Don't Look Back

Use A Color Post Card As Your Standout Handout Marketing Piece For Your Horse Business

Post cards are powerful and low cost marketing tools. At a Farm Bureau board meeting last night, I was handed this post card marketing piece by Lisa Tucker of Field and Fork Network. The collage on the front is an enticing visual and the copy on the back of the card concisely tells the story.

Is a low cost color postcard the visual marketing piece you need to promote lesson programs and summer camps or even horses for sale?

What Are The Three Things You Are Really Good At?

Your website and marketing messages talk about excellent horse care, outstanding customer service and certified instructors.

Yawn, you bore me.

What I want to know is what are the three things you’re really good at?

Things like: Maintaining good health of horses that are hard keepers requiring extra care, Polishing the show ring presence of serious riders for them to be in the ribbons every time or Helping riders fearful of injury feel more confident in the saddle.

Come on, if you don’t toot your own horn, who will?

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Business legend has it that an advertising executive suggested adding the simple instructions- Lather, Rinse, Repeat to the client's shampoo bottle to double consumption and sell more product.



Millions of shampoo users dutifully followed the simple instructions as they washed their hair. Their actions were validated by "More is better" a flawed logic often also used with chocolate and horses.



The extra shampoo doesn't get hair any cleaner, but it sure helps sales. Regardless of roots in fact or fiction, when you see or hear something often enough, it becomes a perceived truth.



Perceived truths in business often appear as faux pearls of wisdom:

"You have to spend money to make money."
"If you build it, they will come."
"The customer is always right."

Proficient at ignoring the latest business buzz phrase, the wise in business remember this simple piece of advice: Test what you think you know.

Say NO To Get More Done

Some jobs have a choice of start and stop times of the work day as well as scheduled breaks. The work is compartmentalized, segmented with a flexible timeline.

 

But, not your job. Your day is filled with uninterruptible tasks of half hour training rides, multiple and consecutive one hour private and group lessons and horse care tasks on a regimen.

 

Nothing waits until tomorrow.  

• You can't skip feeding tonight and double the morning ration to make it up.
• Students won't take two lessons back to back 
  next time for the one you cancel this afternoon.
•  A three hour horse training session on Sunday morning won't substitute for the six half hour sessions missed Monday through Saturday.

Your productivity and financial success is a function of your ability to say NO when you need to.

 

• NO to lunch invites that deny you the most productive hours of your day.
• NO to unnecessary phone calls filled with idle chit-chat when you're on a mission.
• NO to the impatient whose selfish urgency won't wait for an answer or help when YOU can offer it.

 

Not silver, gold or diamonds, Time is your prescious commodity. The best way to protect it is with the power of NO. 

It's OK To Have A Few Empty Stalls For Opportunity

"Just like Aristotle's observation, "Nature abhors a vacuum", Nature abhors an empty stall, too. An empty horse stall usually doesn't stay empty very long. Are you filling your empty stalls with horses that generate immediate income for you from boarding, lessons, training or sale to others?

Low tech, low cost, highly efficient. Batteries not required.

Systems help maintain order over chaos. Every part of your horse business that can be "systematized" in writing reduces the opportunity for errors. "Free wheeling" employees often glide past the unspecified details.

Top Ten Reasons For A Business Page On Facebook

Does Your Business Smile on Facebook?

 

Click on the link above for the newsletter article on the benefits of a Facebook business page.

Often, professional horsemen strive to never miss an opportunity to make a sale. Boarding, English & Western lessons, training, horse shows, camp, pony rides, trucking, horse sales, horse leasing, horse motel, clinics, trail horse rentals, braiding, clipping, hay sales, trimming and shoeing, tack sales and more are all sources of income. But, ask yourself which sources of income are my profit centers? Being busy doesn't guarantee being profitable. It only guarantees being tired.

You Won't Need A Lawyer Later When You Follow These Ten Recommendations for Prepurchase Veterinary Exams

An objective veterinary prepurchase exam and evaluation performed prior to money changing hands in a horse sale is an obvious choice for buyers.  

And while a prepurchase exam may be a "deal killer" for sellers, it limits future accusations of misrepresentation of the health status of the horse.  Like it or not as a seller, the sale of a higher value horse will most likely be contingent on an acceptable evaluation. 

 Joel B. Turner, an experienced attorney in equine law, wrote the following article about prepurchase exams based on years of experience. Turner, with an office in Louisville, KY, has practiced equine law all over the United States and is a deep well of knowledge.

I met him recently in Lexington, KY at a Kentucky Horse Council event. He's an experienced hands-on horseman, too, and I believe you'll get great benefit from his guest article.  

