Business Plan for Building a Funeral Home in a Midwestern U.S. City
Executive summary and company overview
The envisioned enterprise, Soulful Farewells, is a full-service funeral home providing compassionate, personalized services that celebrate lives with dignity. Staffed by experienced funeral practitioners who are passionate about redefining the funeral experience, the company offers traditional burials, cremations, memorial services, grief counseling, and eco-friendly options tailored to all faiths and cultures. With a skilled team of four full-time employees trained in funeral ethics and cultural sensitivity, Soulful Farewells addresses an underserved niche for highly professional yet profoundly personal funeral services. Leveraging the founders diverse expertise in counseling, mortuary sciences, and operations, the company is uniquely positioned to guide families through difficult transitions with empathy, transparency and innovation for sustainable growth.
Company mission statement
Soulful Farewells is dedicated to providing compassionate, personalized funeral services that celebrate the lives of loved ones with dignity and reverence. The companys overarching mission is to guide families through this difficult transition with empathy, transparency and the highest level of professionalism.
Market analysis
The funeral homes and funeral services market is projected to experience steady growth, anticipated to reach $87.9 billion by 2028, an increase from $72 billion in 2022, expanding at an annual rate of 3.39% (Funeral Homes and Funeral Services Market Size 2024). While the Covid-19 pandemic initially led to a surge in demand for funeral services, it also posed challenges such as infection risks for industry personnel and restrictions on large gatherings, leading to a preference for simpler, more cost-effective services. Concomitantly, the increased adoption of advanced technologies such as digital and online funeral services are also transforming the industry, catering to changing consumer preferences, particularly among millennials, and facilitating remote participation (Coetzee and Tait 2023).
This modernization of the funeral industry is expected to enhance service quality, efficiency, and profitability. It is important to note, though, that the rise of e-commerce platforms has intensified competition in the sale of funeral-related products, potentially impacting revenue streams for traditional funeral homes. As the market evolves, funeral service providers must adapt to these shifts in consumer behavior and technological advancements to remain competitive and meet the evolving needs of their clientele. (Funeral Homes and Funeral Services Market Size 2024).
Organization and management
As a sole proprietorship with sufficient funding for start-up, this funeral home business will be owned and operated by a single individual who has complete authority and responsibility over all aspects of the company....
…balance between handling the profound sorrow of the bereaved and managing the fiscal objectives of their
operations presents a unique challenge for funeral homes in the contemporary marketplace (Beard and Burger 2020). This consideration provides significant justification for the inclusion of growing niche market offerings such as green funerals (Zaffos 2010).
Financial projections
Projection Category
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Cash from Operations
$195,000
$234,000
$273,000
$312,000
$351,000
Cash from Investing
($50,000)
($30,000)
($30,000)
($30,000)
($30,000)
Cash from Financing
($20,000)
($20,000)
($20,000)
($20,000)
($20,000)
Net Cash Flow
$125,000
$184,000
$223,000
$262,000
$301,000
Cash Balance (Beginning)
$100,000
$225,000
$409,000
$632,000
$894,000
Cash Balance (Ending)
$225,000
$409,000
$632,000
$894,000
$1,195,000
Works Cited
Beard, Virginia R., and William C. Burger. Selling in a Dying Business: An Analysis of Trends During a Period of Major Market Transition in the Funeral Industry. Omega: Journal of Death & Dying, vol. 80, no. 4, Mar. 2020, pp. 54467.
Coetzee, Cornelis, and Madele Tait. Exploring the Functional Components of Online Servicescapes: A Case of Funeral Home Websites. African Journal of Business & Economic Research, vol. 18, no. 4, Dec. 2023, pp. 37190.
Funeral Homes and Funeral Services Market Size. (2024). LinkedIn. Available: https:// www.linkedin.com/pulse/funeral-homes-services-market-size-reach-us-8799701-rotbf#:~:text=Global%20Funeral%20Homes%20and%20Funeral%20Services%20Market%20Outlook%3A%2D%20Funeral,USD%2087997.01%20million%20by%202028.
Olazabal, Vctor Hugo Nopo, and Niria Marleny Goni Avila. Dynamic Capabilities in Sole Proprietorships: Theoretical Model through Grounded Theory. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, vol. 20, no. 4, Dec. 2022, pp. 591618.
Zaffos, Joshua. Eco-Friendly Burials Take Recycling to Logical End. Northern Colorado Business Report, vol. 15, no. 11, Feb.…
