Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Funeral Webcasting - A Valuable Service

As a funeral director, you're probably aware of funeral webcasting. If you haven't begun offering it to your clients, you might be missing an opportunity to provide a valuable service.

The need for funeral webcasts predated the advent of the technology that made them possible. There have always been mourners who were unable to attend funeral services for one reason or another, for example, illness, frailty, inclement weather, distance, or the expense of travel. But, until the internet became a primary means of sharing information and events, there was just no solution to this problem. Many people were forced to miss funeral services and, as painful as it may have been for them, there was simply nothing they could do.

Today, with not much more than camera mounted in your funeral chapel, an internet connection and some robust funeral software on your computer, you can solve this problem.

Your clients will appreciate this added service that allows them to invite family and friends who otherwise could not attend the funeral. You'll gain name recognition for your business because it will be featured on your website. Client families can also ask that a copy of the service be burned to DVD for a keepsake. Both the webcast and the DVD keepsake are a new source of revenue for your funeral home.

Funeral webcasting is a fairly simple process when you contract with a funeral technology company that can provide the hardware as well as the server that hosts your webcasts. Once you install the camera and microphone in your chapel, connect them to your computer, the software directs you through the rest of the funeral webcasting process. All you have to do is turn on the equipment and operate the camera remotely.

One camera is really all you need, although you may choose to use more than one. when mounted strategically in your chapel, the camera will give a clear view of the proceedings. In addition, if you use a camera that can be rotated remotely from your computer, you'll be able to pan the room and zoom in on faces, groups of people, or the officiant.

A microphone placed on the lectern will transmit the speakers' words clearly. If the service features a choir or individual soloists, add another microphone for that purpose and switch it on and off remotely, as needed.

If you've never used a web camera and are unsure of your ability to transmit the funeral service, choose a company that can provides unlimited technical support. They'll walk you through setting up the equipment and even do a practice webcast with you. Have more questions? No problem, just contact the funeral consultants office and your questions will be answered quickly. When the time arrives for your first actual funeral webcast, you'll be confident that all will go as planned.

Frazer Consultants primary products and services include interactive funeral home website design, funeral tribute video software, funeral webcasting, funeral candles, funeral keepsakes, funeral register books, personalized funeral stationery, temporary grave markers and funeral holiday remembrance ornaments. For more information, please visit http://www.frazerconsultants.com or call 866-372-9372.

Creating Personalized Funeral Register Books

As a funeral home professional, you are the most important resource to client families in the days following a loved one's death. They rely on your knowledge of products and services to create a memorable celebration of the departed. With so many aspects of funerals becoming more personalized, consider integrating technology to provide the best products, such as customized funeral register books.

Funeral register books provide a record of visitors, used for thank you cards and a simple reminder of service attendees. Thanks to software that creates on-demand, customizable register books, you can show your client families how much more intimate and individualized they can make their loved ones funeral.

The staid, generic funeral register books that have been used for an eternity served their purpose. However, client families had limited options and funeral home professional were required to carry and keep track of inventory. With software that includes pre-designed and pre-formatted templates, you can easily create funeral register books that reflect any hobby, interest, or religion. Simply use your funeral home's printer and blank paper stock that you order as needed.

The result is a fully personalized funeral register book that sets the tone for the funeral from the moment guests arrive to the viewing. Reminders of their loved one through photographs and imagery that recall his or her interests, a sense of comfort is shared among mourners. Utilizing the themes and images in other items of funeral stationery, such as memorial folders, prayer cards and acknowledgements, the departed is truly celebrated in ways that best represented him or her during life.

Register book covers are available in a variety of colors and fabrics, and you can order in any mix you desire. The best part about template-driven funeral software is aside from the printers most funeral homes already have purchased and use in-house, there is no need for additional equipment.

If you feel intimidated by technology, please be assured that today's software programs are amazingly easy to use. Technical support is widely available and after a few times you'll be a pro at creating the most personalized funeral stationery.
Now is the time to upgrade your technology options. The incoming generation of funeral home professionals is more than likely comfortable with most new technologies. In order to remain competitive, it's important that funeral professionals embrace the latest options.

