How to Start a Cemetery Business

Starting a cemetery business can be an exciting and rewarding business venture for entrepreneurs who are interested in providing compassionate end-of-life services while meeting the ongoing demand for burial spaces.

Having said that, you should keep in mind that launching a successful cemetery business requires careful planning, significant financial investment, and a deep understanding of local regulations.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through all the essential steps you’ll need to take to start your own cemetery business, from securing suitable land and obtaining the required permits to purchasing all the necessary equipment and establishing a perpetual care fund.

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Industry Overview

With a projected market value of $88.6 billion by 2033 and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.80% from 2024 to 2033, the funeral services industry appears to be set for steady growth for the foreseeable future.

This industry — which encompasses a range of services (e.g., funeral planning, cremation, embalming, and burial preparations) — is witnessing this growth as a result of an increasingly aging global population. As the average life expectancy increases, so too does the demand for end-of-life services such as burials and cremations.

Given the steady growth of the funeral services industry, starting a cemetery business is not only a viable venture but also a potentially lucrative one. With proper planning, adherence to regulations, and the ability to meet the evolving preferences of families, a cemetery business could thrive in this expanding market while providing a valuable and essential service to the community.

Startup Costs

If you’re considering whether a cemetery business is right for you, the first thing you’ll need to know is whether it’s a) affordable, and b) worth the investment. I mean, how much can you actually make running your own cemetery business?

Well, it depends. The initial investment for a cemetery business varies widely based on factors such as your business’s size and location, but should typically include the following key expenses:

• Land Acquisition or Lease: One of the largest expenses associated with starting a cemetery business is acquiring or leasing the necessary land. Since cemeteries require vast open spaces in order to accommodate multiple plots, the cost of this land is usually quite significant — typically anywhere between $50,000 and $500,000 or more, depending on the location, size, and zoning regulations of the area. On the other hand, if you opt to lease, the monthly cost could range from $2,000 to $15,000 depending on the market and location.
• Land Development and Landscaping: Another significant startup cost to be aware of is that of developing and preparing the land you’ve just bought to be used as a cemetery. This can include grading the land, installing drainage systems, adding pathways, and setting up entrance gates and fences — all on top of maintaining beautiful landscapes, which require professional landscaping services. In total, these development and landscaping costs can range from $50,000 to $300,000, depending on how large the plot of land is and how drastic the changes you want to make are.
• Licensing and Permits: In order to legally operate a cemetery, your business will need to obtain several specific permits and licenses — including land use permits, environmental impact assessments, and burial permits (see Step 8). On top of this, you may also need to comply with certain specific health and safety regulations depending on your location. Overall, the cost of obtaining the necessary licenses can vary from $500 to $5,000 according to local government fees and the complexity of the approval process.

In terms of ongoing costs, cemetery businesses will face staff salaries and expenses associated with land maintenance in addition to utilities and the general upkeep of facilities like chapels or mausoleums.

Owners will also need to allocate funds for insurance, security, marketing, and legal compliance — which will include renewing licenses and adhering to state regulations.

Earning Potential

The earning potential for a cemetery business can vary significantly depending on its location, the services it offers, and the size of its operation.

In general, the primary way in which this type of business makes money is by selling burial plots, mausoleum spaces, and columbarium niches for cremated remains. Across the nation, burial plots typically cost around $1,000 each, though in more densely populated areas like San Francisco they can sell for up to as much as $12,000 each.

In addition to the sale of these spaces, cemeteries can also offer a number of additional burial services that contribute to their revenue, such as transportation to the cemetery (around $750), headstone installation (around $1,750), and cremation services (around $1,100).

While it can take time to recoup initial investments due to the substantial startup costs associated with this business type, cemeteries have the potential to be profitable over the long term due to the fact that they can offer such a wide variety of services.

This is particularly true for cemeteries which offer additional services like casket sealing, which can carry an extremely high markup. Indeed, in exchange for “sealing” the edges of a casket when it’s closed with a $10 gasket or sealing ring made of rubber, cemeteries often charge upwards of several hundred dollars.

In order to maximize profitability, cemetery businesses should look to offer unique or specialized services. For instance, partnering with companies that preserve the tattoos of the deceased or providing eco-friendly burial options can attract more customers and generate publicity.

10 Steps to Starting a Cemetery Business

In order to start a cemetery business, you’ll need to complete the following steps:

1. Planning Your Cemetery Business
2. Registering Your Business
3. Setting Up Your Taxes
4. Opening a Business Bank Account and Credit Card
5. Securing Funding (If Applicable)
6. Choosing the Right Location
7. Obtaining all Necessary Equipment
8. Establish a Perpetual Care Fund (If Applicable)
9. Getting all Applicable Licenses and Permits
10. Obtaining Business Insurance

We’ve broken each one of these down in more detail below.

