Key Points From the Interview
oday is one of those painful stories of buying then losing a business.
Philip Blackett bought a cemetery services business in the fall of 2019.
Seemed like a great business:
- B2B - recurring revenue
- Super niche (cemetery services??)
- Entrenched in its clients' businesses
- ...and a big fat pipeline of sales opportunities to boot.
Philip was expecting to double revenue in his first year of ownership.
And things were going well for the first 3 months or so.
But then COVID hits. You'd think that would strengthen his particular business, ugly as it is to say.
Instead, it precipitates a slow-motion death spiral that consumes Philip over the next 3+ years as he valiantly tries to keep things afloat.
Including taking a second job, moonlighting as a manager at a Chick-fil-A.
He finally and officially shut the business down 2 months ago today, as I read this.
This is his story.
I said it in the interview, and I'll say it again here:
Thank you Philip for sharing it with us.
Here he is, Philip Blackett, former owner of Cemetery Services.