a case of the math being right […]
December 21, 2020
Published by Dan Isard on December 21, 2020
Dan Isard on December 21, 2020 The Changing Landscape of the Deathcare Industry My first entry into the funeral business came through the pet business, at about age 5! One of my friends had a bird die, and we kids wanted to have a funeral. We used a shoe box as a casket. My mother had just dug a garden with rose bushes, so we placed the shoebox beneath one of the rose bushes. A few days later, a kid had a turtle die and we went at it again. We were enjoying ourselves while my mother could not figure out what or who was digging up her garden. Then Herby’s gerbil got sick. We got another shoe box and prepared to bury that gerbil. But when my mother came to investigate, the gerbil escaped; and I was never allowed in her garden again! The pet […]
December 21, 2020
Published by Dan Isard on December 21, 2020
Dan Isard on December 21, 2020In this industry spotlight, we bring you key insights into tax planning. In planning for your tax year to end, if your business or businesses are a calendar year end, there are some things for you to do. Keep in mind, regardless of the fiscal year end of your business, you as an individual are a calendar year taxpayer. With the election of President Biden, it is well understood there is a strong likelihood for a change in the income tax rates including the capital gains rates. Therefore, there is a benefit to capture income this year at the presumptive lower tax rates. Here are my top 10 things to do to close out the 2020 Calendar Year: Make sure any bonuses that you want to be paid are paid out, especially to anyone that has an ownership in the […]
December 21, 2020
Published by Dan Isard on December 21, 2020
Dan Isard on December 21, 2020Life is what happens when you’re making other plans. In September 2019, my publisher shared with me his idea for 2020’s editorial theme: “20/20 Vision.” Thus, we meticulously laid out the focus of each month’s article and left my December column – the one you’re reading right now – to arrange all of the pieces and tie the previous 11 months together. Well, guess what? It can no longer be done! For the record, in 30 years of writing articles for The Director, I have never all-capped a sentence. Moreover, I’ve worked with my publisher for at least 25 years, but he did not take the novel coronavirus into consideration. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people and scarred the health of millions more, turned his plans and your business upside down! As a study my company […]
November 23, 2020
Published by Dan Isard on November 23, 2020
Dan Isard on November 23, 2020In this industry spotlight, we bring you key insights into low-cost funeral providers. In my 40 years in funeral service I have seen a rise in the quantity and legitimacy of low-cost funeral providers. In the 1980’s if someone was “donating their body to science or their university” they were often thought of as a nutjob. Those people that chose to use the services of Neptune Society or other low cost regional or national providers of the time were scoffed at by their friends. Family fights would often break-out when the kids found out the parents made their choice to be cremated. In the early consumer studies known as The Wirthlin Report, consumers chose a funeral home based upon price less than 5% of the time. However, since the 1980’s the rise in value seeking consumers has turned mainstream. Why? […]