{"id":42018,"date":"2023-10-20T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/australias-first-online-funeral-planning-program-aims-to-make-a-difficult-task-a-little-easier-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:08","slug":"australias-first-online-funeral-planning-program-aims-to-make-a-difficult-task-a-little-easier-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/australias-first-online-funeral-planning-program-aims-to-make-a-difficult-task-a-little-easier-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s first online funeral planning program aims to make a difficult task a little easier – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Having worked as a funeral celebrant for the last six years, Stephanie Longmuir regularly sees grieving families grappling with the difficult task of trying to decide how a loved one would want to be remembered.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTime and time again I\u2019d see them lamenting the fact that their loved one hadn\u2019t expressed any wishes around a funeral service,\u201d Longmuir says. \u201cThe families are mostly in shock and grief, and they have to make some really big decisions in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cFamilies are left to organise it and a lot of people don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s why the Melbourne-based entrepreneur has created Australia\u2019s first online funeral planning program.<\/p>\n

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My<\/i>endnotes allows users to specifically plan their own funeral, down to the songs they want played and the type of flowers they want displayed.<\/p>\n

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Users are asked around 70 questions regarding what they want their funeral service to be like and how they want to be remembered. This information can then be downloaded as a .pdf file, printed, and stored in the same way as a will.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s for the type of person that will prepay their funeral,\u201d Longmuir says. \u201cThey\u2019re the type of person who wants to take control over how their lives are going to be remembered and celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The service soft-launched earlier this year and was met with \u201cvery positive\u201d feedback. It officially launched at the end of last month.<\/p>\n

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Longmuir came up with the idea for the startup three years ago, and has since worked with funeral directors to develop the questions and digital strategists Webqem to design the platform.<\/p>\n

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The service currently costs $19.99 for a month\u2019s access. Longmuir says this is something she is still fine-tuning, and that the high price is in part aimed at deterring people who may fill out the form as a joke.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLike a will, this is something that needs to be taken seriously, so that\u2019s why there\u2019s a serious price,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t want everyone using this, it is a serious site.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As with all funeral services, advertising the product will be <\/i>one of the biggest hurdles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMarketing in the funeral industry is really, really hard,\u201d Longmuir says. \u201cYou have to be so careful and so sensitive, so that\u2019s where this business is really tricky. It\u2019s something that will be slow on the uptake because it can\u2019t be advertised heavily.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The startup has been entirely bootstrapped by Longmuir so far, who is waiting to see how it is received before thinking about chasing outside investment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have had a couple of interested parties, but I\u2019m holding off at this stage and waiting to see if I can sustain it myself, and get it to the next stage that I want,\u201d she says. \u201cThis might require some outside investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There are currently no other companies in Australia bringing technology to the funeral planning industry, and my<\/i>endnotes is hoping to capitalise on a growing trend in the US of prepaying for funerals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are very few people doing this, even in the states where there is a much bigger prepaid business,\u201d Longmuir says.<\/p>\n

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Longmuir has been invited to speak at the National Funeral Directors Association\u2019s international conventional and expo in Indianapolis in October, where she hopes to speak with potential partners and investors.<\/p>\n

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Raising your<\/i> first round of capital<\/i><\/a>? Starting a<\/i> crowdfunding campaign<\/i><\/a>? Want to grow your business<\/i> with Instagram?<\/i><\/a> <\/i>StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having worked as a funeral celebrant for the last six years, Stephanie Longmuir regularly sees grieving families grappling with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}