Grave Tending is for Every Type of Worker
I talk with a lot of people about grave tending. Once they know what it is, inevitably they start telling me about at least one person they know who would love to be in this business. (I can see the gears turning in their head as they think of someone; it’s great!) And they always tell me who (“my dad”) and why (“He always loved working in the yard. Now that he’s sold the house and moved to a condo, he can’t do it anymore. This would be a great business for him!”).
In my book, I mention a few types of people/circumstances that would be a good fit for this industry, such as recent retirees, people who love gardening, and office workers who need some outdoor time. And while those are absolutely true, I want to mention a few others that lead to a particularly good fit for the world of grave tending. (One caveat: I’m not a physician or a therapist, just a layperson. I am explaining the below the best I can!):
ADHD. Although it can be easy to lose track of time when you’re doing any part of the job, you can allow yourself to hyper-focus on the parts you love, like cleaning a headstone. It’s also got varied locations and tasks: driving to the nursery and then to the cemetery, hauling supplies, placing the plants, digging in the dirt, taking pictures, etc. Each stone is different, too! When you’re done with the physical labor, you can switch to entering job notes and sending invoices.
Autism. Grave care professionals work outside in nature. Cemeteries are usually quiet, with few people around. You can work at your own pace, and it’s perfectly fine to put on some noise-cancelling headphones and tune everything out while you work. While each day can be different, you can set a routine that fits your needs, like heading to the cemetery in the morning and focusing on paperwork in the afternoon.
Introverts. A quiet and peaceful work environment provides great thinking time…or time to simply focus on the job at hand. When you interact with clients, it’s usually one-on-one, and much of your communication is via text or email. But you can set up your schedule to have long stretches of time when it’s just you, working alone with your headphones on in the cemetery, or in your office planning out next week’s schedule.
Energy Limitations. Some people have restrictions that make it difficult to work full time or within traditional working hours. For example, individuals with certain illnesses have only a few hours of energy each day. They want to work, but it’s tough to hold a traditional job if you don’t know which days you’ll have enough energy, and for how long. Grave tending is flexible enough to allow you to succeed even if you have to reschedule a cleaning or spread your work out so you can rest between jobs.
For all of these situations, there are two common themes.
Flexibility: As a business owner, you are in charge of your schedule. If you need routine, you can plan for that. If you’d rather be on the move every day, that works, too! And if you need to work based on your “energy schedule,” you can build time into the week to allow you to shift your work around.
As an offshoot of flexibility, you can choose to stay small or push to grow your grave tending business. As someone with a full-time job, I need to do all my site work on the weekends. If I grow my business too much, I won’t be able to handle all the work. And if you need to keep things small until you are comfortable, that option is open to you.
Work Environment: Many of the people who identify with the situations above prefer a quiet location with less human interaction…or at least one-on-one and on their own terms. While the cemetery is where you’ll spend most of your on-the-job time, there will be communication with nursery workers, other visitors to the cemetery, and, of course, your clients.
I have found the vast majority of my clients to be warm and caring. They truly appreciate what we do and aren’t hesitant to tell us so. Though many of my clients initially call on the phone, once we begin work most of them switch to email or text. And after a few seasons, my clients become a special type of friend, and we look forward to connecting when it’s time to confirm their next planting.
Grave tending can be a good business for most anyone. But for those who have different work needs or preferences, it can be a great business. We all want to feel successful at work; to feel we are making a difference. It can be tough to do that in a traditional setting or full-time job. If you allow yourself to set up your grave tending business in a way that works best for you, your self-confidence will grow, and that will have a positive effect on other areas of your life, too.
Running your own business isn’t easy, but it can provide the type of work schedule and atmosphere that allow you to thrive, while positively impacting your clients’ lives and beautifying the environment for everyone.