FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hi, I'm Tim Totten, a 25-year industry veteran. I've worked at both corporate and family-owned firms before expanding my side business (making removal quilts out of the garage) into a full-time career.

Twenty years ago, marketing my family-run business to the industry was all new to me. I started with smaller state trade shows, then graduated in 2007 to booths at NFDA and ICCFA expos.

Then came attempts at print advertising, but it wasn't until I found the publication Funeral Business Advisor that I saw impressive returns because I was able to target the specific market of 17,000+ funeral directors and owners I needed!

This marketing brought our company, Final Embrace, to even more funeral business owners!

That worked great until FBA unexpectedly went out of business in the middle of 2021, leaving companies like mine without a medium to bring our business solutions to the biggest audience of directors and owners who are busy working each day to run a funeral business.

Seeing the effects of this, my team and I decided to explore shipping catalogs to almost 20,000 locations, only to find out just how difficult that really is.

But then I remembered the magazine I had advertised in every year since 2014 and the effect it had on our business. I wondered if might not be attractive to other companies and if the industry professionals who used to receive the magazine perhaps missed the valuable business content that was brought to them by so many great industry experts.

After months of research and intense trial and error, I have been able to replicate the feel and look of the previous publication so that we can not only fill the need left by FBA's departure, but also bring great content to funeral professionals who crave actionable business advice.

Funeral Business Solutions strives to bring you, the reader, succinct and clear articles about subjects that actually affect your business. From explanations of FTC rules to HR issues and discussions of casket selection rooms and new cremation products, Funeral Business Solutions is designed with you, the funeral professional, in mind.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you find useful information in these pages and I hope you'll let me know what kinds of articles and features you'd like to see in the future.

Sincerely,

TIMOTHY TOTTEN Publisher

I want to keep working, but I was ready to take things like Human Resources and IT off my plate. It was important to me that a successor would preserve our legacy of exceptional service. Equally important, I wanted our team to continue feeling appreciated, with plenty of opportunity for growth. When I met with leadership at Foundation Partners Group, they were genuinely interested in what we were doing as one of the largest funeral providers in Wisconsin. I knew for our family, it was the right time to join Foundation Partners Group. Maybe it’s the right time for yours, too.

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