What to Know When Acquiring or Buying a Funeral Home

To put it bluntly, the funeral industry is an industry that will never truly go away.

Why?

Mortality rates are projected to increase as we march forward into the future. And thus, the cycle of demand for funeral homes will continue to increase as well.

While these numbers are somewhat morbid, they’re also encouraging for someone who is potentially acquiring or buying a funeral home.

Use this simple checklist to help guide you through the process of buying a funeral home.

See If The Funeral Home is Profitable

When buying a funeral home business or looking to acquire one, you will want to consider if the funeral home has a profitable outlook. Here are a few questions that can help provide answers for you:

• Is there low competition in the funeral home’s physical location(s)?
• What does the current valuation of the funeral home look like?
• What is the average age of the population in the area?
• Is there low employee turnover?
• How many cases are managed per year?
• What existing equipment, tools and resources does the funeral home have?
• Is the funeral home up-to-date on industry-standard certifications and requirements?

Finding answers to these questions will help you quickly discover if a particular funeral home is a wise investment.

Research The Funeral Home’s Reputation

Next, you’ll want to explore the reputation of the funeral home in interest. Do people in the community have great things to say about their experiences with the funeral home? If so, what are they saying? If there are poor experiences, are there any common denominators that would be a simple fix?

One easy way to measure a funeral home’s reputation is to read online reviews from platforms like Google or Yelp. This insight can help you understand if you’re buying a funeral home that will cause you more harm than good.

But who knows? Maybe buying a funeral home with a poor reputation is the challenge that you’re looking for.

After gauging what a specific funeral home’s current reputation is, you can then paint a clearer picture of the funeral home’s entire story.

Meet The Existing Staff and Employees

Next, you’ll want to plan either in-person or online meetings with the existing staff. This helps you quickly get the lay of the land when it comes to:

• What employees plan on continuing to work for the funeral home
• How the existing employees prefer to hear news or receive feedback
• How receptive the existing employees are to change
• What ideas the employees have to improve the funeral home

All of these insights will help provide more context into the situation you may be stepping into if you buy a specific funeral home.

Plus, with those ideas and insights, you have already built a solid action plan to retain the funeral home’s existing employees and improve the business from the start.

Analyze The Funeral Home’s Current Processes

Schedule a 60-minute meeting with the owners and management who are selling the funeral home and ask them for an in-depth breakdown when it comes to managing the funeral home:

• Current operating procedures that work well and don’t work well
• Contact information for vendors who are used for outsourced work
• Key success metrics to track on a regular basis
• Outstanding licenses and requirements that will need to be kept up-to-date

Use this meeting as an opportunity to discuss your new ideas and get instant feedback on your ideas. From there, you can develop a solid understanding of where things are currently at with the funeral home, and bring some of your new ideas to life.

Build a Gameplan For Financing

For people who are looking to invest in a new funeral home, the initial investment (based on price) can be the main barrier to entry. Regardless of whether it’s your first funeral home purchase or your eighth, you need to have a game plan in place for financing.

Less experienced folks – here are some different routes that can be taken when it comes to financing your new funeral home venture:

• With proper eligibility and a solid business plan, you can qualify for an SBA loan 
• You can partner with a regional funeral home investment company

In order to determine what type of financing is best, we recommend that you reach out to a local finance professional that is experienced in the funeral industry.

Align Yourself With Funeral Home Acquisition Experts

When it comes to appraisal, financing, compliance, and negotiating the purchase of a funeral home, it’s best to align yourself with funeral home acquisition experts or a funeral home brokerage to help you purchase a funeral home if you aren’t experienced.

That way, you’re in safe hands with industry experts who can help you from start to finish.

Think About Branding, Marketing, and The Services You Provide

While the demand for funeral homes will never go away, you still need to establish a positive reputation that will help bring in new business from your communities.

Because of this, you need to consider how you want to brand and market your funeral home. Here are some more questions to consider when going through the process of buying a funeral home:

• Will you keep the same name and logo for the funeral home since it’s already recognizable?
• Does your funeral home have a truly effective website?
• Will you offer live streaming of your funeral services?
• Does your funeral home have a social media presence?
• Does your funeral home have a Google business listing to gain more online reviews?
• How can you go above and beyond to provide better experiences for families?

Your funeral home’s quality of service and reputation are your competitive advantage, so maximize it.

Scale Your Funeral Home’s Success With Gather

Buying a funeral home is the first step – managing it efficiently is the next step. If you’re looking for a tool or resource that can help streamline your funeral home’s workflow and take your business to the next level, Gather may be a good fit for you and your team.

At Gather, we offer case management, live streaming, and custom website solutions to funeral homes of any size.

Schedule a free demo with our team today and see how you can make funeral home management easier for everyone involved.