Nicole Vullo on 
How one legacy funeral home chose change over a quick sale—and made payroll boring again.
Names, locations, and certain details have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
“No stories,” the banker said. “Show me what changed.”
Jordan slid a single page across the table—discounts frozen, comp corrected, Tuesday cash huddle, and a date circled in ink: the day the 36% note would die. Payroll hit in six days. Miss it, and a generations-old reputation cracks in one afternoon.
Six weeks earlier, the partners at Harborstone Memorial—an East Coast firm serving a tightly knit, heritage-rich community—had considered selling to close out their mortgage. Instead, they tried something harder: change the way they ran the place—fast, in order, and with receipts.
This is the ninety-day play that made that choice real.
The slide (and the line they wouldn’t cross)
It never starts with catastrophe. It starts with drift.
Bonuses morphed into base pay during the fat years. Discounts—meant for true hardship—turned into the reflex to “keep business.” When cash pinched, someone grabbed a working-capital loan at 36%. (Relief today. Regret tomorrow.) Payables aged. Financials arrived late. One Thursday morning the partners—Jordan, Riley, and Morgan—asked the question every owner dreads: Can we make payroll?
They wanted a straight answer: sell now, or change now. We gave them one condition—if we aim for change, they’d have to prove it every week.
No speeches. No grand reorg. Five decisions. Ninety days.
The meeting (five boxes on a whiteboard)
Decision 1 — Freeze discounts. Period.
For 90 days: no price breaks. Not “just this once,” not habit pricing. True hardship got non-price care—time, personalization, service touches. Price held. The bank’s deferment depended on it.
Decision 2 — Correct compensation to what the business could carry.
This wasn’t theoretical. We trimmed salaries, reduced hours, and let a couple of roles go. Hard calls, made quickly. The after plan—volume-banded base with quarterly upside—would wait until the shop stabilized. Survive first. Optimize second.
Decision 3 — Run a weekly cash huddle.
Every Tuesday. Fifteen minutes. Same agenda: starting balance, deposits due, top-10 vendors by due date, taxes, payroll, exceptions needing owner sign-off. No slide decks. Just rhythm.
Decision 4 — Ask the lender for time—and earn it.
We didn’t bring a plea to the bank (anonymized as RiverBank). We brought a 90-day plan: signed comp changes, discount freeze visible in case files, cash cadence already running, and a dated schedule to retire the 36% note. The ask: short deferment. The offer: proof we’d started without permission.
Decision 5 — Raise prices. Hold the line.
Yes, while discounts were frozen. Scary? Absolutely. Operators fear losing calls. But there’s a point where the math has to meet the emotion. Easy for an analyst to type; harder when you’re face-to-face with a family. Both matter: to serve families well, the financials must work. We reset the price card, taught value-first language, and committed to explain, not apologize.
The partners signed the changes in the room. If this sounds simple, it is. Simple is not the same as easy.
Week 1. Week 2. Week 4. Week 12. (What changed, exactly)
Week 1: Discounts stopped. Full stop. Exceptions moved to non-price care. The Tuesday huddle felt awkward and short—which is how you know it’s working. Payroll cleared.
Week 2 (the scare): Jordan spotted a discounted contract in the queue—old habit, new week. Emergency huddle. We reversed it, documented the why, and replaced the price break with service value. Message to the whole team was unambiguous: If RiverBank sees discounts continue, they can pull the deferment. No deferment, no runway. It landed.
Week 4: Vendor calls were faster because answers were shorter. (“You’re number three on the pay list. Funds Friday.”) Hours and roles had reset; the burn rate matched reality. Pricing held in the field. Payroll cleared without a deep breath.
Week 12: The high-cost note was gone. Prices held. The team had scripts and confidence. Compensation matched the business, not nostalgia. Lender calls got shorter. So did arguments.
Not everything turned into a movie ending. Books still need to arrive sooner. Relationships still need time and care. Succession questions don’t evaporate. But the posture shifted from reactive to intentional. That’s the difference between hoping to make payroll and knowing you will.
“We didn’t ban compassion,” Jordan told the staff. “We budgeted it—in time, in service, and in discipline.”
Steal this (today, not someday)
- Discount freeze (90-day version): price holds; document attempted exceptions; substitute non-price care.
- Pricing change sequence: refresh the price card; teach value-first scripting; audit compliance weekly.
- Weekly cash huddle checklist: starting balance • expected deposits • top-10 vendors + due dates • taxes • payroll • exceptions.
- Comp correction sequence: right-size salaries/hours/roles now; move to volume-banded base with quarterly upside after stabilization.
- Bank conversation script: “Here’s what we already changed; here’s the 90-day plan; here’s proof we’re running it.” Ask for time you can actually use—and hit your own dates.
Where they are now
They adopted and stuck with new pricing. Volume picked up. There’s money back in the bank, and the team is clearing the last vendor balances instead of juggling a stack. They still get to live the mission—serving their community—because the numbers finally support the work.
They didn’t get bigger. They got clearer.
Facing the same fork—sell now or change now? We can walk your team through these five decisions and help you make them stick.