Ask the Analyst

Staffing and employee retention has been an issue for various sectors in recent years. In particular, the funeral and cemetery profession has experienced the effects of this business pain point.  We asked Jared Tanke to share his insights as to what owners and operators can implement into their business models now to retain good employees. Question: How do I retain good employees? Jared Tanke: I recently attended the NFDA Leadership Conference in Ponte Vedra, FL. As a first-time attendee at this event, I was excited about networking with so many different funeral home owners, state association executives, and others. Throughout my time I was involved in many conversations around the biggest challenges facing the funeral profession. A question that kept coming up was “how do we retain talent?” This falls right in line with our 2024 Funeral & Cemetery Consumer […]

Establishing a funeral home or cemetery business for future success is crucial for its longevity as well as for a smooth ownership transition. You must be proactive in this approach and take early steps as opposed to waiting for when it must be done. We asked Financial Analyst, Luke Potter to go into further detail on the process. Question: What steps can I do now in my business plan to set my funeral home up to be successful? Luke Potter: Setting up a funeral home for future success is essential for ensuring its longevity and the smooth transition of ownership. Proactive succession planning is a key component of this preparation. By identifying and mentoring potential successors early, whether they are family members or key employees, funeral directors can provide continuity and stability. Developing leadership skills and creating a comprehensive transition […]

Written by Jarod Bernat As the first half of 2024 comes to a close, it is time to take a look back at how the year has unfolded so far. I’m sure everyone established a budget at the start of 2024, and I’m also sure everyone has set aside time to review how they’ve done versus their expectations through the first six months of the year. Could you read my sarcasm there? Okay, maybe it’s a bit presumptive to assume everyone took time to budget their year out, especially since we’re talking about a profession that’s infamous for being a 24/7 commitment. But it is vitally important to our evolution as business owners to set goals each year, and then afterwards, reflect on our performance against those goals. This means that we must intermittently self-evaluate to identify times in which […]

Q1 is Over, Now What? Written by Jared Tanke If you are like me, you are probably thinking how in the world are we already four months into the year? While relatively early still, it is always a good idea to take a minute to review what has gone well, what has not gone well, and figure out how to adjust with the remainder of the year. Just like SCI, Park Lawn, and Carriage do every quarter for their investors, every business owner no matter the size should have a quarterly report.  Let’s dive into some of the key things to look at: Number of services – When looking at number of services in the quarter, we should not just fixate on the total, but really break it down into the number of traditional burials, traditional cremations, direct cremations, trade […]