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Zinc Gravemarkers and Melting Snow

snow and grave markers
Grave markers in the snow.

Snowfall helps cemetery explorers discover zinc grave markers.

Do you enjoy searching for your favorite types of tombstones when exploring cemeteries?

Whether you like searching for wood, granite, slate, marble, or sandstone grave markers, spotting your favorite stele from a distance is always fun. Personally, I enjoy seeking zinc grave markers, among others.

Zinc grave markers are easily identified by the trained eye. In fact, with a quick scan across a large monument laden cemetery, even hobbyists can quickly find zinc markers. They just look different. There is something about their muted grey color that catches your eye and makes you linger a ½ second longer trying to figure out why that particular “tombstone” looks slightly different from the others.

I explored a new cemetery with a friend last summer. Her interest in cemeteries is new and budding. “See that marker over there? It’s metal.” I told her. “How do you know it is metal?” She asked. I told her to tap on it with her knuckles. She was amazed at the hollow “DING” that rang out but more than that she was amazed that I had used some “trick” to spot it more than 100 feet away amongst a sea of other markers.

Zinc grave markers have an interesting history. They were produced by the Monumental Bronze Company toward the last decade of the 1800’s and the first decade of the 1900’s. At first, the markers were not popular with families of the newly deceased. However, clever marketing by Monumental Bronze let families know of zinc’s affordability, long life, and easy maintenance. One other strategy used by Monumental Bronze was a change in name from “Zinc” to “White Bronze.” White Bronze markers became thought of as progressive for the new century and thousands were sold and installed in cemeteries all across the United States.

So, what is it about zinc markers that makes them readily identifiable from afar? Is it their subdued reflection of sunlight? Is it their distinguished removable panels? Is it their powdery appearance? I don’t know what it is but I do know that I recently discovered yet another method of finding zinc grave markers.

You probably saw on the news that we received quite a bit of snowfall at the end of January. Once the roads cleared, I trekked to a few cemeteries to check on grave sites. A zinc marker was along my path and I noticed snow appeared to be melting at a greater rate on the zinc marker than on nearby granite markers. My initial hypothesis was that the zinc marker absorbed sunlight a greater rate than the granite markers. With a quick check of my temperature gun, my hypothesis proved inconclusive since the zinc grave marker and two adjacent granite grave markers were of very similar temperatures.

What other factors could be at play? Since the heat capacity of a granite marker is much greater than a similarly sized zinc marker is it possible that granite takes longer to heat up and allows the snow to hang around longer? Did crinkled surface with lots of bends and different angles on the zinc marker better absorb sunlight? Or, was it a simple case of the snow melting equally on each marker but the wetness of melted snow dripping made a more dramatic color differential on zinc than it did on the granite markers?

Zinc Grave Marker Snow
Zinc Grave Marker Under Snow

Well, I am not sure of the answer but I do know that I now I have another “trick” to amaze friends when exploring cemeteries and looking for zinc markers.

What are your “tricks” when determining composition of grave markers? Feel free to leave a response below to let me know your favorite type and style of tombstone. What “tricks” or cool info do you know about them?

If you love tombstones and cemeteries, you might really enjoy starting your own Grave Care Business. I love cemeteries and I love being able to work in and explore new cemeteries all the time. If you are thinking about starting a Grave Care Business, my company has developed a Grave Care Business Course that will help you start and grow a successful Grave Care Business. The course includes a huge grouping of manuals, guidebooks, tutorials, video training, business tools, and estimating software.


For more information on the Grave Care Business Course, please visit our website: www.GraveCareBusiness.com


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Grave Stone Cleaning and Inspection Techniques

Proper grave stone cleaning requires proper inspection techniques.

In our Grave Care Business courses, we encourage proper tomb stone cleaning. Unfortunately, we have been horrified at the number of “tutorials” online that give improper or damaging advice. We recently saw one video of a man using a power grinder to “clean” away grime from a tombstone. In essence, he was grinding away the tombstone itself causing irreparable damage.

We are excited to be developing brand new grave stone inspection techniques. By properly inspecting a tomb stone, a grave care business owner can better determine a suggested courses of action to grave care customers. Proper tombstone cleaning begins long before you ever touch the stone.

For information on how you can start a business offering tombstone cleaning, please visit our main site by clicking the link below.

www.GraveCareBusiness.com

Cemeteries in Autumn – Life with a Higher Purpose

Autumn in a Cemetery
Autumn Leaves and Cemetery Graves

Autumn leaves and cemetery graves.

Autumn is a perfect time to start a grave care business. Fantastic weather and lots of work to be performed makes grave care a rewarding and profitable small business.

Grave plot maintenance, floral decorations, and tombstone cleaning are just three of the many niche grave care services we cover in the grave care business guidebook section of our grave care business course.

