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Since ancient times, it has been customary in Russia to bury the dead, and the cemeteries of large cities often occupy vast territories. On the provision of funeral services make good money. Preparing the body, the coffin, wreaths, transportation, burial, organizing a wake, a monument – you can’t do without it. And although funeral homes firmly occupy their niches in the market, and it is not easy to enter the mourning business, not so long ago a new type of service has appeared – grave care.
Is this service in demand? Yes. It is used by people who do not have enough time to monitor the burials of deceased relatives. As a rule, these are entrepreneurs or senior managers who spend a lot of time at work. In addition, grave care companies are approached by residents of distant regions or other countries who have left their small homeland and are unable to come to the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried.
What is meant by caring for graves, what services do they offer?
First of all, the usual cleaning of graves. This includes weeding, garbage collection, removing weeds near the grave, washing the monument, tombstone, fence, watering flowers, bushes, trees at the burial site. The cost of the service is approximately 1000-1500 rubles.
The next step is regular cleaning. The client concludes a contract for a year, and the burial is monitored for the agreed period. The regularity of visiting the grave is stipulated by the terms of the subscription. The subscription price starts from 2.5 thousand, if there are three visits per year, then the price increases in proportion to the frequency of visits. You can offer an extended range of services, for example, clearing the territory of debris and branches, washing with special means, minor repairs of the fence, monument, painting, replacing the earth in the flower garden, planting annual and perennial flowers, shrubs, trees, caring for flowers (weeding, loosening the soil , watering) and other plants, ordering a prayer service “For the Repose”, laying bouquets, wreaths, baskets, lighting a daily lamp, preparing a burial for winter, covering the monument with a film for the winter, assessing the technical condition of the burial site.
In addition, the client has the opportunity to order a separate service for rust removal and painting of a bench, table, fence, monument; restoration of inscriptions, updating of photos; repair of cracks and restoration of broken parts of tombstones; installation of tombstones, benches, fences, etc., as well as landscaping of the territory.
The customer can pay for the service by bank transfer or using the electronic payment system. The client is offered to download the contract from the company’s website, sign it and send the scan by e-mail or send the document by fax.
To report to the client, the performer photographs the burial place before and after cleaning.
The most difficult thing is sometimes not to find a client and not fulfill an order, but to find a grave where no one has been for a long time, so firms ask the customer to provide the number of the burial, indicate the approximate area of \u200b\u200bthe cemetery, without this, unfortunately, in any way. However, there are those who have access to the documents of the cemetery and even offer clients a separate service – to find an abandoned burial place of relatives. Such awareness is a big plus for this business.
You can register as an individual entrepreneur by selecting the OKVED code 93.03. Starting investments are not needed, only a car and tools for repairing and painting graves, planting plants will be required. You can start a business alone.
It makes sense to open a grave care service if the ritual bureau at the cemetery does not provide such services, otherwise it will be quite difficult to compete with a competitor on its territory. Even if you find clients, you may be prevented from working. In addition, the territory of the cemetery is a great place for advertising.
The work is mostly seasonal. In winter, the service is idle, only those customers who sign a contract for a year remain. Therefore, if the entrepreneur has not sold enough subscriptions, then the profit in the cold season will be quite insignificant.
The attitude of the public towards this business is ambiguous. Some condemn the clients of such organizations, others admire the resourcefulness of entrepreneurs, others are already satisfied that there will be fewer abandoned graves. In any case, burial care services have orders, people need it.
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