COVID-19 Business Resource Center

September 21, 2021
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Updated Insight into the Proposed Tax Legislation

The Democrats who are part of the House Ways and Means Committee have issued an updated draft on the tax legislation. This proposal is one that will have substantial effects to your personal taxes.  For the legislation to pass, a minimum of House and Senate Democrats will need to agree, as well as the White House.  We will continue to keep an eye on the legislative process closely and providing updates throughout the fall legislative cycle. With the proposed legislation totaling over 800 pages it is a challenge for anyone to offer you a comprehensive analysis. The good news is that a handful of the proposed changes would impact transactions or transfers that are made before the new bill is passed. Many of the provisions would not take effect until January 1, 2022.  Highlighted below you will find some of […]
June 23, 2021
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If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying

One of the sexiest topics out there is always growth. The only question is, what does growing really mean? For the purposes of this discussion, let’s consider growth becoming greater over a period of time. Growth doesn’t necessarily mean an aggressive acquisition binge, but it does mean being in a constant state of evolution. As we have seen in the 2021 Foresight Consumer Behavior Study, 32% of consumers have a different attitude toward the funeral and cemetery profession or their expectations for memorialization have changed as a result of the pandemic. Consumers are embracing a new way of doing things – and they have no intention of going back to the old way of doing things. Technology is rapidly becoming the bedrock of the profession. Over the past year, three groupings have emerged – there have been clear winners and […]
June 23, 2021
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Back to the Basics of Leveraging Technology: Building a Robust Website

“When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it” — Jim Collins, Good to Great The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us in the profession—client families, guests, funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries—into having to adopt new ways of doing things. And once we are open to doing things in a new way, we can never really go back to doing things exactly how they were done before. It is human nature. We have been forced to lean on technology in order to serve families—virtual meetings online (via Zoom, WebEx, etc.) for arrangement conferences, DocuSign to obtain signatures for contracts and approvals, online streaming of services, etc. However, this article is not about pioneering technology in deathcare services, nor is it about technology for tech’s sake. Internet, virtual meetings, and streaming services are no longer […]
June 23, 2021
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A Beacon of Hope

Position your firm like Lady Liberty and earn the trust of your community. The year was 1876 and America was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence when the French government presented the United States with a gift to honor the celebration. The colossal neoclassical sculpture known as Liberty Enlightening the World (the Statue of Liberty) was created by French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who crafted it from sheets of hammered copper. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who designed and constructed the Eiffel Tower, created the steel framework that became her endoskeleton. This gift of friendship between two nations was dedicated October 28, 1886 and became known fondly as Lady Liberty. It would become a beacon of hope for millions of immigrants arriving in America via Ellis Island. She also became the epitome of the American dream, one based on the […]
May 24, 2021
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Buying and Selling – The Cost of Time

“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin (Founding Father and polymath) As the aforementioned quote suggests, this writing will focus on potential timelines as well as reasonable expectations of the time it takes to either buy or sell a funeral or cemetery business—when performed correctly.  And just as how I had written about Succession Planning a few months ago, and how like funerals, it just doesn’t happen on its own—that it requires leadership of people active in the process and management of schedules and time.  The buying and selling process is a resulting culmination of your succession planning, and it too requires time management because it simply does not happen overnight.  However, before we discuss what the time costs of buying and selling businesses entail, let’s quickly review what the processes for buying and selling a business […]
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