Still exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.

Step 1: Plan Your Cemetery Business

Before diving into your cemetery business, you’ll need to spend some time conducting thorough market research.

This can involve analyzing the local market to understand the demand for these services, identifying potential competitors, and assessing the target demographic.

This will help you evaluate the financial viability of your project — including projected revenues and expenses — as well as determine the best location for your business.

Finding a Suitable Name

Choosing the right business name is both important and challenging.

Your name will need to be eye-catching, memorable, and (at least somewhat) related to your industry.

If you don’t already have a name in mind and need help, you can visit our How to Name a Business guide or use our Cemetery Business Name Generator tool.

If you do have a name in mind, we recommend researching the following to confirm it’s available:

• Your state’s business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms

You will also need to make sure that your business’s name is available as a domain — this is your website’s URL address.

Note: If you’re planning to operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name — known as a “Doing Business As” (DBA) name. Keep in mind that this is not recommended for a cemetery business.

Develop a Business Plan

When starting a cemetery business, devising a detailed business plan is crucial in order to keep both your goals clear and the roadmap you’ll need to follow in order to meet them.

When coming up with this plan, make sure to focus on answering the following key questions:

• Which services do you plan to offer?
• How much demand is there for cemetery services in your area?
• What will the day-to-day operation of your cemetery look like?

As mentioned above, there are a wide variety of different services a cemetery can provide, including the sale of traditional burial plots and mausoleum spaces, cremation services, green burials, as well as extras such as headstone sales, grave maintenance, and even different memorial events.

The combination of these various different services that you decide to offer should ultimately be primarily informed by the demographics of the area your business will be based in.

As an example, you would ideally want to prioritize traditional burial plots and headstone sales as your core services in areas that have a large population of religions that do practice cremation — such as Judaism, Islam, and the Greek Orthodox Church.

However, if your cemetery is located in an urban area with limited space, offering a combination of cremation services as well as mausoleum spaces and columbariums for cremated remains would be a far better idea.

Ultimately, you should be looking to offer as many of these services as possible, as long as they align with the wants and needs of your local demographic.

Step 2: Register Your Business

One crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked when starting your cemetery business is the importance of establishing a solid business foundation.

While sole proprietorships and partnerships are the most common entity types for small businesses, they’re a far less stable and advantageous option than LLCs — especially when it comes to cemetery businesses (with potential liabilities and debt).

This is because unincorporated business structures (i.e., sole proprietorships and partnerships) expose you as an owner to personal liability for your business’s debts and legal actions, while LLCs protect you by keeping your personal assets separate from your business’s liabilities.

In practice, this means that if your business were to face a lawsuit or incur any debts, your savings, home, and other personal assets could not be used to cover these costs. On top of this, forming your business as an LLC also helps it to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.

Note: If you’re interested in more information before getting started, we recommend having a look at our How to Start a Business guide (DIY) or our in-depth Best Business Formation Services review (for those opting for a professional service).

Step 3: Set Up Your Taxes

The next step you’ll need to take is to register your business for taxes. To this, you’ll need to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN), which you can think of as your business’s Social Security Number.

If you form your LLC through a specialized LLC formation service, this will likely be already handled for you in exchange for a small additional fee.

Even so, it’s important to make sure that you fully understand your business’s tax obligations; since these can depend on your location, it’s a bit difficult to accurately break down exactly which taxes you’ll be subject to.

Nevertheless, most businesses will typically be subject to income tax, sales tax, and employment taxes at the federal level. Cemetery businesses in particular will also likely be faced with payroll taxes (if they have employees) as well as a perpetual care fund tax and local business tax.

Due to the complex nature of business taxes, we always advise our readers to seek the help of a professional accountant or business attorney for this step.

Step 4: Open a Business Bank Account and Credit Card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential when operating as a business owner; this is because when your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) can be at risk in the event your business is sued.

In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil and is a result of the fact that not having a separate business bank account can be interpreted by some courts as evidence that you are not treating your business as a separate financial entity.

As a result, you could lose your limited liability protections even if you’ve registered a separate business such as an LLC or C Corp.

There are also a variety of practical and economic benefits to this step, such as a larger access to business loans and a more legitimate look.

Getting a business credit card can also be a great idea as it can help you build your company’s credit history from the start.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Step 5: Secure Funding (If Applicable)

Securing funding for your cemetery business is a vital part of getting started, with typical financing options including bank loans, SBA financing, private investors, and crowdfunding.

