Segment One: Getting Started 3
Business Plan
Table of Contents
Definitions------2
Segment One: Getting Started------3
Segment Two: Products/Services------6
Segment Three: The Marketing Plan------14
Segment Four: The Human Team------20
Segment Five: Operational Plan------24
Segment Six: Financial statements------27
Segment Seven: Final Segment------30
References------32
Definitions
Calling Hours/Visitation – A time for friends and family members to convene at the funeral home or another stated place prior to the funeral service.
Death Certificate – Signed by the coroner or attending physician/doctor upon death. Also, states cause of death and is often required to finalize an estate, accounts, and release life insurance funds.
Memorial Register – A book that allows friends and family members to record their names during calling hours and/or the funeral service.
Memorial Service – A service where the body of the deceased is not present. This is common with cremation.
Pre-arrangements – Those funeral arrangements made prior to one’s death either by family members or the person themselves.
Removal – The process of picking up the body of the deceased.
Service Folders – Folders that are available to the friends and family during calling hours and/or the funeral service. Often have date of birth/death, place of birth/death, and where services will be held.
Traditional Funeral Service – This includes a casket, vault, calling hours and a funeral service. It is the most common service that a family will choose.
Urn – Contain that encloses ones ashes following cremation. Also, requires a vault if being buried.
Vault – An outer container that encloses the casket at the cemetery. In most cases, vaults are required by law.
Segment One: Getting Started
Defining the Business
Memorial Funeral Home will be a 21st century funeral home that will reach out to all people in a time of need with the new advances seen with technology. Our ownership team is made up of a man that has seen a need for funeral homes in society and has wanted to create a top of the line organization. This is a ceremonial practice around death that we will offer to the baby-boomer and matures generations as we look to incorporate new technologies such as tribute videos and other 21st century skills to each and every customer. We will offer a variety of services and products to meet the needs of our customers.
Memorial Funeral Home will offer products and services to our clients to meet the needs of each and every customer involved with planning an event of this magnitude. We know many people may have hard feelings about issues that may arise, so we will hire two of the best personable and professional employees around. To build a strong community reputation, there will be a variety of technologies and other accessories that we will be involved with.
Mission Statement
The mission statement of Memorial Funeral Home is to achieve and assist meaningful ways for families to grieve their loss and celebrate the reminiscences of their loved ones, reaching particularly to the mature generation by using 21st Century Skills.
We will do this by providing updated technology resources, information options, and assistance with the highest level of capability, consideration and compassion. We will provide respectful and reasonable funerals, cremation services and always strive to exceed the expectations of each family we serve. We will be the market leader in the facilitation and creation of meaningful funeral experiences with the 21st century technology that we will provide.
Culture
The culture of our industry involves reaching out to assist those in meaningful ways. We know that many of our clients may come to us with many expectations that will be considered with how to deal with. In reaching out to our clients, we hope to meet each and every one of their needs by offering things such as 21st century skills, which are becoming the future to business. With the culture, we have tied in some of our important keys for success.
Keys to Success
The keys to success will be impacting our company by creating meaningful objectives that Memorial Funeral Home will achieve. With this, we know that there are a variety of funeral homes within a 15 mile radius of Memorial Funeral Home, so we want to make sure that we are doing the best we can to reach out to each and every possible client. In addition, we feel providing meaningful objectives are important to defining what we are. The three objectives that will help with creating keys to success are expanding the use of reaching out to clients by offering opportunities to make online purchases, providing interactive media and additional options, and providing a top-of-the-line service to each and every customer.
Objectives
One of the meaningful objectives is for our clients to expand the use of reaching out to our clients so they are able to accomplish the needs of purchasing online. Today with more 21st century technology being used, it is important to be able to have 24-hours of online communicating with what they are interested in purchasing. We hope to offer convenience to each and every client with purchasing all items including clothing online.
Another objective of Memorial Funeral Home, which goes with the previous, is to help our clients by providing interactive media and additional options. By having such things as electronic obituary Webpages that can include facts, photos, and comments about the life of the departed person is very important with our mission. Another service is the creation of a slideshow DVD for memorial services. Customers may submit photos and choose an appropriate musical selection from our catalog to accompany the slideshow.
The final objective is to assist and provide a top-of-the-line service to each and every family. As our mission states, we will provide respectful and reasonable funerals and strive to exceed expectations of each family we serve. In addition, to go along with our expectations, we hope to tie the Center into the community of the living and develop positive associations.
Choosing a Name/Website
In picking a name and logo and creating a web site did take a lot of time. The logo that we ended up deciding on is a burning fire. We picked it to symbolize both life and death. With life, it is extremely imperative to recognize that life has been subsisted and has offered to the community a way to commemorate that life. By offering custom-made and extraordinary services, life of the person can be a tribute in remembering in a way that is soothing to the family and friends. In addition, the burning fire symbolizes death. Each of these makes an integral part to our culture.
