How to Start a Small Business - Headstone Cleaning and Grave Site Maintenance

While cemeteries are maintained, individual graves usually aren't.

Families these days are time poor and often live in another state or country from the gravesite of their loved one. These families are often willing to pay for their family member's gravesite to be maintained.

The advantage with this business is that you can fit it in around your other commitments. It's not a nine to five type of job.

The job will involve keeping graves tidy and well cared for. You will be cleaning moss, mould and grime off headstones, polishing metal plates and removing dead flowers and replacing them.

It's a good idea to have an uniform. Simply have a polo shirt screenprinted or embroidered with your chosen business name, and people will know why you are in the cemetery working around the graves. You may even garner some extra business from other cemetery visitors. This uniform should be hard wearing and neatly presented. Tradesmen's workwear is a good choice.

Your tools of trade will be a bucket, spade, garden rake, rubbish bags, cleaning brush, sponges, rubber gloves, metal polish, soft rags, and flowers.

A receipt book is required, as is an accounts book.

You can purchase the flowers from wholesalers if you do multiple gravesites on one day. The flowers can be an add on service that clients pay extra for, or you may choose to include it in an all in one priced package. Clients may not want flowers placed every week but may want them placed on certain special dates. For this you will need a date book.

It's a good idea to take photos of the cleaned and tidied gravesite to send to your clients periodically if they so require. So a digital camera or mobile phone camera can come in handy here as well.

Start by putting an advertisement in your local newspaper. Don't choose too lighthearted a business name – this is a serious type of business and a certain solemnity is called for. Your clients can get emotional about their loved ones and you need to understand that.

Ask if you can put up a poster at the local cemeteries. Laminated is good as it will withstand weather. Community noticeboards are also another source of advertising. Local churches may also allow you to put up yoru posters. It may also be worth contacting local genealogists to see if anyone wants the graves of their newly discovered ancestors to be maintained. Contact your local radio, television and newspaper to see if they want to do a story on this unusual business.

The first time you clean a gravesite may be time consuming, but after the initial clean and tidy it should take much less time to maintain. Your fees should reflect that. So for instance, you may choose to charge extra for a first visit, and offer a cheaper rate for subsequent, regular visits. An overgrown gravesite may take up to two hours to get tidy and clean, whereas a regularly maintained grave may only take up to half an hour.

It's a good idea to offer pensioner discounts and family plot discount rates.

Finally, conduct all your business affairs professionally, and prosperity should result.