During a special event, you will usually receive a program of what will be taking place during the event. Offer this service for funerals, or memorials, so people attending can be made aware of what will take place during the services, and possibly after. You can hand these programs to people as they enter the church, or other funeral service location.
You can even print programs up yourself; as long as you have a nice working printer and appropriate card paper. You could charge as much as $150 per funeral service for these small programs (about 50 – 75 programs). This may seem like a lot of money to ask for your services, but the funeral agencies charge up to 5 times more for the same thing. Be sure to include as much information as the family or friends paying for them want included. These programs frequently become sentimental reminders of their lost loved ones and friends, because of this they often kept for sentimental reasons by those that attend.
In the program, or booklet, Include:
* An attractive photo of the deceased one
* In memory of: "The deceased one's given name"
* Their: "Date of birth and Date of death"
* Where the deceased was born
* Their parents' names and relatives that remain alive
* An obituary; or short biography
* What will take place during the services, include any songs (the music and lyrics) that
may be sung together by those attending, etc
* Poems, scriptures, proverbs, sayings, prayers, stories, etc
This could be a profitable business on the Internet if you wish to offer these printed programs to people. Keep watch, always checking out your competition to make sure that you are able to compete well with others offering the same programs, price wise. A good way to compete is to add something special to your programs, a special type of artwork, or something that sets your product aside from the run-of-the-mill competitors.
Make sure that your website has an easy to remember name and that it is easy to download pictures too, if need be. Have them fill out any information that you will need to print up on the program also. Be sure to 'spell check' everything they give you and show them a rough draft of everything that they want on their program to approve. This way if there is a mistake with dates or name spelling they can catch it before you print everything. This way a customer can give you all that is needed so that you can print up the programs quickly and get them sent out right away.
Remember that you will most likely be dealing with people that are emotionally upset, so be as kind and patient with them as you can. Make it as easy as you can to fill out all of the information you will need and any added information they would like to include.
If you are able to retouch the photos that are given to you, this can be another advantage for your company too. Be sure to be very careful with any photo if it is given to you to copy, they will want it back. Try to make any photo included in the program as nice as you can.
Resources:
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.pdf995.com/
http://www.family-heritage-templates.com/
August 9, 2009
