Gina Hankerson’s headstone business is coming alive.
Since her business was founded four years ago, Hankerson has been slowly carving her niche in a challenging funeral industry that generates $15 billion a year.
She often works 12-hour days to build a clientele at her business, Angelic Monument in Lauderhill. She started it as a headstone cleaning business in 2006. After learning more about the business, in 2010 Hankerson expanded her business to also create headstones for cemeteries in Miami-Dade and Broward.
Angelic Monument, which includes three employees, is located at 7284 W. Oakland Park Blvd.
As part of her business, Hankerson works with customers to design and create headstones before installing them at the gravesite. It’s the final part of the burial that serves as a permanent record for a deceased loved one.
“I feel that what I’m doing is about helping people who are going through one of the most difficult times in their lives,” she said.
It is a good time to be in business because customers today are choosing more detailed and elaborate markers to make statement about their deceased loved ones. But Hankerson faces challenges as she takes on established white-owned cemeteries that control and regulate headstones being installed on their grounds. These cemeteries are also Hankerson’s biggest competitors who sell headstones as part of a burial package. While the costs of headstones depend on the size, style and words, customers could end up paying at least $1,500 for grave markers, according to the International Southern Cemetery Gravestones Association's (ISCGA) website.
"I’ve had customer who were told that if a grave or headstone they purchased from a vendor breaks, the cemetery won’t repair it,” Hankerson said. “But why would you allow me to install something that’s inferior in your cemetery? I know the rules of the game.”
According to the ISCGA, most cemeteries have an endowment care fund for the general maintenance and upkeep of headstones. This fund is also used to repair markers that are damaged by cemetery equipment. They cannot waive liability for damage to the monument caused by their employees or agents.
However, the ISCGA said cemeteries usually do not disclose this fact to the customers and encourage the customers to buy from them or else they would not be responsible for the damage. The organization suggests that one reads the cemetery by-laws carefully.
Bryan Stephenson, past president of the Florida Monument Builders Association, has known Hankerson for five years. Stephenson believes that Hankerson will succeed despite the challenges headstone vendors face.
“She goes above and beyond the standards to meet the needs of the customer and deliver the product on time,” he said. “In this business, you have small independents like us who spend more one-on-one time with customers as opposed to all of these corporations who are buying up these funeral homes and cemeteries.”
Hankerson aims to help keep burial costs low by selling quality headstones at lower rates than most cemeteries. For a flat granite marker, Hankerson charges $695. That includes the deceased name, date of the birth and date of death. Hankerson believes her rates are competitive and help save customers money because she doesn’t charge for words on graves.
Hankerson said her service is helpful to Black families who may not be able to afford headstones sold by cemeteries. She said cemeteries do not give Blacks and other customers enough options to purchase headstones from outside vendors such as herself. She said part of her role as an entrepreneur is to educate and help her customers find quality headstones at an affordable price.
Hankerson said sales at her business have increased every year since Angelic Monument opened in 2010. Last year she sold more than 100 headstones. Hankerson said the most popular ones are flat bronze and flat granite markers. Her biggest sale was a $15,000 granite double marker in Bahama blue for a married couple.
She said her clients are all ethnic groups, but many are Black. Because of the sensitive nature of handling death services, Hankerson use compassion and discretion to grow her business, and takes referrals from several funeral directors in Miami-Dade and Broward.
“I’ve had people come up to me and say put on a black dress and go to funerals to get customers. But I just think that’s intrusive," she said.
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