We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jevon Banks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jevon below.

Alright, Jevon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Our funeral home is not a typical funeral home. It’s more of an art gallery that celebrates the life of those that have passed on. We didn’t want the old, dark, depressing, smelly vibe that we have been accustomed to when it comes to the death industry. We even added a photo wall for family and friends pics. We noticed families taking selfies with grandma while she is lying in the casket. So we figure embrace that. We provide a modern boutique, affordable, luxury experience.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m actually born and raised in Las Vegas, as well as my business partner (Kirk Williams). Both of us are graduates of Valley High School. Both of us are High School and College basketball players. I actually had the opportunity to play for UNLV Runnin’ Rebels 02′. I had no intention of getting into the death profession. In fact, I was very afraid of even walking into a funeral home. I hated what they stood for, death, crying, dark and whatever cliche you can think of. At the time I worked in the educational realm, but it was based on federally funded grants. Which means we could be out of jobs once the grants ran out. So, I needed to find something recession proof. The funeral industry became my calling card. I literally started off making $12.50 as Funeral attendant around the age of 37. I viewed it as a paid internship. My goal at this point was to open my open company and become the chipotle of the funeral industry. Although I knew nothing about it other than attending funeral services of loved ones. I wanted to learn everything I could about the big chain local funeral homes. The policies and procedures. How everything flowed. What works and what doesn’t work.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

So, in 2020 we launched during the pandemic. I knew what the vision was, but I felt I needed to involve someone I trusted to handle the business side of things. I sought after Kirk Williams who was a very trustworthy friend. We had dabbled in several ventures prior, so why not try this one. We didn’t have much funds to launch. We started in an executive office the size of a bathroom. We even had to share a laptop. The first month we got five cases, the next we had zero. There were weeks we couldn’t even pay ourselves. But we knew we had to keep going.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Great customer service. Having worked in 3 different funeral homes I kind of knew where they all lacked and how families viewed them. So we are really big on treating our customers like family. In fact, we have had to serve our families.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.InspiredLifeMemorials.com
• Instagram: InspiredLifeMemorialsy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspiredlifememorials
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inspiredlifememorials

Image Credits
Sōlus1 Photography Group