Make your funeral home stand apart from the rest. By offering the most personalization possibilities, you'll grow your business while exceeding expectations of your client families.
Frazer Consultants primary products and services include interactive funeral home website design, funeral tribute video software, funeral webcasting, funeral candles, funeral keepsakes, funeral register books, personalized funeral stationery, temporary grave markers and funeral holiday remembrance ornaments. For more information, please visit http://www.frazerconsultants.com or call 866-372-9372.

Creating Meaningful Funeral Stationery

Today's funeral stationery items are highly personal. Take advantage of this growing trend and give your clients the special, meaningful products they want.

Funeral stationery is one of the ways in which a funeral home can add a special touch to a family's experience. With funeral software programs that allow you to add themes, scanned photos, images, and text, you can create unique and personal items such as funeral register books, prayer cards, memorial folders and even keepsakes.

You clients can choose one photo to be printed on all of their stationery items, or they may decide to use a different photo, or even multiple photos, for one item. Possibilities for design are limitless with hundreds of themes to choose from. But, online theme views make it easy for families to make a selection in the comfort of their own home. Once they've made their selection, they give you a call and you can quickly and easily create more meaningful funeral stationery in-house.

Types of Funeral Stationery Available for Personalization

Funeral register books tell visitors that their presence will be noted. A register book that has been assembled with attention to every page, featuring photos, quotations, poetry, prose or sacred text, gives the impression that the book will be looked at repeatedly. A visitor who signs such a book will no doubt feel that his name will be viewed repeatedly, as well.

Insert a different photo for each page and, accompanied by a quotation or line of sacred text, the book becomes a unique representation of the person who has passed away. Visitors may spend time browsing through the book, taking comfort in the images and messages it contains.

Prayer cards, when printed on both sides, can create a large impact in a small space. Photos of the deceased, accompanied by prayers, sacred text and poetry, can be arranged in a variety of ways to create a visually-pleasing and meaningful keepsake. Bookmarks can also be created using advanced funeral software. These are a practical and useful gift for mourners to take away with them.

Memorial folders can also be personalized with photos, images and text. Although more secular in nature than prayer cards, they serve a similar purpose. They carry a message representing the character or outlook of the deceased, and can be used as mementos for distribution to mourners.

A funeral service program or memorial service program lists the main event of the funeral service itself. These programs feature a front and back cover, along with several inner pages. The front cover may feature a photo of your loved one, along with the date, time and location of the funeral service, while the back cover may contain a poem, quotation, or prayer, as well as a personal message from the family. Inside the elements of the service are listed.

All of these funeral stationery items can employ a theme that ties them together visually, such as an occupation or hobby. However you choose to create them, they are very personal mementos for every person who receives them.

Frazer Consultants primary products and services include interactive funeral home website design, funeral tribute video software, funeral webcasting, funeral candles, funeral keepsakes, funeral register books, personalized funeral stationery, temporary grave markers and funeral holiday remembrance ornaments. For more information, please visit http://www.frazerconsultants.com or call 866-372-9372.

Costs to Start an Ice Cream Truck Business

As people become more and more active during the summer, the demand for quick, frozen dessert alternatives continues to grow. Starting an ice cream truck business to meet that demand is smart business. With the right routes and a solid business plan, you can start your new company and have it up and running in no time.