The Grave Care Business Course will help you start and grow your own grave care business. Comprehensive course with instructions, tutorials, video training guides, business toolkit, and estimating software.

If you are tired of working for someone else and want to start your own rewarding and profitable small business, watch this short video below. Grave care is not your typical business. Grave care is a meaningful business that truly helps people. They will be grateful for the work you do. Grave care is a rewarding business that will give your life higher purpose.

For complete information and ordering instructions, visit our main Grave Care Business website at:
Grave Care Business Instruction Course
www.GraveCareBusiness.com

Grave Care Business – A Low Competition, Niche Business

 

Grave care is a low competition niche business.

I remember a business strategy class I took in college.  The instructor continually maintained that competition is good.  While I agreed with him on the basic factors of the need for competition, in the back of my head I was always thinking: “yes, but a monopoly is better.”

Why is competition good?  Competition breeds innovation.  Competition draws on synergy to create public awareness about a product.

Why is a monopoly better?  Especially for an entrepreneur in a niche business, dominance in a particular product or service allows the entrepreneur to focus on product development, service delivery, and customer relationships.

Some competition is good.  However, in most communities we have visited and studied across the United States (and some of Europe) there is very little competition to this business.  Look around your area.  Can you find anyone offering grave care services?

If you have ever thought about offering Grave Care Services, now is an excellent time to start.  Be the first (or one of the first) in your community to offer grave care services.  Being one of the first gives you a special opportunity to dominate your market segment and quickly build your client base.

We have developed a Grave Care Business course that will help you start and operate a successful Grave Care Business.  

Our website is:  www.GraveCareBusiness.com

 

A Busy Summer For Grave Care and Cemetery Maintenance

grave care, cemetery maintenance
Grave care is in high demand during a rainy summer season

With all the rain we received during June and July, grave plots and entire cemeteries are becoming overgrown.

This summer of above average rainfall is having dramatic effects. Grass is growing high and creeping over grave markers, shrubbery is getting out-of-control and obscuring epitaph inscriptions, and increased humidity is causing tomb stones to mildew quicker than normal. While grave care business owners normally keep a busy schedule during the summer months, there is a greater-than-normal demand for grave care services this year.

If you already own a grave care business, you are probably used to being able to slow down for the last week of July and part of August. This year, due to increased precipitation, you are probably noticing increased demand for your grave care services. This is a good thing, right? Well, we like to take time off, too. However, an increase in demand for your grave care services means that you can make more money than normal. In this economy, more money is a good thing.

Don’t get burned out.

The increased demand in grave care, plot maintenance, and tombstone cleaning is likely to last throughout the rest of the summer. As soon as summer begins to wind down autumn will be right around the corner and it will bring its own increased demand for services such as leaf cleanup and grass seeding before winter sets in. Once winter gets here, demand for Christmas and holiday floral decorations will increase dramatically.

So, pace yourself. There is a lot of work to be done between now and the end of the year and there is a lot of money to be made, too.

If you have yet to start your own grave care business we would like to invite you to look at our Grave Care Business Course. This course will help you start, operate, and grow a successful Grave Care Business.
Right now is a perfect time to start your own Grave Care Business.

We can show you how.

For more information, please check our main website:

www.GraveCareBusiness.com


Grave Care – Father’s Day and July 4th 2013

Father's Day Grave Site Maintenance
Father’s Day Grave Maintenance

Summer is a busy month for grave care.

Hi Everyone:

This is Keith with Grave Care Business. The year is flying by and I just want to make note of the great opportunities in Grave Care for the rest of the summer.

If you already own your own Grave Care Business, I hope you took advantage of Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. .

Mother’s day brought heavy demand for floral decorations and plot beautification. Now is not a time to rest, though, since we have a few busy months ahead.

Father’s Day is Sunday June 16.
Independence Day is Thursday July 4.

While these two days garner enough demand for grave care services by themselves, they are coupled with the fact that we are now into the summer upkeep season. Grass is growing out of control, weeds are invading (and in some cases destroying) grave markers, and shrubs around grave plots are in dire need of proper pruning. Add this to normal grave care services such as floral decorations, tombstone cleaning, and documentation efforts such as photography and cemetery mapping, and we have a very busy few months ahead of us.

Grave care is a wonderful niche business and summer is a great time to establish a solid customer base before we move into the busy autumn months of grave care.

If you have ever wanted to start a Grave Care Business but you don’t know where to begin, we have developed a comprehensive Grave Care Business Course designed to help you start and operate a successful Grave Care Business.

For more information on starting a Grave Care Business,
click this link: Grave Care Business Instruction Course

Grave Care – Mother’s Day and Easter 2013

Grave Care Mother's Day Easter
Grave Care for Mother’s Day and Easter
Hi Everyone:

This is Keith with GraveCareBusiness.com

I’m just working on a quick blog post to remind you that we have TWO really, really big dates coming up in March and May of this year.

