List of profitable ventures in the Mortuary Business in Kenya

Entrepreneurship has no limits. The logistics behind a funeral business may look complicated and unsuitable, yet business opportunities lie in there untapped.

In the Kenyan setup, cultural practises, beliefs and people’s attitude towards the dead is very limiting and sceptical. Smart entrepreneurs have defied the odds and set the pace for others with an interest in the mortuary business.

Thanks to such entrepreneurs who wear their hearts for business on their sleeves, many business avenues are now open, attracting hundreds of thousands. You don’t have to languish in poverty because your family can’t stand you doing anything to do with a morgue.

Ends have to be met. Here are viable options in the mortuary business for you.

1. Coffin-making business

With your figures right, a strategically located front store, reliable suppliers, and a couple of excellent coffin makers, you can turn over Sh80,000 and Sh120,000 monthly.

State spent Sh. 260 million on Mwai Kibaki’s funeral

Depending on the design and handles used example, a pentagon coffin can go for cost Sh40,000 to Sh74,000. A simple coffin can trade for Ksh 20,000 and 25,000, depending on your clientele the raw materials you input.

2. Printing and design.

Funeral programs and eulogies have to run smoothly as planned. Family members, close relatives and friends would love to differentiate themselves from the rest of the mourners. Printing and design come in handy.

Branding shirts, lesos, hats, umbrellas, and souvenirs like cups, plates, and filled water bottles to fill the sombre mood with good memories of the late. Taking up a print and design job for a funeral can earn you over sh50,000 in a day. The hustle is definitely worthwhile.

3. Photography and videography

In as much as the dead are gone, people love to hold on to their last days on earth, as they treasure it. With all the masses that flock funeral services, getting a photography and videography gig can pay handsomely, pocketing sh20,000.

How to plan for life after death with Easy Cover

With your pieces of equipment set and your heart committed to the course, you can nail that job, and receive more referrals.

4. Selling flowers.

Funerals never miss roses. They are needed in plenty to show love and how much the dead were cherished during their days on earth.

As a smart entrepreneur, you can reach out to a flower farmer in Naivasha, buy 500 stems at sh20 each, repackage them nicely, and differentiate them in size, colour and quantity.

A bouquet of flowers can sell for as little as sh2000, with each stem costing Ksh 50. You have made a huge profit, enough to keep your business going and growing.

5. Managing funeral services

It pays highly to oversee funeral services, guiding the hungry masses, and the bereaved, ensuring the whole funeral service is conducted peacefully and as planned. It calls for talent, dedication and an innate ability to connect with the masses.

Planning, setting up the venue, coordinating the event, and seeing that the event is a success is one way to take advantage of the opportunity to make money. KSh50,000 to Ksh 100,000 a day in a good cut.

The Business of Death: 4 Businesses That Make Millions When People Die in Africa

The bereaved hate to hustle and be up and about when their dear one has perished; they love to focus on their dead and a third party can handle all the other matters.

6. Mortician (Funeral Director)

Getting the necessary permits and permission to run a funeral home from local municipalities and government authorities can be hectic.

Interventions of an attorney can smooth the operations. With the necessary resources and a state of art mortuary, you can make a lot of money if you get it all under one roof.

From body preservation, coffin-making cremation, funeral services, and the requiem mass, to mention but a few. On average in a month, you will be cashing over sh1 Million in returns from this investment.

7. Hearse business

Running a funeral home automatically translates to having a hearse, but most of public mortuaries have not invested in that. The bereaved always hire a vehicle to transfer the body.

This is where you sneak in, hiring the hearse. You are running a very successful business with seven hearses from deliberately anonymous vehicles to very formal, heavily decorated vehicles, a home with few drivers and funeral home contacts.

Assume each vehicle goes for three daily trips at an average cost of sh3000. at the end of the month earning sh500,000 will cease being a dream.