July 25, 2025
Selling a funeral home isn’t like selling a used sedan. You’re passing on a community landmark—a place where neighbors mourned parents. Every extra week a sale drags feels like someone’s poking that legacy with a stick. Recently, our Foresight team—analysts, directors, and spreadsheet warriors—gathered to talk about deals that just won’t close. We tossed a QR code on the screen and asked: “Give us one word for deals that refuse to close.” The word cloud exploded: FRUSTRATED, EXHAUSTED, ANXIOUS, ANNOYED. Not a single “thrilled.” That’s deal fatigue. Let it fester, and it’ll torch value faster than a broken retort. Here’s your survival playbook: how to spot deal fatigue, why it happens, and how to keep your sale—and your sanity—on track. What Deal Fatigue Looks Like Deal fatigue is the slow-burn stress that creeps in when: Deadlines keep sliding. “Just another […]
July 25, 2025
Funeral service owners wear many hats—counselor, manager, operations lead—but one of the most important roles is strategist. Whether you’re five or fifteen years away from retirement, you need to think ahead. The most successful owners plan years in advance, staying ahead of trends, preparing their staff, and organizing their business so that when it’s time to step away, the transition feels like a natural next step—not a fire drill. Long-term thinking creates flexibility and options, whether you’re training a family successor or preparing for a sale. Technology is one of the easiest ways to future-proof your funeral home. Case management systems, digital arrangement tools, and customer relationship platforms are no longer nice-to-haves—they’re the foundation for efficiency. They streamline the front office, reduce errors, and create better visibility into how your business operates. They also make your firm more attractive to […]
July 25, 2025
It’s Not a Simple Cremation…Tips on educating client families for better results in the funeral home
Written By Jen Graziano, Attorney, Licensed Funeral Director NY/CT Coxe & Graziano Funeral Home If funeral directors were surveyed and asked how many times they’ve heard a family call say, “I’m just looking for a simple cremation” the numbers would be astounding. These calls seem to come with far more frequency these days. Funeral directors often find themselves in a tug of war, fighting to keep the family yet also fighting to protect their bottom line. To all those who have longed looked with envy upon our industry for its inherent “recession proof” nature, rest assured, we are fighting for our life every day in the battle against a new consumer, a consumer with no regard for the sacred nature of our work. While volume may rise each year for a funeral home, revenue margins per case are noticeably shrinking […]
July 25, 2025
How to Stop Fighting the Algorithm and Start Winning the Modern Funeral Consumer Let me paint a picture. It’s 2007. You’ve got your first smartphone, your ringtone is probably “Low” by Flo Rida, and your marketing strategy? A yellow pages ad, maybe a billboard, and—if you were really ahead of the curve—a website that looked like it was designed by your nephew in high school. Fast forward to today. AI is writing love poems, algorithms decide who sees what before they’ve even thought about needing it, and TikTok influencers are selling everything from shampoo to caskets (seriously). So, let me ask you this: has your marketing plan kept up with the times… or is it still buffering? If your strategy could use a reboot, don’t worry. It’s not too late to Ctrl + Alt + Del your old plan and […]
July 25, 2025
Funeral and cemetery professionals are natural caregivers. They serve grieving families with empathy, walk alongside them during life’s hard moments, and ensure that every detail of every service is handled with care. But in the process of supporting others, those same caregivers can neglect their own needs and those of their firm. There’s a lot of talk about self-care these days – and for good reason. Burnout and compassion fatigue are real risks in funeral service. But self-care isn’t just about bubble baths and meditation. It’s also about financial clarity, operational stability and long-term peace of mind. In short, it’s about taking care of your funeral home, too. One of the most powerful means of professional self-care is something many funeral directors only associate with selling their firm: a business valuation. This article reframes that misconception and demonstrates that a […]