Easter is March 31, 2013 and
Mothers Day is May 12, 2013.

If you operate a grave care business, I cannot emphasize the importance enough of Easter and Mother’s Day. Outside of the Christmas season, these two dates are arguably the most important time of year for grave decorations, general plot maintenance, and tombstone cleaning.

It’s spring time and people want their family’s grave sites cared for and decorated correctly. Oftentimes, adult children have moved away from their hometowns or are otherwise unable to care for their parents’ grave sites. They will gladly pay good money to have someone care for the plots, decorate the grave sites, and properly clean the tombstones.

So, if you are already operating your Grave Care Business, be sure to remind all your clients of the special services you are offering this year. Let them know that your schedule is tight and they need to schedule your services as soon as possible.

If you have yet to start your business, there is probably no better time to start than right now. Grave care customers are relatively easy to acquire any time of year. But, right now is a particularly opportune time to build a strong client list.

If you have ever thought about starting a Grave Care Business, we have developed a comprehensive Grave Care Business course that will teach you practically everything you need to know to start and operate a successful Grave Care Business. Please visit our website (click the link to our home page above) to learn all we offer. Get started now and you will be up and running in prime time to gain clients for Easter and Mother’s Day.

Once again, this is Keith with Grave Care Business.com

Cemetery Contracts for 2013

cemetery mowing grounds maintenance
Cemetery Grounds Maintenance Contracts

It is time to bid your Cemetery contracts.

In addition to the people that start grave care businesses providing floral decorating, tombstone cleaning, and individual plot maintenance, we also help people who want to provide wide-scale cemetery upkeep.

This side of the grave care business is largely comprised of mowing, trimming, and general landscape maintenance. For most large cemeteries, this work is bid out on a contract basis and will allow you (if you bid correctly) to make great money for your work. Cemetery landscape maintenance contracts are normally bid during the first quarter of the year. Generally, cemetery contracts are drafted either by a cemetery management companies or a city/county government agencies that oversee cemeteries.

Our Grave Care Business tutorial provides provides a very good section that deals specifically with bidding on cemetery upkeep contracts. Proper bidding protocols must be followed and it is often intimidating for business owners who are new to bidding.

If you are interested in the landscape maintenance side of the business or if you are mainly interested in individual plot maintenance and tombstone cleaning, please click over to out website homepage where you can learn about our Grave Care Business course. If you have any questions for us, please let us know. We are always happy to help.

Cemetery Leaf Cleanup

Cemetery Cleanup
Cemetery and Plot Maintenance is important for grave care

Cemeteries and grave plots require leaf cleanup work as we move into winter.

I just returned from a trip to upstate New York where it was chilly and snowy. Yet, even in the northern climates, cemeteries and grave plots still need lots of attention so they can be maintained through the winter. Leaf care, snow maintenance, and winterization are just three of the jobs requested of grave care business owners in the north.

Now that I have returned home to a more southern climate, I am reinvigorated with the thoughts of the amount of work (profitable business) still to be done in area cemeteries this year. Leaves are still falling, dead branches litter the ground from a recent storm, and next year’s grass should be planted NOW. Not only are regular maintenance duties calling but holiday grave site decorations are going to be in HUGE demand for the next four weeks.

If you have ever thought about starting a grave care business, we have developed a comprehensive business course designed to help you start and operate a successful grave care business. Visit our main site [www.GraveCareBusiness.com] for more information on the business course.

Hurricane Damage to New York Area Cemeteries

This morning’s New York Times has an article relating to damage in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Green-Wood is known for many fine examples of large flourishing trees. Unfortunately, as trees grow larger, their vulnerability to high winds increases. As we have all seen, damage resulting from Hurricane Sandy is taking its toll on north-eastern states and will take months to clean up.

While Green-Wood Cemetery is the focus of this article, scores of cemeteries have been affected by the storm. Some cemeteries have downed trees that caused irreparable damage to tombstones and monuments. Other cemeteries have minor damage like small branches and twigs that need to be tidied. Professionally managed cemeteries like Green-Wood have crew and financial resources to begin the cleanup but countless other cemeteries rely on volunteers and family members for repair and maintenance.

It is unfortunate that this damage has occurred and I dislike the idea of benefiting on other people’s misfortune. If you are in an area of the country that has been affected by severe weather, family members of people buried in area cemeteries are looking for help with cleanup and general maintenance. In fact, they are often willing to pay for these services.

So, if you have ever thought about starting your own Grave Care Business, right now is a good time to start. The weeks leading up to Christmas is always a busy time for Grave Care and with the need of grave care services caused by severe weather, there will be additional demand.

We love cemeteries and we believe that small Grave Care Businesses can benefit by providing general upkeep, tombstone cleaning, floral decorations, and other services. We have developed a professionally produced business course that will help you start and operate a successful Grave Care Business. For more information, please click on the main link above to learn about our course.