January 30, 2024
Published by 
Taylor Weber on January 30, 2024
Taylor Weber on January 30, 2024As we guide our clients through the uncertainties of 2024, the question of strategic positioning is paramount. We asked Financial Analyst, Taylor Weber to share her insights on how to set your business up for success this year. Question: “How can we strategically position ourselves for success in 2024, and what key factors should we prioritize?” Taylor Weber: This is a very important question and one that we are asked a lot by our clients, especially during the first month of the year. Establishing a solid budget and goals for our clients heading into the new year involves a collaborative effort and an evaluation of qualitative and quantitative factors, particularly considering the unique circumstances of what post-COVID looks like. It is crucial to recognize that comparing historical operations to the anomalous years of 2020-2021 might not be practical. The industry […]
January 30, 2024
Published by 
Nicole Vullo on January 30, 2024
Nicole Vullo on January 30, 2024In our next installment of Ask the Owners, Stephen and Diann Anderson, formerly of Anderson Funeral & Cremation Services discuss the importance of funeral home owners and cemetery operators having a strong understanding of what their consumers wants and needs are: Ask the Owners: Rethinking Consumer Needs in the Funeral Profession As we continue to look at Strategic Evolution it’s my hope that there will be something you read that will ignite or reignite within you a desire to challenge or go beyond the established norms, traditions, or practices within the funeral profession. As I mentioned in last month’s article “Developing a Mission of Legacy” we are going to start thinking about the importance of understanding your customer’s needs and challenges. Let’s begin with a critical issue-the gap in what the funeral profession offers. Challenging Consumer Desires Henry Ford’s famous […]
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 […]
December 28, 2023
Published by Chris Cruger on December 28, 2023
Chris Cruger on December 28, 2023Serving Pet Families Can Be a Worthwhile Proposition Written by Chris Cruger with Alice Adams My friend, Andra, called to tell me her beloved Schatzki, a beautiful 12-year-old German Shepherd, was in hospice, her voice choking with emotion. “I’ll call you as things move along,” she promised. “I cry every time I say ‘hospice,’” she confessed before ending the call. A few days later, Schatzki succumbed in Andra’s arms as the vet administered the euthanizing injection. Her vet was partnered with a local funeral home offering end-of-life services for pets. Two uniformed and neatly groomed attendants waited in a removal vehicle until Andra had said her tearful goodbye. While the vet summoned the waiting attendants, a friend led the sobbing woman out of the room for a glass of wine. While Schatzki was in hospice, Andra made arrangements with the […]
December 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on December 28, 2023
Dan Isard on December 28, 2023After 39 glorious years, which went by in a nanosecond, this issue marks my final column before I turn over this printed space to Chris Cruger, my business successor. I’m also fortunate to hand over ownership and control of The Foresight Companies, which I founded four decades ago, to Cruger and the irrepressible Doug Gober. Selecting them as my successors was one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made, but it took risk, patience and trust by all three of us to achieve a great outcome. With that said, I now seize my chance to bid you, my audience and friends, adieu in my own way. Well, not really “my way” since there will be no math involved. Past I entered the world of funeral service at an amazing time and, ultimately, the evolution of my career was totally on […]
November 28, 2023
Published by Chris Cruger on November 28, 2023
Chris Cruger on November 28, 2023Part 3 of 3 Written by Chris Cruger with Alice Adams Will you succeed in your profession’s new era? Then consider transitioning to transparency a matter of survival. Remember “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? That folktale may have been your first experience with the word “transparent.” As the story goes, the emperor was duped by a tailor, and the new clothes he had ordered were not as they should be. As he marched through the city, his subjects were afraid to tell the emperor that his clothing was transparent – clear, see-through – and that he was, in fact, totally naked! Transparency in business is similar (without the nudity). Transparent businesses publicly share information about their company – information traditionally kept private or revealed only in-house. Transparency today is essential. It is about being real and often carries different meanings from […]
November 28, 2023
Published by Dan Isard on November 28, 2023
Dan Isard on November 28, 2023I am old enough to remember the very first episodes of The Jetsons. This futuristic primetime cartoon showed us the world of tomorrow. While so many of the concepts still have not come to be, many have! But The Jetsons never had a cartoon character die, so we never got to see how George or Jane would have been interred in the future. With all due respect to Hanna-Barbera Productions, here is my best guess at the cemetery of the future. Why is this concept even print worthy for this magazine? Well, you have a major investment in this business for which you have stewardship. Your stewardship will last until you retire and pass that responsibility on (in a nonprofit) or until you sell it (in the case of a management agreement or a for-profit). In most cases, you have […]
November 28, 2023
Published by 
Jarod Bernat on November 28, 2023
Jarod Bernat on November 28, 2023Growing your business can be challenging for some owners and operators within the funeral and cemetery profession. Between competition in your market to adapting to new consumer behaviors, we understand the process of growth can become complex. We asked Senior M&A Analyst, Jarod Bernat to further elaborate significant ways to expand your business. Question: I feel like our funeral home’s market share has hit a plateau and can’t seem to grow any further. How can I continue to grow my business? Jarod Bernat: Since the funeral industry is one where serviceable market areas and direct competitors can be easily identified and tracked, it’s easy to keep up with how you compare to “the other guys”. Sometimes it might feel like you’ve exhausted all resources trying to grow within your market, but you’ve hit a wall and case count won’t budge. […]