West Des Moines, Iowa — Homesteaders Life Company, a national leader in pre-need funeral funding, is partnering with Drake University to offer the fifth annual Certificate in Strategic Business Management course for funeral professionals. The class will take place at Saint Louis University, May 8-10, 2019.
The four-day course is designed to help funeral home owners, managers and candidates for succession adopt the most innovative business practices. 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.
“We are very excited to offer a reduced registration cost for the fifth anniversary of the class,” said Judy Ralston-Hansen, Homesteaders Executive VP-Human Resources. “Our new class of graduates will benefit from this in-depth training that includes several takeaways they can put into practice immediately upon their return.”
Chapel Hill Mortuary in Cedar Hill, MO, will be the destination for this year’s case study. Owner Brian May and his team are eager to welcome this year’s attendees. “I love to visit other firms, so I’m excited to host the group in the St. Louis area. We’ve recently made some renovations to our funeral home, and I’m looking forward to getting feedback from the conference attendees as well.”
May was a student at the 2018 course. His biggest takeaway was the importance of focusing on strategy. “I’m working harder to avoid getting distracted by day-to-day operations. I’m coaching some of my key staff to focus on fewer, bigger issues at a time. We’ve implemented weekly management and staff meetings, which is something we weren’t doing before.”
Homesteaders offers a limited number of two-for-one registrations, which are available for firms that register two staff members for the course. Qualified funeral homes may also use any acquired 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.