Our web site involves a variety of features that relate to the 21st century experience. These include web links to share any personal notes or additional information with communicating messages to families, offering service packages available online. The website to our business, which is named after the funeral home is www.memorialfuneralhomebg.org. The web site will offer a variety of products and services to reach out to each and every client that comes to us.
Segment Two: Products/Services
Description of Products and Services
Memorial Funeral Home offers a wide range of products and services to meet the needs of our customers. Due to the nature of the industry, our clients are in a difficult time of need when they come to us. Because of the sensitive nature of the situation, it is imperative that all of Memorial Funeral Home offerings present an array of choices that can easily satisfy the desires of many different customers. This variety reflects selections that can work with different budgets while still offering a level of professionalism and artistry that make a loved one’s passing a much more dignified process.
In terms of products, the basic categories offered are caskets, urns, outer burial containers, clothing, and special memorial packages. Memorial Funeral Home has a corporate partnership with Batesville, one of the country’s leading manufactures of burial supplies. This relationship will ensure that our funeral home will have a steady supply of traditional products to meet any family’s budget, and will also help minimize the impacts of rising costs that are typical for the industry. Also, all products offered are featured on-line in an interactive photo display. While Memorial Funeral Home does have a showroom to display many items, the use of an on-line display permits clients to view all of our offerings if they feel uncomfortable seeing tangible merchandise. Each item view allows for customers to zoom or rotate the object to better see if it will meet their needs.
The caskets that clients can choose from are evenly split between both hardwood and metal selections. Hardwood caskets come in varieties from basic hardwood, to oak, pecan, maple, cherry, walnut, or mahogany. Within these material types, customers will also be able to choose from different exterior designs and interiors that vary from basic crepe to premium velvet. These combinations will range in price from $1,500 to $8,000 each. Similarly, the metal caskets also offer a variety of combinations. While the essential designs and interiors are the virtually the same, the caskets themselves are available in basic steel, stainless steel, copper, and bronze. Both types of steel are also available in several different colors. These caskets range in price from $1,500 to $9,000.
Many customers prefer cremation for their burial needs, and Memorial Funeral Home again has a range of choices to meet customer needs. Urns are available in numerous different material types, ranging from porcelain, to brass, bronze, steel, aluminum, acrylic, marble, slate, cherry, maple, oak, and mahogany. This variety of material types is matched by an equal variety of styles, including simple finishes, artistic sculptures, and personalized engraving. These choices again help our clients to find the product that will best serve the memory of their loved ones. Urn prices range from as low as $100 up to $4,500.
Outer burial containers help to protect both the deceased and the casket or urn from decomposition and the elements. Not only does this better preserve the burial, but these containers are frequently required by many areas to maintain the structural integrity of the gravesite. Memorial Funeral Home provides customers with a range of choices that includes concrete, steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and copper vaults. To again provide more customization, select vaults come in both finished and unfinished varieties, with or without liners, and in varying degrees of thickness. This category has the widest variability in pricing, with the most modest selections costing $1,000 and proceeding all the way up to $25,000.
There are a couple other products offered to customers. While not typically considered as a burial need, Memorial Funeral Home also offers clothing for the deceased. Both dresses and suits are available in a variety of dignified styles and can all be well tailored for any families seeking to hold a visitation or open casket service. The prices of these outfits all range from $100 to $300 each. Finally, the last option for our clients is our special Memorial Package. This package includes a guest registry book, prayer cards, a laminated obituary, remembrance candles, and a tapestry. These items conveniently allow clients to add a distinctive touch to their services, and can feature a range of art including different religious scenes and natural landscapes. This package is available for an additional $200.
As important as quality merchandise is to Memorial Funeral Home, the real offering of this funeral home is the wide range of services. These cover everything from the basic, essential services for preparing and transporting remains to other options that provide a more personal touch for the family. The following paragraphs will describe these services in greater detail.
Our clients will have many basic needs that must be met during their time of loss. The transfer of the remains to the funeral home itself is a necessary step in providing our other services. The transfer itself and any expenses incurred are all covered for up to a 30-mile radius for $200. However, because of the great inconvenience of travelling longer distances, as well as the additional fuel expense, it will be necessary to charge an additional $1 per mile beyond the basic distance.
Once at the funeral home, clients have some other choices to use when preparing the remains. Except in very specific situations, embalming is an optional process. If the subsequent burial arrangements selected allow, clients do not have to have this service provided. Otherwise, Memorial Funeral Home will embalm remains for $800, and will take care of cosmetology, grooming, and dressing the deceased for an additional $200. This way, the remains can last for several days through visitations or travelling long distances for a final burial. Additionally, there are several services that must be provided to coordinate funeral arrangements between the family and the relevant third parties. Our basic service package costs $2,000 and provides the following:
· 24 hour availability to respond to the initial contact for services.
· Personal conferencing with the family to help select the most appropriate arrangements to be made, as well as to obtain information for several required legal documents.