How To Start A Funeral Business: An Ikea For Caskets

I was cruising through the frugal subreddit the other day, as one does, and ran into an interesting post of a gentleman who was quoted $850 for the cheapest cremation box when his father passed away and decided he would make his own. It cost $120 to make. There’s so much going on here! One, he saved 86% of the cost. That’s insane. Two, his user name is Yacht_club! But there’s more going on here and I think this is a business opportunity. Here’s the original post:

When you get married and when you plan a funeral are two of the times when it’s hard to stick to a budget. Typically when you arrange a funeral you feel guilty when you try and bargain so people just accept the prices. Funeral homes know this. But look at the posts below. The one comment that stood out to me with 2,600 up votes and an award:

“I think your father would have been pleased and honored to know that he was laid to his rest in a coffin that was made by his son’s own hands. That means more than any casket money can buy.” Fortalic

Building a casket for his father meant more to him. The effort was the value, not the cost.

Then we have to take into consideration the Ikea effect, which is a cognitive bias where we put more value on items we build.

And add in that Ikea itself took off when they were shipping fully made tables from their manufacturing facility and to save costs and reduce damage in 1953 they started shipping them with the legs off and the rest is history.

What’s the Opportunity?

I think the opportunity is to start a business that ships low cost cremation boxes and caskets for people to assemble themselves. They would be shipped flat pack Ikea style to save on shipping cost. The site would focus on the emotional connection to building the caskets. There could be simple offerings and a whole bunch of add-ons for different styles. I would also get the equipment to burn in custom designs into the wood so they could make their own designs or messages and incorporate them into the casket.

In fact I think the messages would be a critical element. The entire marketing plan could be people sharing their personalized messages and quotes on social media. Best of all you would be saving people money and helping them through a difficult time.

Below are a few of the comments in the thread. There were also some comments around certain places having restrictions as to what caskets could be used, but as noted below it looks like many areas are required to allow caskets from other suppliers.