Each of these financing routes has its own advantages and disadvantages you’ll need to weigh up, and the best option will largely depend on your financial needs and specific business strategy.

As a general rule of thumb, businesses are typically only recommended to take on loans for things that are directly tied to revenue generation. However, in the case of cemetery businesses, seeking external funding will likely be necessary to cover the essential costs associated with getting started.

If you do decide to follow this route, it’s essential to be conservative with the loans you seek out in order to ensure that you can easily make interest payments with the income your business will generate.

When making financial projections of your earnings, remember to exclude the portion that you may need to dedicate to a Perpetual Care Fund (see Step 8).

Step 6: Choose the Right Location

With the financing sorted, the next step you’ll want to take is to choose an appropriate location for your cemetery business.

When doing this, it’s critical to remember that finding the right location for a cemetery is unlike any other business type as there are far more factors to consider, including:

• Land size and topography
• Demographic and population trends
• Accessibility
• Proximity to key facilities (e.g., churches, chapels, and hospitals)
• Long-term viability

The most obvious factor to consider when choosing a site for a cemetery is the size of the plot of land. Naturally, you should be looking for larger plots of land where possible, as your cemetery will need a significant amount to be able to accommodate burial plots, mausoleums, and cremation gardens.

On top of the size of the plot of land, you’ll typically want to lean toward those that are also flat or gently sloping, as these are much easier to work with when it comes to digging graves. This also helps with efficient drainage as flat ground can prevent water from later pooling over graves or pathways.

The second key factor to consider when choosing the location of your cemetery is the local population’s age distribution and mortality rates. While you might be tempted to choose a location purely because it has a high mortality rate, it’s essential to rely on both of these two metrics when making a decision, as an aging population alone will only imply a short-term increase in demand for your cemetery services.

Furthermore, in the long-run, a high mortality rate without a good age distribution will just result in a reduced customer base over time as the population gradually shrinks and fewer people are left in the area to need your burial services.

Step 7: Obtain All Necessary Equipment

Once you’ve chosen an adequate plot of land on which to establish your cemetery business, it’ll be time to obtain all the equipment needed to be able to run it.

The essential equipment you’ll need in order to get up and running will include:

• Grave digging equipment (e.g., excavators, shovels, and hand tools)
• Burial vault handling equipment (e.g., devices to lower a vault or casket)
• Maintenance and landscaping equipment (e.g., lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, and tractors)
• Burial plot markers and surveying tools (to mark and measure burial plots accurately)
• Administrative and record-keeping tools
• Gravel coverings and funeral tents

Be sure to properly care for your tools with routine maintenance — this not only extends their lifespan but also keeps them performing at their best, which is essential for delivering top-quality service to your customers.

Step 8: Establish a Perpetual Care Fund (If Applicable)

One of the most important aspects of managing a cemetery business is making sure that the grounds are maintained in a good condition in the long term.

To ensure this, many states have made it mandatory for cemetery owners to establish a perpetual care fund (aka an endowment care fund) that’s designed to keep a cemetery well-maintained, even in the event that all the plots are sold and the primary sources of income have decreased.

This is essentially a type of trust fund in which a portion of each sale you make is invested in order to generate income. The principal amount of the fund cannot be touched, though the interest or returns on the investment may be used to pay for the upkeep of the cemetery — including tasks like landscaping, mowing, and repairing infrastructure such as pathways and fences.

These funds are critical to the running of cemeteries, since they are long-term operations that require regular maintenance even after they stop actively selling plots. Families who purchase burial plots expect that their loved ones’ gravesites will be well-maintained for decades, if not centuries.

However, since this fund isn’t a legal requirement in all states, you’ll need to check the requirements in your jurisdiction to find out whether you’ll be expected to set one up or not.

Step 9: Secure All Necessary Permits and Licenses

Before you can officially open your cemetery business, one of the final steps you’ll need to complete is to secure the various licenses and permits that are typically required by law.

Cemetery License

In most states, businesses looking to run a cemetery must obtain a specific cemetery license from the relevant state regulatory agency, such as the cemetery or funeral board.

If required in your state, this license is necessary for your business to legally operate a cemetery and will require your cemetery to undergo inspections in order to confirm compliance with state laws regarding burial practices and maintenance.

Business Operation Licenses

At a state level, your business may be required to obtain a business license in order to operate — though this will depend on your location.

This process generally involves submitting an application, paying a fee, and meeting specific state requirements. However, some states may also require you to provide a detailed business plan or proof of insurance as part of the licensing process.

Crematory License

If your cemetery also plans to offer on-site cremation services through a crematorium, it will need a separate specialized crematory license from the relevant authority in your state.

