5 Things Every Equine Business Should Be Doing

Monthly Business Reviews & Goal Setting

It is important that you are evaluating your business from a high-level perspective on a regular basis. It is too easy to get caught up in the day to day and lose sight of the bigger picture. Ultimately though, you need to step out of the operator role and into the Business Leader role to grow your business and move forward with success. Take time to visualize how you want your life and business to look - daydream a little! This is the best way to make sure your daily efforts are contributing to the long-term goals you have for your business.

Participating on Social Media

The horse world is a word-of-mouth business, and social media is the new word-of-mouth. Facebook is the best way for people to recommend you, learn about you, look through photos, and find information about your business. It is a great way to engage with your clients and attract new ones! Make sure you create a Business Page, not just a profile - we see this mistake regularly. Upload a high-resolution photo of your logo for your profile picture and follow all the prompts to make sure your information is up to date and complete. Ideally, you should post at least once per day. Take advantage of Facebook's Scheduling feature to save time.

Scheduling Time for Emails & Phone Calls

Horse trainers are notoriously difficult to get a hold of. We all know why that is - they are busy as heck and entrenched in their horses and clients and day to day tasks. Setting aside 30 minutes a day to respond to those email inquiries, voicemails, Facebook messages, etc is crucial to success. Clients come and go, horses go lame, seasons change, and the economy fluctuates. Keep a pipeline of new clientele flowing into your business by staying on top of communication.

Keeping an Up to Date Website

It is 2020. You have GOT to have a website. It is very easy to build them these days – there are user friendly options for the average person such as wix.com or jimdo.com if you want to do it yourself, or consider hiring it out. All you really need is a nice landing page, an “about” page, and a contact page. Be sure that anyone who finds your website can determine what kind of business you run in the first 3 seconds of arriving on the home page. For example, if you are a lesson and boarding barn people should be able to determine that right away without clicking or scrolling.

Proactive Vs. Reactive Management

Are you running around with your hair on fire? Getting out "ahead of it" is the best way to put out those flames. Consider these following areas where you can activate some better planning so you can be ready for anything, and spend more time focusing on what really matters: your horses and your people.

• Seasonal changes

• Preventative farm and equipment maintenance

• Events and holidays

• Financial Projections