How I Got Started: Part One

by Mortuary Transport Expert ~ April 7th, 2008. Filed under: Body Business, Getting Started, Latest News.

This may answer a few questions for those of you wondering how to get started, whether to work for yourself or someone else and what mistakes I made along the way that I would absolutely avoid if I had to do it over again.

First of all, I never sought out mortuary work as a profession. Some people do, and I had a few employees who started with me because they always wanted to do this kind of work. I shyed away from hiring the people who were a bartender at night, and had a fascination with dead bodies, so had no apparent intention of giving this work the attention to detail it deserved. I’ve nothing against bartenders, that was just an example, as one sent me his resume with a cover letter talking about his fascination being the exciting part of the job, just too creepy.

So, the first requisite, which should go without saying, but I try not to leave anything out, is a respect for the decedent and they’re loved ones. You don’t have ‘like’ them, agree with they’re lifestyle, race, location, social status or temperment, but you HAVE to show respect. That is the number one key I believe that made me successful, aside from the attention to detail.

Some of the families that I had a very intimate time with during the 2-15 minutes with them, I would never have considered being around them for any reason at all, so I guess the other part is to be non-judgemental.

Another way of putting it is,

It’s Not About You

A major part of my life philosopy is that we are here first to serve others, not to be served. If that means our inconvenience, such as being called out for a removal at 3:30 AM, or in the middle of dinner, orwhen you hoped to get 15 minutes down time, we stop what we’re doing, within safe boundaries, and go do the call. There really are 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week, and this is a 24/7 on call job.

I don’t know of any other profession that requires this much of a commitment as a business, aside from ambulance, police and fire, and those vocations all require lots of specialized training and certification that this profession doesn’t require, if you do your home work. I’m hoping to provide that homework for you here.

So, with that out of the way for now, the next step is developing people skills. I would highly recommend Andrew Carnegies “How to Win Friends and Influence People” to get on the right track.