Since cremation involves the handling of human remains and the use of specialized equipment, it is strictly regulated by state and local authorities to ensure compliance with a number of health, safety, and environmental standards.

Zoning Permits

A zoning permit ensures that the location you’ve chosen for your cemetery is approved for this intended use, as they’re subject to strict zoning regulations which dictate where they can be located within a city or county.

Since you can’t just set up a cemetery in any location, you’ll need to first obtain a zoning permit or land use approval from the local authorities before you can get started, which often involves public hearings and an environmental review.

Environmental Permits

When establishing a cemetery, you’ll likely be required to obtain an environmental permit to ensure that the operation does not negatively affect local ecosystems, water sources, or soil quality.

These permits are especially important if the cemetery is located near sensitive areas such as wetlands, rivers, lakes, or protected habitats, as one of the primary concerns is the potential for groundwater contamination — particularly from decomposing organic matter or embalming chemicals used in traditional burials.

Securing these permits is not just a regulatory requirement but a way to ensure your cemetery operates responsibly too.

Step 10: Get Business Insurance

In addition to securing the necessary permits and licenses, you will need to obtain the right business insurance.

Note

Even if you form an LLC, purchasing business insurance is still a good idea. This is because an LLC structure protects your personal assets, not your business’s.

While specific coverage needs may vary based on factors such as location, size, and unique risks, there are several key types of insurance that most cemetery businesses should consider.

We’ve briefly outlined these below.

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance is a foundational coverage that’s essential for cemetery businesses because it protects against claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury that may arise from accidents on the property.

An example of this might be if a visitor trips on uneven ground or a headstone suffers significant damage — in either of these cases, general liability insurance would cover the costs.

The average cost for general liability insurance according to recent data is between $400 and $1,000 per month, though costs can vary based on your business’s specific needs and risks.

Property Insurance

Property insurance is essential for safeguarding your cemetery business’s physical assets, such as any buildings, mausoleums, maintenance equipment, and landscaping tools.

The median cost for business property insurance is approximately $300 to $800 per month.

Having said that, rates can vary significantly based on factors such as your business’s location, risk profile, and the value of the property in question.

Errors and Omissions Insurance

Professional liability insurance protects the cemetery from claims related to mistakes or oversights in the services it provides. For instance, if a grave is prepared incorrectly or there is an error in the scheduling or handling of a burial, this insurance helps cover the cost of legal fees or settlements.

The cost of this insurance for a cemetery business can vary based on its size, location, and the sorts of services provided. However, on average, you can expect to pay between $50 to $150 per month for E&O insurance.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Commercial auto insurance is another must for most cemetery businesses, given that it covers damages, liability, and other costs associated with accidents in any of the various vehicles you’ll own (e.g., excavators, tractors, and trucks).

This type of insurance is essential for businesses that rely on vehicles and is more comprehensive than personal auto insurance, as it is tailored to commercial-related use.

Without commercial auto insurance, an accident could lead to significant out-of-pocket expenses for repairs, medical bills, or legal fees, which can be detrimental to your small business.

While specific figures can vary greatly depending on the number of vehicles your business owns, the driving history of your employees, and your coverage limit, it will typically cost small businesses between $100 and $300 per vehicle per month.

Ready to Get Started?

How to Start a Cemetery Business FAQs

Who is the target market?

The main market for your cemetery business will be family members or friends of people who have recently passed away.

Although funeral and burial arrangements are most often organized by family members of the deceased, some of your customers will also include people who would like to ensure that their burial plans are in order before they pass away.

How much can you charge customers?

It’s not unusual for a person to pay up to $12,000 for a single plot in a heavily populated place like San Francisco, but the average cost is about $1,000 for the actual ground.

Transportation to the graveyard costs about $750, cremation is $1,100 and the average headstone is $1,750. Be sure to check the average price in your local area to get a sense of what people are willing to pay before setting your own menu of services.

How much profit can a cemetery business make?

A cemetery business has the potential to be quite profitable over the long term, especially if the business is located in a high-demand area or offers a wide range of services, such as cremation, mausoleums, or memorial products.

On average, newly-established cemetery businesses can generate annual profits in the range of $50,000 to $150,000, with larger better-established cemeteries earning upwards of $500,000 per year.

How can you make your business more profitable?

In order to become more profitable, cemeteries may want to get a little more creative when it comes to testing out new services and products for the community.

For example, there are companies that will preserve the tattoos of the deceased, or who can anchor a casket so it can never be washed out to sea. It’s these types of interesting services or partnerships that can both boost publicity and profitability at the same time.