How will I do in the Crime Scene Cleanup Business?
There are no certainties in business beyond taxes and death. There are informed, considered, and educated estimations that will help answer the question, "How will I do in the crime scene cleanup business?".
Answering this question must take time and consideration for a fair analysis of your potential in this field.
Consider real estate sales and how the real estate industry answers this question with 3 answers:
1. Location,
2. Location,
3. Location.
Where are you and what do you hope to achieve?
Do you want a full-time occupation or business, or do you want to own a part-time business or full-time business? Do you want to be an employee? Do you want to be an employer?
We have written elsewhere that crime scene cleaners are typcially owners of another business before going into this field, or they buy into it through a franchise.
The advantage of having an on-going business when entering this business field are clear. One, there is a source of income available from on-going business activities. Two, there are assets like vehicles, tools, and equipment available for the new add-on crime scene cleanup business. And three, there is that all important business experience gained from owning a business.
Those who start with no business or business experience are at a great disadvantage. Questions like these should be considered:
1. How do I find customers?
2. How do I clean?
3. What do I need to clean?
4. How much do I charge?
5. What rules apply to my business that might not apply to other businesses?
The diagram at the top of this page will help you visualize your situation relative to that of others in the crime scene cleanup business field.
If your competitors are in the loop for all 3 circles, and you are in one and only one, the green, then you are at a great disadvantage.
"Government" here means city, county, state, or federal government.
"Competitive Sector" means the dog-eat-dog economic relationships. There are no buffers between your business and monopoly or government sectors. Put another way, the competitive sector means to "buy cheap, sell dear." It means to "bid" on jobs against others who will bid even less than you have bid. It is the nature of "free enterprise" without government or monopoly powers. Examples of this type of business are often found in the service sector. Carpet cleaning, dry cleaning, house painting, and other small businesses exist within the competitive sector, as you might think.
"Monopoly" means that one or more businesses have control over the sources of information and business. There are many monopolies in the world, like Microsoft, for instance. And now today we see that fewer than seven people own the majority of news companies in the USA, which constitutes a monopoly over information. In the crime scene cleanup field, a monopoly could mean any number of relationships.
Usually, a "monopoly" in the crime scene cleanup field is not a complete monopoly, although there are many people who would love to have a monopoly over this field. Stericycle, for instance, has a near-monopoly over the collection of medical waste.
Government and Monopoly
A local government's mission may include the retrieval of the deceased. The departments responsible for carrying out this duty may be the county sheriff's department, coroner, or the medical examiner, health department.
Because of this duty, such government offices have a clear and legitimate monopoly over the retrieval of human remains following a homicide, suicide, or unattended death. Their duties include an investigation into the deceased's death.
In some areas of the USA, these local governemnt agencies will recommend one or more cleaning companies to recover the death scene, to clean it, that is. In some cases, like California, a list of cleaners is generated by the state health department. In some counties in California, select telephone numbers from this list are handed out to the deceased's relatives so that the death scene can be recovered, cleaned. It would be better for all concerned, incidentally, if either the complete list of cleaners or no list were handed out. Doing so would ensure that families would have greater opportunity to use the free market.
Then, there are coroner's employees who actually own crime scene cleanup companies or some part of a company. Then there are those who receive kickbacks for giving out select telephone numbers. So you can see how this will develope given time and personalities.
These relationships do in fact exist and extend the term "monopoly" to a government agencies, however inappropriate this relationship may be.
In some states there are no lists to control, although the varoius county offices may help families by recommending cleaning companies.
In many cases, depending upon your location, your competitor(s) have direct contact with the county coroner or medical examiner. It might be that it is easier for the coroner or medical examiner to refer families and others to one company, or a set of companies. So this arrangement consitutes a "monopoly" over the information to potential clients for your business.
Most people in a free and open society believe that monoplies created by government and business relations should not exist, except, perhaps, in production for the miliary. To digress, there are (supposedly) open bidding arrangements for this sort of monopoly creation.
As you can guess by now, a monopoly exists when one company controls all or a great majority of a business field or resources. You might think that starting a business and competing against a monopoly is very difficult. And it is so. This is another reason that location is very important.
Can you imagine starting a crime scene cleanup business in a small state or small county where the coroner's duties are carried out by mortuary business and others involved in the handling of the deceased? It may be that such arrangements have benefited all concerned for many years. Breaking such business patterns is difficult. But, such business arrangements must be broken if you are in this situation and want to be a crime scene cleaner.
If you are in Salem, Oregon and will travel no farther than 30 miles, your odds of success are less than if you will travel 300 miles.
If you are in Los Angeles, California, the same logic applies, but traveling 300 miles in Los Angeles at the wrong time of day takes many hours.
Consider this: The state of California has registered over 270 trauma (crime scene cleaners) companies. This does not take into account the number of companies that cross state borders to clean, or locals cleaning wihout a licence in California. This means that there is great competition in the competive crime scene cleanup field. If this is the sector of the economy that you must begin your crime scene cleanup business, good luck.
Now, if you have a relationship with the government or monopoly or both sectors of the economy, your odds of starting a crime scene cleanup company and succeeding are greatly enhanced, obviously.
At this writing, this writer has found no sophisticated marketing analysis of any crime scene cleanup market. Consider the density of population, the average age of the population, the average income, and other variables as they are found. Demographics are very important.
Startup Income
Who does the coroner refer to responsible parties, friends and relatives of the deceased?
Last, what is your relationship to first responders?
Are you in contact with morticians or others in this line of social service?
Are you competing with francishes?
Are your competitors current or previous coroner's employees?
Consider these question and other facts as you can find them.