Starting a funeral business comes with a number of different challenges. It’s a sector that is not very welcoming of newcomers, it provides a service that people only seek out in very specific circumstances, and it’s hard to make it sexy. But against all the odds, Carly Dalton (ex-corporate) and her husband (ex-police force) have made a huge success of their funeral services business, GreenHaven Funerals, in just 18-months.

And they’ve made it work by getting every aspect of their marketing lined up in the right way. With her HR background, Carly knew that investing in the right training and certification would be the most important thing if they wanted to deliver a great service. But Carly went beyond this and made sure that she had a well optimised website and web presence, and that she formed connections with key partners in her local area so that her funerals business would stand the best chance of being a success.

Fast forward 18 months, and Carly is too busy to attend the industry expo where she was once received with hesitation as an industry newbie.

PLUS, I answer a listener question about how to find the time to generate a second income stream, and provide you with another inspirational quote of the week. Let’s go!

Episode Timeline

• 2.45  I give you two solutions to lighten your marketing load: Netregistry and 99Designs.
• 5.30 How can you create more time to focus on a second income stream?
• 13.00 Join the Small Business Big Marketing Forum today!
• 13.30 Introducing this week’s guest, owner of GreenHaven Funerals, Carly Dalton.
• 17.00 Why the big funeral service companies can’t compete with Carly when it comes to personalised service.
• 19.00  Carly and her husband recognised their own strengths in problem solving (in HR and in the police force) and use this as small business owners.
• 22.00 The funeral service business is not very accepting of newcomers but clients were ringing Carly within a week of opening shop.
• 23.00  Why it was important for Carly to seek out professional training and certification before starting her business.
• 25.30 How Carly harnesses the power of the internet to seek out new customers – optimised web pages, Adwords, and social media.
• 26.30 Why testimonials matter for small businesses and how Carly receives them.
• 31.00 Start at the end and work back – how do you want your customer to feel?
• 32.00 Growing the business through finding key partners in the local area such as nursing homes and palliative care centres. Carly even delivers free grieving and loss training for these partners.
• 35.00 The power of referrals.
• 36.00 What keeps Carly awake at night?
• 42.00 My top four takeaways from this episode.
• 44.30 Inspirational quote of the week!

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode

• GreenHaven Funerals: the official website.
• Womo: start spreading Word of Mouth online
• Netregistry: Get your online marketing sorted
• www.99Designs.com/sbbm: For logo design, brochure design, and more. Grab your exclusive listener upgrade at this link.
• Kate Christie (of Time Stylers) current website – Babysitters and More
• Join the The Small Business Big Marketing Forum today!

Tweetables

My Top 4 Learnings

My top four takeaways from chatting with Carly are:

1. Optimise your web pages. This is how customers will find your business website, so get on it. And if you need help, get in touch with NetRegistry.

2. Encourage your clients to provide testimonials. This can give a small business an important competitive advantage.

3. Help your competitors out. It might sound unintuitive, but it will help you in the long-term.

4. Be opportunistic. If an opportunity comes your way, jump on it.

Over to you!

Let me know YOUR #1 takeaway from this episode by leaving a comment below.
My guest and myself personally read and respond to every comment.