The death of a person is as natural as his appearance in this world. However, unlike birth, funerals are sorrows. They are associated with despair and tears, because it is always difficult to accompany a loved one to the last journey.
The history of the emergence of funeral homes
Funeral services have been provided for many millennia. The period of their origin can be considered those times when people began to bury. Gradually, the ritual was overgrown with various traditions. However, burial services have been produced for a long time by unrelated people. Some of them made coffins, others accompanied the funeral with music, others supplied flowers, etc.
At a certain stage in the history of mankind, organizations appeared that began to provide funeral services in a complex. Since then, a person turning to the funeral home has received comprehensive support and assistance in the difficult moments of his life associated with the loss of a person close to him.
Business choice
Escape from life is inevitable for everyone. That is why the funeral services bureau will always be a success. According to statistics, mortality rates are growing every year, which makes funeral services a promising business. In addition, these works are well paid.
The main task of an entrepreneur is to bypass his competitors. The fact is that the funeral market is replete with offers. Surely this can be attributed to the lack of the need to obtain a license to operate in this area. As a result, a large number of advertisements offering ritual bureau services appeared on the city streets. Despite this, any entrepreneur entering this business has a chance to get good results.
The first steps
So, you decided to create your own funeral home. The business plan of the new organization is the document that is drafted in the first place. It should contain information about the range of services that your funeral home will provide. Indeed, the success of the enterprise and its reputation depend on their quantity, as well as on the quality of the work performed.
What can the funeral services bureau offer? The minimum range of services of any specialized organization includes the sale of wreaths and coffins, the delivery of goods, the provision of funeral hearse and transport for persons accompanying the deceased on the last journey. There is a need for digging graves, ordering an orchestra, etc. The funeral home can solve the problem with the director of the cemetery about the land for burial, etc. This is the minimum amount of services that can be offered to the client.
However, there is always the opportunity to expand the range of those works that are carried out by the funeral home. A business plan must necessarily reflect this moment. For example, your enterprise can itself produce wreaths and ribbons, monuments and coffins, crosses and other products for the mourning ceremony.
Surely customers will be interested in services for the selection of clothes for the deceased, sanitization cosmetology, etc. In the future, you can get your own morgue. Thus, the list of services that a funeral home can provide is huge. It is necessary to think carefully over and decide which ones you can implement at the initial stage. It is worthwhile to study the market of funeral services in advance, having made relevant conclusions.
Company opening
Where to start a funeral business? First of all, you should find a room for your funeral home.It should be large enough, as it will be necessary to arrange an office in it. The funeral home should also have a hall for demonstrating wreaths and coffins.
In one of the rooms of the premises you can place a small morgue. It is best if your office is located in a place not very far from the cemetery, but at the same time accessible to customers. The organization will need to be legalized. To do this, you will need to register an LLC and register with the tax office.
Staff recruitment
Ritual business requires the recruitment of qualified employees. Each of them should be a good psychologist, because an important issue is communicating with heartbroken clients. At the same time, each of the employees of the bureau should remain calm and communicate in an appropriate tone. In addition, staff should be able to sell goods and services well.
To communicate with clients and accompany the funeral procession to the cemetery, you will need to hire funeral agents. You will need a seller, a sales consultant and an accountant. Depending on the assortment list of services provided by the bureau, other workers will also be needed - general laborers, drivers, manufacturers of wreaths and coffins, etc. If you will not produce goods for funerals, you will need to conclude a contract for the delivery of funeral products.
More recently in Moscow under the Department consumer market and services, the School of Funeral Agents was opened. Students of this educational institution are invited to study the laws that relate to the funeral business, to learn the main differences of religious denominations. They also teach psychology here. When selecting personnel, preference should be given to those applicants who possess the certificate of this School.
How to find customers?
Your business plan should have a section that contains information about how you will offer your services. In order to find clients, you can conclude agreements with the municipality, the ambulance service and hospitals that the employees of these institutions will send people to whom your relatives have died. The offer of their services can be submitted through advertising in the newspaper or posted on pillars.
How to make a business profitable?
To increase the profitability of the funeral services provided, it is recommended to constantly expand their range. Those entrepreneurs who already own a funeral home, seek to independently produce monuments, coffins and wreaths. In this case, there is no need to purchase them, in addition, you will not have to send the client in search of the necessary goods to their suppliers.
