West Des Moines, Iowa — Homesteaders Life Company, a national leader in preneed funeral funding, is collaborating with Drake University to offer the sixth annual Certificate in Strategic Business Management course for funeral professionals. The class will take place at The Citadel in Charleston, SC, June 15-17, 2020.
The three-day course is designed and taught with Drake University to help funeral home owners, managers and candidates for succession adopt business management best practices that ensure long-term success. Topics include business planning and strategies, marketing for the future, financial and legal strategies, business valuation and succession planning. Attendees will gain experience from case studies and interactive, application-oriented learning exercises. The curriculum also includes instruction on defining business success metrics.
“Attendees will benefit from a curriculum that addresses strategy planning and business management that they can put into practice immediately upon their return,” said Judy Ralston-Hansen, Homesteaders Executive VP-Human Resources.
Each year students visit a local funeral home as a case study, and this year’s location is McAlister-Smith Funeral & Cremation in Charleston. Certificate-holder and firm president-CEO Mark Smith and his team are eager to welcome this year’s attendees. In addition to the field trip, Smith is excited to showcase Charleston’s spectacular cuisine. “I am a big believer in continuous learning,” Smith says. “We have a great story to tell at McAlister-Smith, the firm where I interned many years ago.” As a graduate of the Certificate course, Smith says he and his management team have applied the learning to augment their strategy planning, internal communication and marketing practices.
Homesteaders offers a limited number of two-for-one registrations, which are available for firms that register two staff members from the same for the course. Qualified funeral homes may also use any earned PartnerPoints® to offset the cost of the course.
Learn more and register for this event at homesteaderslife.com/drake.
Homesteaders Life Company, a mutual company owned by its policy holders, is a national leader providing products and services to promote and support the funding of advance funeral planning and end-of-life expenses. Visit homesteaderslife.com to learn more.
