Starting a funeral home franchise is a community service in many ways. Families need compassionate support during a difficult time, and every person considering death and end-of-life issues deserves dignified, respectful funeral service options.
Becoming part of the funeral home industry can help your customers find their final rest, and it can also be a smart business move. As the nation’s population ages, asking the essential questions, looking into funeral home franchise opportunities, and joining the funeral industry can make increasing sense.
1. Is a Funeral Home Franchise a Good Business?
Before setting out to start a funeral home, future entrepreneurs need to step back and take a big-picture look at the funeral business.
Like all businesses, a funeral services company needs to have sufficient clients to help the business remain viable, and they should also have expectations for development over the years to help the funeral home owner find personal success, meet costs, and have a reasonable expectation of continued growth and profit within the industry.
For people looking into the funeral services industry, this could be a promising moment to focus on examining funeral franchises and planning to establish a funeral home business. The industry has been expanding for years, with more projected over the next decade.
A Growing Industry
In the U.S., funeral home businesses have seen solid growth. The funeral home business sees annual revenue of $19.5 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 1.5%. That expansion is expected to continue over at least the next five years.
That kind of performance can make owning funeral homes a prudent option for prospective franchise owners. And it helps make the funeral industry a reliable growth engine for someone interested in opening a small business.
2. What Are the Different Kinds of Funeral Homes?
Not all funeral franchises are the same, of course. Every family has their preference when they plan to say goodbye to their loved one and the approach they wish to take for funeral services and other factors. Religious differences, money concerns, and cultural differences come into play and dictate the process.
The modern funeral industry understands this, and they’ve diversified their business over the years to help ensure the deceased gets the personalized care they want, no matter their circumstances and wishes. Today’s funeral home franchise offers multiple options for death care considerations, from graveside funerals to memorial services.
An Option for Every Client
The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates many funeral industry aspects, lists three types of services.
- Traditional full-service funeral
- Direct burial
- Cremation
A traditional funeral is usually the most expensive option for the family. Expenses include the casket, purchase of the burial location, pay for funeral home franchise employees who support the service, and other memorial products like flowers and programs. Direct burial is a more straightforward, lower-cost service and often features more basic caskets and no embalming or visitation.
Cremation also helps reduce costs, and over the past few decades, it has become the most popular option on the market for clients across the nation. Urns take the place of caskets and help reduce expenses for those without burial insurance policies, and the cremation process adds more flexibility to help families plan services.
More than 59% of U.S. funeral services involve cremation, and that rate is expected to climb to more than 65% over the next few years.
3. What Do I Need to Get Started in the Funeral Home Franchise Industry?
Every franchise in every industry has startup expenditures that new brand owners must meet to get their business up and running, from marketing to equipment purchase. The funeral home franchise business has its requirements.
It all starts by arranging to form a legal entity and registering a business name. Once the brand is established, the owner can move on to specifics depending on their plans.
Funeral homes planning to host traditional burials should consider casket inventory, an embalming room and an embalming machine, main-level extras like a viewing room and dining area, and other franchise essentials.
Cremation Franchise Needs
A funeral home business focused on cremation has its particular equipment demands. Casket purchases might not be necessary, but plenty of other needs exist.
The facilities must meet standards established by both the federal government and the state government where the franchise operates, including a flame-resistant door, proper ventilation, and flame-resistant files. Make plans to buld a columbarium, or outside wall for storing and displaying urns, too.
4. What’s the Funeral Home Business Model?
The funeral home franchise is a customer-service business, and its business model is designed to ensure the brand doesn’t forget that fact.
As with facilities and startup needs, the FTC guides to ensure every franchise keeps operations up-front and honest. The Funeral Rule outlines requirements that help prevent deceptive marketing and practices such as requiring casket purchase or embalming without client consent — funeral homes must provide a general price list to customers to avoid these sorts of issues.
Franchising, Marketing, and More
Working with a franchise can help reduce many of the concerns with starting a funeral home. A franchise aids the owner in handling site selection, buildout, setup, training, and advertising both in print and on the web.
Become a Franchise Owner With Cypress Pointe Cremation!
At Cypress Pointe Cremation, we’ve built a franchise model designed to help our owners succeed and grow. Our exclusive systems and processes aid franchise owners in getting started quickly and with confidence, and our ongoing support and training give them the tools for brand development.
Find out more about the Cypress Pointe Cremation franchise opportunities today!