Of course, this decision is not easy. The costs in this case will be significantly increased due to the purchase of materials, the hiring of additional workers and maintenance of the necessary equipment. However, in this case, you will attract more customers who will know that they will find in your company the goods that they need.
Coffin Making
Among the ritual accessories, there is a basic funeral attribute, which should be paid special attention. It's about the coffin. In order to establish its production, it is necessary to know the basic principles of this process.
The technology for the production of coffins includes several main stages. The first of them forms the basis of the future product. To do this, planed boards are needed that can be made from wood of various species.
However, in the case when the production of elite products is planned, the purchase of valuable varieties of wood is necessary. The first stage of the manufacture of coffins, as a rule, is fully mechanized. Upon its completion, the surfaces of the product are made. In this case, one of the two most common methods is used.
Production of coffins can be completed with upholstery of the base fabric.The most commonly used to decorate these funeral attributes are velvet, satin and silk fabrics. In this case, it is preferable to use artificial materials, as they are excellently draped.
Blanks made of fabric are laid according to various schemes (satin stitches and scallops, bow, transverse and longitudinal folds). After that, the material is fixed on the base. The color of the fabric, which is used for the external design of the coffin, can be any. However, the most common are blue, red and gold tones.
The manufacture of coffins can be completed by the process of their additional decoration. In this case, lace and braid, the image of various church symbols and a pleated ribbon of color in contrast with the color of the main upholstery are used.
For the production of luxury coffins, the second method of external design is used. Such products are made from valuable wood, which is easy to polish. At the same time, the pattern and texture of the tree are saved. The final stage of the external design of such a coffin is to cover the base with varnish.
At the end of the production process, the ritual product is equipped with accessories and bedding.
Ritual Textiles
A prerequisite for the manufacture of coffins is the installation of a bed. The materials for it are satin, cotton and silk. At the same time, fabrics are selected in delicate colors - pink, blue, cream or white. Ritual textiles to some extent serve as a necessary complement to all the accessories that are used in the mourning event.
Clothes for the deceased
In former times, the manufacture of clothing for the deceased was carried out manually. For her tailoring used a white canvas. At the same time, stitches of seams had their own peculiarity. They were heading in the opposite direction from themselves. In addition, when sewing, the threads were not fixed and knots were not made.
Today, in the production of ritual clothing, customs and omens are not respected. The main requirement for such things is a comfortable fit and following the main church canons.
Ritual textiles for the deceased are a man’s suit of strict style or a woman’s dress of a free cut. Headscarves, headbands and scarves are also used.
Ribbons
Mourning textiles are also used to decorate baskets, garlands and wreaths. In this case, it finds application as tapes. It is this attribute that distinguishes a floral bouquet intended for a funeral from other flower arrangements. Mournful inscriptions on tapes are applied using silk-screen printing and electroflocking. These modern technologies allow letters to not fade for a long time and not to fade under the influence of aggressive environmental factors.
Sale of ritual textiles in bulk
Sewing products for the implementation of the ritual business can be purchased from various trading companies, as well as directly from the manufacturer. The ritual textile factory can always offer a large selection of accessories necessary for the mourning ceremony. The assortment list of the offered goods includes clothes for funerals - suits, dresses, slippers, scarves, etc.
Ritual textiles are also offered for arranging a coffin bed and making tapes. You can order the necessary goods, for example, at LLC Tesma plus, which is located in the Moscow region. This company produces bedspreads and ruffles, fringe and ritual clothes, as well as various sewing accessories. Ritual textiles are sold by ArtRitual, Ra-Tex LLC and many other companies.
What to do in the absence of the necessary funds?
Making photos for ritual monuments is ideal for small businesses. The manufacturing technology of the medallion is simple. First of all, the original photo is scanned. If necessary, it is processed in the Photoshop program. At the request of the client, the image from black and white can be converted into color.
After the photograph is enlarged to ten centimeters by fifteen, the photograph is printed. An oval is cut from it. A glue stick is applied to the back of the photo. The picture is glued to a black oval plastic and covered with a transparent half made of the same material. The edges of the medallion are degreased and glued with a thermal gun.
Novelties for ritual business
The latest trend that has appeared in funeral homes is a special device called a “singumator”. It is a kind of elevator designed for smooth and uniform lowering into the grave of the coffin.
Various types of singumators are produced. The budget option is a mechanical device. For elite funerals, automatic singumators are used. Nevertheless, many companies providing ritual services still manually lower the coffins into the grave. However, this phenomenon is slowly becoming obsolete.
