Marlan Gary
CEO and Founder
Marlan Gary Funeral Homes
Columbus, Mansfield, and Springfield, OH
Average call volume: 870 calls/year
Growing your funeral home takes more than great service. You need the right team behind you.
But for many funeral home owners, that team is a patchwork of vendors, like multiple companies, multiple contacts, and multiple relationships to manage. And the more you grow, the more complicated it gets.
Marlan Gary dealt with that challenge firsthand.
As the CEO and Founder of Marlan Gary Funeral Homes, Marlan built his business from the ground up, starting with nothing and growing into a thriving multi-location operation. But between working with multiple accountants, acquiring new locations, and having a passive preneed program, he knew there had to be a better way.
Luckily, everything changed for Marlan when he partnered with Funeral Directors Life (FDL). With accounting, lending, preneed, and marketing services all under one roof, Marlan traded the friction of juggling multiple vendors for a single team that feels like it's right in his office.
“With FDL, I feel like I have people working for and with me,” Marlan said.
Keep reading to learn about Marlan's experience working with FDL.
Before working with FDL, I worked with an accounting firm that specialized in funeral home accounting, but our relationship was very cold. They were just about numbers. I’m not a numbers person, and I’m not in a numbers business. I almost felt like I was working for them.
But with FDL, I feel like I have people working for and with me. I don’t dread the phone calls or the Zoom meetings. I look forward to them.
It was a mess. We were reaching out to several people to gather information and put together reports at the end of every year. It was very stressful.
Now, I don't even have to think about it. I feel like I have a whole accounting team here in my office, because I can call Graciela [FDL Accountant] anytime I need to. FDL’s accounting service has been a lifesaver for running my business.
FDL and Passare work really well together. I’ve seen the difference firsthand. For other funeral home owners I know, getting their numbers is a lot harder than it is for me because of the integration. The monthly meetings I have with Graciella [FDL Accountant] keep us on track, but when I need something outside of that, it’s easy.
The reports have been so valuable. I can see our growth over the years, catch trends in disposition types or cremation vs. burial, and see how those percentages change. I can also compare our numbers to the projections and see where we should end the year. If our numbers don’t look the way I want them to, the reports help me make adjustments before it’s too late.
I’ve worked with the lending team to acquire two locations. And compared to my previous experience, it was seamless. With FDL, everything I needed was easily accessible because the team already had access to our numbers through the accounting team and Passare. FDL made the whole financing process a lot easier.
Most funeral home owners have a figure in their head of what they think their business is worth, but there’s often nothing to back it up. I never wanted to just guess at that number. Now, I know what my business is worth. Getting a valuation has given me a clear understanding of where I stand, so I can continue to build and maintain that value.
Before partnering with FDL, we essentially sat back and waited for people to call us and say they wanted to preplan. But I knew that if I wanted to stay relevant 20 years from now, I couldn’t keep waiting. With FDL, our preneed program is strong and intentional.
I also love the Passare integration. I can convert a preneed policy to an at-need policy with the click of a button, and it makes the entire process seamless.
I would tell them, “Why juggle a marketing team across town, an accountant in another city, and a lender across the country when you can have everything in one place?” With FDL, it’s all at your fingertips. If you’re trying to grow your business and expand into new markets, it just makes sense to work with a single team that gives you total access to everything you need.
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