A Step-by-Step Guide
  1. Determine the cost to start an ice cream business with a solid business plan.
    The first step to starting any business is to create a well-researched business plan that gives you business market data, outlines the goals of your new venture, and details how you will reach those goals. Whether you do the research and data collection yourself and write your ice cream truck business plan, hire a business consultant to do it for you for several thousand dollars, or you use an industry specific business plan template, make sure that you have your business plan in place before investing any time or money in opening your ice cream truck route.
  2. Secure the perfect route.
    The information gathered for your business plan will help you determine where the perfect route for your ice cream business would be. You can then negotiate the lease or purchase of the ice cream truck and fill it with the equipment you need to run your business.
  3. Get the necessary permits and licenses.
    Your local Small Business Association can help you determine which permits and licenses you need to operate your frozen treat business and will let you know the associated costs based on your location. You will also need to get an inspection from the Health Department, so be sure to contact them as well.
  4. Begin marketing campaign focused on making profits.
    Your potential customers will need to know where your starting an ice cream truck business and why they should patron it. Your marketing strategy should include ways to entice people to your shop and also ways to keep them coming back.
  5. Create a menu and set your prices.
    If you are opening an ice cream truck franchise, your menu should reflect not only popular choices, but should be somewhat in-line with the costs of other similar frozen treat businesses in the area. However, research has shown that those companies whose products are different, or stand out because they are better, deserve and will fetch a higher price point. So, don't undersell yourself! With a little research, you should be able to determine which flavors are most popular and create your menu based on this list.
  6. Hire your staff.

    An ice cream truck business can be run with a limited staff. One of the great things about the ice cream business is that you can operate your shop using teenagers and other low-wage employees. Treat your staff well and they will treat your customers well!

Frazer Consultants Adds New Tribute Video Clip to Funeral Software Entitled Basketball Memories

For families wishing to honor a loved one who played or enjoyed watching basketball, Basketball Memories was expertly created and designed for use with the Tribute Center video creation software.

Waunakee, WI., June 6th, 2012 - Frazer Consultants, a personalization, technology, and consulting company for the death care profession recently announced the release of their latest tribute video clip, Basketball Memories, for use with their Tribute Center video creation software.

Watch the video now: http://thetributecenter.com/tributeplayer/default.aspx?webvideoID=5488#/WebPlayerPage

Frazer Consultants is continuing to build the most complete tribute video software and video clip library in the funeral profession. This brand new clip, 'Basketball Memories' is geared to perfectly tell the story of each basketball player.

"Adding to our extensive video library of cinematic quality video clips, this latest addition, 'Basketball Memories', is ideal for those individuals who loved the game of basketball and for the families that wish to remember the joy the game brought their loved one," said Matt Frazer, Consultant with Frazer Consultants. "Using Tribute Center, our video clips can be easily integrated into a tribute video, along with photos, music and captions, with just a few clicks of a button."

Client families may want to add this intro and ending to their tribute video in addition to family photos, images of their loved one in uniform, on the court or photographed with their favorite basketball legend. They can also select a popular funeral song which can be downloaded from Frazer Consultants online library by the funeral professional.

Frazer Consultant's all-in-one personalization funeral software gives a funeral professional the ability to produce not only stunning funeral video tributes in-house but also, the most personalized funeral stationery products, live or recorded webcasts and temporary grave markers. Creating each product is simple and affordable. With just the click of a mouse a funeral professional can create a completely personalized service.

"Our funeral software makes it possible to create everything you need for a completely personalized funeral service - from the funeral stationery to tribute videos, funeral candles, funeral webcasting, and more," added Frazer. "Our Tribute Center software makes it easy and cost effective."

Thousands of funeral home professionals utilize Frazer Consultant's Tribute Center software to produce in-house world class tribute videos, custom stationery, personalized grave markers and provide webcasting. Frazer Consultants Tribute Center personalization software features an easy to use, menu driven design which enables the funeral professional to quickly and easily coordinate the tribute video theme with all the funeral stationery, and grave marker.

"If you would like to learn more about our incredible funeral software, simply pick up the phone and we'll explain how easy and profitable Tribute Center can be for your home," added Frazer.

Frazer Consultants primary products and services include interactive funeral home website design, funeral tribute video software, funeral webcasting, funeral candles, funeral keepsakes, funeral register books, personalized funeral stationery, temporary grave markers and funeral holiday remembrance ornaments. For more information, please visit http://www.frazerconsultants.com or call 866-372-9372.

An Enduring Tribute to Your Beloved Departed

Video tributes help you honor your love one while starting the necessary process of grieving. Your funeral home professional will be happy to help you create a world class tribute that you will treasure for years to come.

Unless you have actually been involved in planning a funeral recently, you're probably not familiar with the many new opportunities that are available to help make a more meaningful celebration of life.

