Funeral Home Business Plan

Evergreen Life Memorial Center will be a new type of funeral home provider. It will provide a celebration of life when an individual dies and gather social support for the living to bring closure and move on. This will be made possible by providing reception facilities after the funeral where people can gather for refreshments in an uplifting environment surrounded by digitized photos and films of the life being celebrated. The facilities will include intimate gathering areas for people who want to break off from the larger activities, and private meeting rooms with couches and chairs. These facilities will also be available for the use of nonprofits, further integrating the Center into the community.

This combination of life celebration and social support is the way people of the Baby Boom generation are demonstrating they want to go out. Boomers are currently directly involved in making choices about their parents’ funerals, and are in the leading edge of a demographic bulge that is beginning to experience more funerals itself. Funerals for Boomers are expected to increase dramatically until the annual number of funerals by 2040 will nearly double from its current levels.

The Center will be located in a former church building in central Eugene or in a small community closely adjoined to Eugene and unserved by funeral homes. The ideal facility will contain evergreen trees, helping the Center to live up to its name. 

2.1 Company Ownership

Evergreen Life Memorial Center will be a limited liability company (LLC) owned entirely by Stan Peters. Stan Peters is a professional funeral director and embalmer with 10 years experience and a B.S. in funeral science. He chose funeral science because he was interested in the biological sciences and wanted to make a difference to people in time of need. He has been active in a number of nonprofit organizations, including a California chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

2.2 Start-up Summary

Our start-up requirements come to $216,700, including start-up expenses of $19,700 and assets totaling $197,000. The funding requested of $245,000 plus the owners investment will also provide $90,000 cash for working capital.

The assets to be purchased with this funding include $27,000 of current assets and $80,000 of long-term assets.

Current assets are in the form of $20,000 for display caskets and a $7,000 for display urns, as well as embalming chemicals and supplies.

Long-term capital outlays for which funding is sought are:

A church structure will be sought for purchase in the Anytown area for an estimated price of $400,000. A down payment of $80,000 will be financed directly by the owner’s family and is not included in this business plan. Mortgage payments are included as operating expenses.

Detailed start-up expenses are included in the following table and chart.