July 27, 2023
Published by 
Gabriel Ngo on July 27, 2023
Gabriel Ngo on July 27, 2023Upping Your Game as a Virtual Business “HARD CONVERSATIONS” and “NORMALIZING DISCOMFORT” are two concepts that funeral, cremation, and cemetery professionals handle and deal with daily. We all recognize the ideal of “being your best on the family’s worst day,” or something very similar, and take it as a rule in serving the families who come to us. Certainly, we all have been called on and have exemplified this in person through various aspects of serving families who need our services. But how do we continue to do this (much less do it better) in a “brave new world” where more and more consumers depend on the internet—whether it be in educating themselves before deciding or by reading reviews from other client families when deciding about choosing your firm? I published an article on e-commerce in the July 2022 issue […]
June 27, 2023
Published by Gabriel Ngo on June 27, 2023
Gabriel Ngo on June 27, 2023Legal Reality Check: Case Study #5 Scenario: Peter Smith is a third-generation owner-operator of P. R. Smith & Sons Funeral Home & Crematory in northeast Florida. He’s in his first few years leading his firm, following in the footsteps of his father, Mark, and uncle, John, who had followed in their father, Paul’s, footsteps. Through the pandemic-heavy years of 2020 and 2021, Peter’s progressive thinking and technology-forward approach allowed the family funeral home to thrive and gain market share throughout the communities they serve. Investing in a complete website redesign in 2019 is one decision Peter attributes to his early success. It transformed the website into a topnotch, “front door” virtual site that truly informs the consumer of the business’ unique designations, options, features and value proposition. The site presents the funeral home’s pricing strategically and transparently. The website also […]
December 19, 2022
Published by Gabriel Ngo on December 19, 2022
Gabriel Ngo on December 19, 2022Scenario: Laura Laney is a third-generation owner-operator of Laney Funeral Home & Crematory in mid-Eastern Texas. Her family’s business has seen its share of trials and tribulations but has weathered them all and continues to thrive and grow. Laura’s business is just close enough to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to benefit from the bustling growth yet far enough away to have experienced a comparatively slower rise in cremation rates – which has allowed Laura (and her father, Lynn, before her) to educate the community and families she serves on the value and importance of services and gatherings being no different than burial when families select cremation as an option. Throughout COVID, Laney Funeral Home & Crematory found legal ways around restrictions in order to provide full burial and cremation services to appreciative families as often as they could. Over the […]
July 24, 2022
Published by Gabriel Ngo on July 24, 2022
Gabriel Ngo on July 24, 2022EI, the biggest workplace performance predictor and strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence, begins with you. “Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.”– Simon Sinek, Author and Inspirational Speaker While there is no “I” in TEAM, the winning team you build (or currently have) must start somewhere, and that somewhere begins with you, Mr./Ms. Owner-Operator. By default, and regardless of whether you wanted to be a leader or not, your team looks to you to be captain of your ship. Throughout my career, I have worked for others and found myself wishing that this leader was more “this way” and that leader more “that way.” However, none of us is ever complete and perfect. I have always found myself learning what I should do under past managers and leaders, but just as importantly, I have learned […]
July 24, 2022
Published by Gabriel Ngo on July 24, 2022
Gabriel Ngo on July 24, 2022E-commerce Is What Families Are Expecting Serve future customers. Is that not what all businesses set out to do? Substitute “customers” with “families” and replace “stores” with “funeral homes” and the quote below from the CEO of Walmart could have easily come from Tom Ryan (SCI), Mel Payne (Carriage), Brad Green (Park Lawn), or any other CEO for companies in the funeral, cemetery, and cremation profession. Or replace “customers” with “patients” and “stores” with “hospitals” and this quote can easily apply to hospitals/healthcare as well (and make no mistake about it folks, hospitals are businesses, with the majority of them being for profit). However, the part of the quote that I would like to focus on is “e-commerce” (before tying it all back to the rest of the quote and what it all means to you). So, what is e-commerce? […]