January 30, 2024
Published by 
Chris Cruger on January 30, 2024
Chris Cruger on January 30, 2024Building your success on awareness and a plan. As we begin 2024, I am humbled to be a part of this business and finance column going forward. We have some big shoes to fill after the wisdom Dan Isard has brought to this column for decades. My focus is going to be on planning, awareness and accountability in your business. I want to challenge you to make 2024 the best year it can be and then grow from there. I believe that awareness, or understanding, is a core principle in business success. Awareness of yourself, your business and your community is what charts the path forward in these turbulent times. The more you understand your present situation, the better prepared you will be to adapt going forward. A key part of awareness is knowing where we are today and where […]
December 28, 2023
Published by 
Jared Tanke on December 28, 2023
Jared Tanke on December 28, 2023We begin 2024 in just a few days. For many people, it is a stressful time wrapping up the year and beginning the next. However, it is our goal to help relieve some of that stress. We asked Senior M&A Analyst, Jared Tanke to share a few key questions to ask yourself now, in order to keep 2024 in focus and make it your best year yet: What went well in 2023? By asking yourself this question, you must recall the past 12 months and identify the things that you, your staff, did well. Was there anything you changed or did differently this year than years past, and if so, how did that look and feel? Sometimes this is done by performing a SWOT analysis, which goes out identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and your opportunities and threats. While we […]
December 28, 2023
Published by 
Nicole Vullo on December 28, 2023
Nicole Vullo on December 28, 2023In our next installment of Ask the Owners, Stephen and Diann Anderson, formerly of Anderson Funeral & Cremation Services discuss strategies funeral home owners and cemetery operators must take in order to create a lasting impact and legacy: Forging a Lasting Impact: Crafting Your Enduring Legacy Through Your Mission “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happenin’ at the same time.” Forest Gump It started very subtly, the first sign happened when I visited my hairdresser, and she asked me if I wanted to put a few highlights in my hair to help cover the gray hair that was starting to grow instead of my natural color. And it continued; one day I noticed when I tried to […]
December 28, 2023
Published by 
Gabriel Ngo on December 28, 2023
Gabriel Ngo on December 28, 2023Scenario: Stewart Spector is a fourth-generation owner-operator of Spector & Steinberger Funeral & Cremation Services in Smyrna, Georgia. The business changed to its current name from its original name of Spector & Sons Funeral Home in early 2010 when Stewart’s key employee, Nell (“Nelly”) Steinberger, bought into the business. This was also the year that Stewart and Nell started their pet end-of-life service business, Rainbow Bridge Pets, since both were animal lovers as well. Spurred on by Nelly’s passion for the environment and greener alternatives, they decided to make the investment and offer only flameless cremation for their pet families, installing only a resomator in their newly built facilities. Because both Stewart and Nelly believed so much in flameless cremation or aquamation/alkaline hydrolysis as a “greener” alternative to flamed cremation as well as it being a “gentler” process, it was […]
December 28, 2023
Published by 
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023I have been blessed. I have worked my lifetime doing what I love and with people I respect as clients or co-workers. Truth be told, I can’t believe I earned a living. It was not work but a pure joy … most days. Now, I get to ride out of Dodge on my own horse, sitting upright. This is my last column, for I am now retired. The company that I founded, The Foresight Companies, and have reinvented for four decades, is continuing in the hands of my partners, Chris Cruger and Doug Gober. In fact, Chris will continue to provide thought-provoking ideas in this space going forward. In my swan song of a column, I would like to thank the members of the cemetery profession and all ICCFA’s members. More than that, I would like to beseech you to […]