And soon, they’ll know just where “here” is.
James is in the funeral business, an unlikely industry that captured his attention as a young lad, and in which he began working as a teenager. And at the ripe old age of 26, he’s gone solo after starting his career at the former Raymer Funeral Home, now Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
Since parting company with his former employer after Raymer was acquired by the funeral home-operating Kepner family of Wheeling, W. Va., last fall, the Huntersville native has been gradually building a funeral business of his own without a facility. He has used a funeral home in Troutman for embalming and body preparation, holding services in churches and other facilities. Gradually building to about 15 calls for service per month, he’s taken advantage of familiarity, name recognition and offering a lower-cost option.
“It’s gone better than I expected,” says James of the growth of his business, not yet a year old. “I was not expecting the volume we are doing without having a facility. I am very grateful for that.”
When he embarked on his solo career last November, he did so with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation.
“I didn’t sleep much for two months,” he says. “I had a dining room stacked with paperwork, between permits and buying materials and buying a vehicle (to transport bodies). But I got three calls the first week, and that was exciting. It’s still exciting to me.”
Unpopular though his business might be, you’ll have to forgive James for his excitement as he broke ground last week on his new, brick-and-mortar funeral home on Boulder Park Drive off Statesville Road. For the last nine months, he was using a facility in Troutman for body preparation, sometimes driving there at 2 a.m. to embalm, work that he performs himself.
He expects completion in about six to eight months, but few changes in his approach to his new business model. During his nine months so far of running a funeral business without a building, he’s learned there is an appetite for non-traditional services as an option to the monopolized funeral business in Charlotte. His Web site is filled with obituaries for those who have no ties to the Lake Norman area, yet turned to James — and Raymer-Kepner as well — in their time of need.
Funeral homes in Charlotte, he says, are dominated by Service Corp International, and as a result, the Queen City has one of the most expensive funeral markets in the country. He says a recent client told him the family was quoted a minimum $28,000 for a service in Charlotte. And that bill would go up 20 percent if it wasn’t paid fully in advance.
“I quoted him $7,000,” James says, adding that some have expressed concern his costs will rise when he has more overhead. “I have said I would be a lower-cost provider and I have done that. We are not overbuilding and I am still going to offer (off-site) services. I would like to go into Charlotte where all those corporate funeral homes are. If I keep my call volume plus add some, I can keep my prices the same.”
At about 9,000 square feet on two acres, James’ facility will include a chapel, visitation area, embalming room, selection room and a “community room” that can seat about 60. The room won’t have a full kitchen, but he will work with some caterers. He will have parking for about 100 vehicles with overflow available on the street.
For a young man, James is something of a funeral traditionalist (right down to his trademark bow tie), but lower-cost, alternative location ceremonies are something he had considered exploring while at Raymer. It proved to be a viable business model, drawing business from Charlotte. His local support is evident in the number of Facebook comments posted since he announced the groundbreaking (57 as of Sunday) and in the sincerity of the messages.
“Look at all these friends you have, Sam, who are rejoicing with you!,” wrote one. “And every one of them is going to die someday — I think you’ll be busy.”
Wrote another supporter, referencing James’ former employer and mentor prior to his death two years ago, “Johnny Raymer would be very proud of you James, God rest his soul.”
“It’s encouraging and heartwarming that I have built that kind of following because I am so young,” says James. “It makes me glad I did the extra things at Raymer and stayed around after visitations to make sure everyone had what they needed. I treated that funeral home like it was my own, and I wasn’t just another employee and it was more than just a 9-to-5 job.”
In fact James says he wanted to purchase the funeral home after the family made it available following Johnny Raymer’s death, but he couldn’t match the price eventually offered by the Kepner family.
He says it was a blessing in disguise.
“It’s incredible to have had so many clients in just nine months,” he says. “Some people come because I’m cheap. If they shop around, they are going to come to me, and that’s fine. I don’t mind that at all. But there are some people who come because it’s me, and they know me and I’m a local guy.”
