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.