How to transition to working as a celebrant

[howtohelphusband]

DH works full-time as a teacher and wants to retrain as a celebrant. I can't work out how to make this possible, if he retrains in his current job he won't be able to take any time off to do anyone's funerals. But if he leaves we won't have enough income while he builds up his business.

He could maybe find something more casual eg supermarket delivery driver, but he has a three-month notice period and I doubt those casual jobs would wait three months, so I'd imagine he'd have to give up his current job with no other job lined up to go to which is worrying financially.

Any ideas on how to transition?

Firstly look into the training schedule and also costs to start the business. Do market research on who else is operating in the area, likely returns after costs (petrol may be considerable in rural areas). I have been a celebrant and still do the occasional funeral but it's a very competitive business here with far more people offering services than there is work (I used to live elsewhere and there was plenty of work there for everyone showing it differs). Also consider his usp why should a bereaved family choose him?

If he goes ahead i would suggest he needs to give notice whilst doing the training and take a evening/weekend job to keep the money coming in at first, night shift would be perfect as he can still be available for meetings and services at shortish notice

Thanks @mitogoshi that's so interesting hearing that it's more competitive in some areas and not others, and you've given some great tips on things to consider to get started. Night shift is a good idea too.

We've looked up other celebrants in our area and there do look to be quite a few, though I've no idea how many celebrants a largeish town in the South East would need so it's difficult to get a sense of whether there are too many or the right amount!

We could potentially move areas for him to start this new business - any idea how we'd go about working out which areas have too many celebrants and which have too few?

Does he specifically want to do funerals? A friend of mine does mostly weddings, which would work very well around teaching as they’re mostly weekends or school holidays.

What are his ideas around this?

I do handfastings and funerals and its a saturated market. I don't charge, just ask to cover my costs. Not sure you could make a business out of this.

@MulberryBushRoundabout he'd like to do both funerals and weddings, but he could start the wedding side first perhaps.

@Motnight he has no ideas! He just wants to hand in his notice then train and build up a business, so I'd need to support him financially while that happens.

@nevertrustanyoneagain that's interesting. Looking online, there are lots of celebrants who do charge, and lots of courses training celebrants. Are all these celebrants out of work do you think?

I have given my details at the local funeral homes and crematorium, I also provide pastoral care and chaplaincy, all unpaid, and I am busy. Not many in my religious groups charge.

I have an ex teacher friend who is a wedding celebrant. She does supply on the side, out of season and to suit her availability.

She gradually transitioned rather than quit, trained, new business.

It’s definitely a business which she makes an income from.

Thanks @Pocketfullofcloud nice to see someone is making an income from this.

There are lots of celebrants in the UK, I'm sure some of them must be making an income otherwise nobody would do it as a job!

@nevertrustanyoneagain I suspect you are unique.

I am recently bereaved and the funeral directors I spoke to all gave me website links for paid celebrants who charge for their time.

It’s not a money spinner by the time you take costs and time into account unless you want to offer a substandard service and dash between services with a depersonalised offering. It’s also a saturated market, hence a large number of celebrants switching to training. Could your husband do a mix of supply teaching/celebrant services?

I was a funeral celebrant and each one took half a day with travel, plus another half day meeting (usually in the evening) with family and creating a service. The general rate then was about £166 per service.

Weddings are better financially, the rate then was £500 plus mileage, but difficult to do more than one per week, and the work dries up over late Autumn until early Spring. So max 40 weddings per year would bring in £20k before costs.

If he is good, there is also the emotional cost. Funerals involving children, suicides etc. are draining. Weddings are incredibly stressful - the celebrant is playing a key role in one of the biggest days in a person’s life, there is zero room for getting anything wrong.

Having said that, it is very rewarding in other ways.

There are so many people (out of work actors, semi-retired folk etc) doing this on the cheap that I imagine in must be nigh on impossible for a person to make a decent full-time living out of it.

I actually used one a few years back, she had her town pretty much locked off (there was only one other celebrant operating in the area but with a very different offer to her), and she said she was basically just doing it for pin money (just as well as she wasn't very good!).

Could he do it around supply teaching, or do it in the school holidays? Is there a lot of supply work available (term time) at the moment?

** he has no ideas! He just wants to hand in his notice then train and build up a business, so I'd need to support him financially while that happens.

That would be a hard no from me
If he wants to retrain he needs to understand who his customers would be, where he would get them from, what his income vs costs would be and what profit he would make THEN if all that stacks up he needs to consider how he is going to live until he makes any money.
I imagine he feels burnt out as a teacher and I don't blame him but he needs a concrete plan

I agree with you @Hoppinggreen - a concrete plan is needed. But yes, he is burnt out, unfortunately.

From others who are posting it doesn't sound very optimistic as a business idea!

There is a man on YouTube called David Abel I actually started watching him in covid because he was stuck on a cruise ship. He is a celebrant and he does training too he has a few videos on it. Might be worth a look

This is really interesting. I’m interested in being a celebrant after I retire, because I think I’d enjoy it. I’d always assumed it would only be for pin money - looks like that was right.

OP, your DH may be burnt out but it sounds like he’s launching himself into a precarious career in a way that could put you all in financial jeopardy.

Is there anything else he could do?

I’ve hear that lots of local authority registrars (so, the people who do registry office weddings) are ex teachers. No idea about how they get into those jobs, but it would be a regular income.

name changed - I'm a funeral celebrant in a large town and am lucky to get 3 funerals a month. Funeral directors tend to favour certain celebrants but many people still go for conventional religious ceremonies.

I charge £250 for a funeral which includes me visiting the family to get info, preparing the ceremony and then taking the funeral. Even celebrants I know who are 'busy' can only manage to do 3 - 4 a week (and they struggle sometimes to get that number). Finding time to visit the family can be difficult because sometimes people will want family/friends included who are working so can only meet in the evening. It's not the sort of thing that lends itself to zoom or telephone calls although some people do that.
If you are a wedding celebrant you will be booking weddings at least 12 months in advance and you will be working mostly saturdays in the summer. The people who make money from celebrancy are the people who train celebrants.
I paid nearly £2000 for my training.

Thanks @karala - using your numbers I just calculated that 3 x funerals a week for 40 weeks of the year would provide a salary of £30,000. And that's before any weddings.

That's a bit more than the pin money people refer to on the thread.

Though as you say, those busy celebrants sometimes struggle to get that number of funerals, so I don't know.

Not sure how we'd be able to research realistic numbers without messaging a lot of celebrants and asking how much they earn each year?! (I'm joking - obviously nobody would give out that info)

I am not unique. I am a Pagan chaplain. I support our community. Some but not many priestesses charge for handfasting and funerals. I don’t charge for any of my voluntary chaplaincy work I see it as a service as do most of the priests and priestesses I know.

@nevertrustanyoneagain this sounds intriguing, I've never heard of a Pagan chaplain before. You mention your community, how do other pagans find you? I only ask as it's not something I've heard of or seen advertised. I'm curious to understand more, and also curious about where what you do and offer sits within the wider celebrant landscape.

While researching celebrant training today I found a person offering pagan wedding and handfasting ceremonies starting at £999!

Contact your local registration service as they have celebrants on a zero hours contract. My local area and neighbouring authorities employ people to be a celebrant at weddings but not a registrar of births and deaths. He could do this instead.

I see a pp has mentioned local authorities, I think mine employs people as registrars on proper salaried contracts. He could see if your local council is recruiting.