As a funeral home owner, your main focus is the families you serve.

But at some point, you need to care for the business side of things, too.

Like, what’s your plan for adding value to your business for the next 5, 10 or 20 years? Or even after you retire? (Gasp!)

Paying attention to and building the value of your business is a real struggle.

As a funeral business owner, you’re so focused on the families you serve (as you should be). Because families are your priority, this stuff so often gets pushed aside. But at some point, it becomes important and necessary for you to really care for your business and maximize its value. How do you do that?

That’s where Jake Johnson, of Johnson Consulting Group, comes in to help us understand the importance of adding value to your firm, and some key steps they can take to do so:

Start by getting your house in order, with these 5 critical steps listed below:

1. Engage the planning phase

Think about how you would turn your responsibilities over to your future employees. What values, visions and goals would you want to pass over to them, that are most important to you? Get clear on your vision for your funeral home first with this blog, then plan around that vision.

2. Prepare key employees to step it up a notch

Johnson says, “A great funeral director doesn’t necessarily make a great arranger, manager, or owner.”  This means that just because you work in a funeral home, doesn’t mean you can ace all tasks at hand. So it’s important to help your key employees develop the skills that are most important for the future of your funeral home.

Things like emotional intelligence, grief processing, and personalization are good skills to think about, according to our research. But in the end, this is for you to decide.

3. Work yourself out of a job

Once you’ve trained your team to develop all the essential skills you’ve learned, or want to learn, it’s time to let them run the show. Through this process, you can see for yourself how you can trust your staff to be competent and confident. The idea is to be able to step back and allow your employees to handle your client families with a WOW level of care, in a way that doesn’t need your supervision. That way, you’re free to focus on the future of your funeral home.

4. Hold an annual strategic planning session

Once you’ve created a plan and trained your employees, it’s time to clue them in on your visions   This gives clarity and direction. It ensures that amidst all the busyness of caring for families, you make time to talk about your firm’s growth and vision for the future (rather than just getting by day to day).

5. Instill a mindset of WOW

Now that everyone is on the same page, how do you ensure your families are always getting the most top-notch customer experience? Creating a MINDSET of wow. A mindset of wow is a mood. It’s more than a lesson in a powerpoint or training. It’s a part of everything you do. From the way they’re answering the phone, to the way they speak to each other… inspire your funeral home employees to feel the importance of epic customer service.

Finally, remember: start where you are!

All of these steps are essential in determining and boosting your firm’s value. So now it’s time to put them into action! What’s your first step in this direction? How can you start to prepare yourself for a shift in your business?

To answer this question, Johnson quotes veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky: “The easiest customers to get are the ones you already have.” Start with the customers you have, and keep going from there. Start somewhere, start anywhere, but do make sure you start!

How has your journey of adding value to your funeral firm been? Any tips or experiences you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below!

Joe Joachim

funeralOne

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