Modern funerals allow greater expression of the deceased's personality with all types of different items, such as funeral stationery, register books and even keepsakes. One of the most impactful things you can do to truly honor your loved one's memory is create a DVD video tribute. Played during visitation or a reception, a video tribute will unite mourners in memories of their loved one's spirit during life.

If you're thinking, "how on earth can I make a tribute video while planning everything else in such a short amount of time AND deal with my grief?" you can put that concern right out of your head. You'd be surprised at how technologically savvy funeral home professionals have become these days. In addition to the classic products and services, many funeral homes use state-of-the-art software to create everything you need to have an elegant, memorable service. Often used in addition to the traditional display of printed photos.

Your funeral home professional will handle virtually all aspects of the video tribute. All you need to do is provide photographs of your loved one. Be sure to recruit friends and family to help select photos and to submit their own. With more people engaged in this process, the tribute will reveal the deceased through many relationships and will be more profound. If there is a special music soundtrack you want to include, that is not a problem. In addition to many beautiful musical options, you can select one of hundreds of background themes that best epitomize the essence of the departed. You can even include videos. The best tribute videos contain many images, showing a visual history and taking visitors through major life milestones.

Cherished memories, long forgotten, summon a sense of community as mourners share their laughter and tears. This is essential in healthy grieving. Talking, sharing feelings and stories and providing support are all important to work through the pain that death causes.

Video tributes are easily duplicated and can be uploaded to websites. They are loving and enduring celebrations of life that can be experienced whenever the mood strikes. They are a gift for you and others left behind.

Frazer Consultants primary products and services include interactive funeral home website design, funeral tribute video software, funeral webcasting, funeral candles, funeral keepsakes, funeral register books, personalized funeral stationery, temporary grave markers and funeral holiday remembrance ornaments. For more information, please visit http://www.frazerconsultants.com or call 866-372-9372.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

ESA Renewables to Exhibit at Intersolar North America 2012

In July, ESA will be exhibiting its proprietary monitoring system and discussing ESA’s turnkey solar solutions.

Lake Mary, FL., July 3, 2012 – ESA Renewables, a leading turnkey solar solutions provider, announced that it will be attending the Intersolar North America trade show and demonstrating its proprietary solar monitoring system. The conference and exhibition is scheduled for July 10th-12th, 2012 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. ESA Renewables will be located at booth #8722.


From the ESA booth, multiple demonstrations will be presented throughout the event to showcase the inner workings of ESA’s proprietary monitoring system. The presentations will explore the functions of the simple, web-based interface. The software grants constant access to important real-time and historic data, crucial factors in the evaluation and monitoring of any solar system. Additionally, ESA will be holding private meetings with potential customers to discuss their capabilities in solar project financing and EPC services, as well as provide more information about the monitoring system and operation and maintenance (O&M) solutions. Contact ESA Renewables to secure a meeting at the Intersolar exhibition.

Furthermore, ESA has been nominated for the Intersolar Award 2012 “Solar Projects in North America”. ESA’s award application, which highlighted the Martins Creek project, was selected as one of the best entries by the Intersolar panel of experts. In conjunction with this nomination, ESA President Jeffrey Burkett will give a presentation at the Intersolar conference to further explain how the solar system and annually generated PPA funds directly benefit the Martins Creek Elementary School and surrounding community.

Intersolar North America presents ESA with an opportunity to interact directly with potential customers, suppliers and other energy experts. ESA looks forward to discussing their capabilities with industrial and commercial customers and demonstrating how ESA is a total renewable energy solution.

About ESA Renewables, LLC:

Located in Lake Mary, FL, ESA Renewables has positioned itself as a leader in the industry providing turnkey solar PV systems globally. ESA owns and operates a diverse portfolio of more than 500 solar PV power generating facilities located in the United States, Puerto Rico, Spain and Italy. ESA’s scope of services includes financing, engineering, construction, testing, monitoring and operation and maintenance. With headquarters in Castellon Spain, ESA has additional offices in Florida, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Canada, Chile and Italy. For more information about ESA Renewables, LLC, please visit http://www.esarenewables.com or call 407-268-6455.