Winter Revenue Ideas

Winter can be really hard on any equine business. The weather is harsh, equipment won't cooperate, and revenue seems to drop off as weekly lesson students become inconsistent and the show season comes to an end. Here are some ideas to keep clients engaged and money flowing in:

Run a Black Friday Sale for Lesson Packages

If your revenue is good during the spring, summer, and fall, but rough in the winter, consider running a Holiday Sale of some sort in order to balance out the cash flow in the off season. Just remember if people stock up on lessons, that will be revenue you won't collect later. To alleviate this, you can put an expiration date on any services purchased during the sale. This way clients are motivated to use up those credits over the winter months and get back to normal sales in the spring.

Offer Early Bird Pricing for Events Scheduled in the Coming Year

Do you host certain annual events such as Summer Camps or horse shows? Give your clients an opportunity to pre-register during the winter with special Early Bird pricing. This provides you some cash flow, and also helps you plan ahead better since you'll have a better idea of who and how many people will be for sure attending your events.

Unmounted Clinics

Horsemanship clinics are a great thing to do in the winter when people are less inclined to peel off the Carhartts and ride. You could host these events for adults or children, and focus on topics like lunging technique, braiding, nutrition, or bandaging. Pull out the old Pony Club manual for a plethora of ideas. Due to COVID-19, try doing a horse management Zoom clinic!

Promote Lunging, Hand Walking, and Exercise Rides

As the cold temps roll in, clients may feel less motivated to ride, or maybe holiday and family obligations cut into barn time. Offering services like lunging, hand walking, or exercise rides is a great way to keep the horses in your barn happy and healthy, and are a great source of revenue. These services typically have a healthy profit margin depending on market prices in your area.

COVID-19 Precautions

2020 has been a strange year for everyone. While we may have thought this pandemic would come and go, it is still very much a concern. As you are putting these ideas into practice, be sure to follow all your local and national health guidelines. It is also important to have strategies in place, in case next year's events are still affected by Coronavirus. For example, if you run summer camps, make sure you're planning to do it safely in case this virus is still affecting us next year.