 

You Won't Need A Lawyer Later When You Follow These Ten Recommendations for Prepurchase Veterinary Exams

 

Guest article by Joel B. Turner, Attorney  

 

One of the most common calls from potential new clients (i.e. the variety that is extremely unhappy and ready to litigate) involves the post purchase discovery of a serious soundness issue.  Recently during one such call I rudely interrupted the caller to interject, "Excuse me, but let me guess which joint is causing your horse an issue?"  My guess was correct and the caller was dumbfounded.  While it was the first for her, the same sorts of issues crop up time after time in my world. 1 

 

Usually people do not call me to tell me how happy they are with their newly purchased horses.

How do you protect yourself in a situation like this?  a) Have a veterinarian, your veterinarian, perform a thorough prepurchase examination and b) have an experienced lawyer prepare a contract to close the loopholes by obtaining proper warranties/representations from the seller.  The combination of these two steps should provide adequate protection from the possible deceptions that so often turn an excited purchaser of a new horse into a disgruntled, if not disillusioned, victim and caretaker of an unsound horse.

Top Ten Prepurchase Exam considerations:

1)   Is the vet performing the exam absolutely free from any conflict of interest or possible undue influence?  Make sure the vet (and no vet that is a member or employee of his/her group or practice) has never performed any services for the Seller.  Do not, under any circumstances, ask the Seller to refer you to a vet.

2)   Is the veterinarian performing the pre purchase exam willing to promptly (within 24 hours) provide a written report of his findings and make all radiographs and scans available digitally for the potential purchaser to use to obtain a second opinion, if necessary?

3)   Is the veterinarian willing to review all the vet records obtained from the seller and watch the horse being ridden (preferably by the potential purchaser) as part of the prepurchase evaluation for soundness/coordination-neurological issues?

4)   Does the vet know how much money you intend to pay for and the purpose for which you are purchasing the horse?  Share the purchase price with the vet and ask the vet to assume you are buying the resale that is if you want the highest level of scrutiny and are willing to pay for it.

5)   Is the seller willing to provide all veterinary records (including all medications dispensed, radiographs, ultrasounds or nuclear scintigraphy, i.e. "bone scans" performed) for the last eighteen months to two years as well as any other "therapy" records such as acupuncture, massage, shock wave, hyperbaric chamber etc. for review by you and your vet prior to the purchase decision?

6)   Is the seller prepared to represent that, at the time of the prepurchase exam, the horse is not under the influence of any medication, is not being treated with any substance to address any past or present physical condition experienced by the horse and is willing to allow the veterinarian to take a blood sample for drug testing to verify the accuracy of this representation?

7)    Has the horse been examined by a vet in connection with a potential purchase within the last year?

8)   Is the seller willing to represent that the horse has not had any surgery or any intra articular injections of any substance (including without limitation, corticosteroids, blocking agents or hyaluronic acid) during its ownership, other than those disclosed by the seller, or if such surgeries or "joint' injections have been performed upon the horse and are disclosed, is the seller wiling to identify all of the dates when such procedures were performed and what substances were injected into which joints?

9)   Is the veterinarian willing (and capable) to effectively communicate to the potential buyer the significance of the findings and provide an opinion as to the functional effect of these findings in writing promptly after the examination is completed?

10)   Is the veterinarian sufficiently experienced with the particular type of riding that the potential purchaser intends to do and the kind of work that the horse has been doing, to provide the potential purchaser with a high level of confidence that the vet understands the amount and level of work the horse will have to perform to fulfill the buyer's intended use?

This list is not exhaustive and does not address such issues as prepurchase considerations for future breeding soundness of the horse.  It is focused upon the veterinarian's performance of the prepurchase exam for a performance horse, and the Seller's willingness to make reasonable disclosures of the horse's condition. 

This list has a particularly narrow focus on determining if there are any pre-existing issues that could lead to unsoundness making the horse incapable in the future of performing the tasks for which it is being purchased.

In this era when aggressive veterinary intervention with lameness issues, (particularly with the prevalent use of intra articular injections of corticosteroids,) is far more common, latent defects in horses may be hidden even from the experienced examining vet, if proper due diligence is not performed in conjunction with the prepurchase exam.  The combination of a) the seller's reasonable disclosures in response to the  purchaser's requests coupled with, b) representations and warranties in a written purchase agreement and c) a thorough prepurchase veterinary exam performed by an unbiased, qualified vet working exclusively for the potential purchaser, may afford the best opportunity to avoid the heartbreak and financial loss caused by a post purchase discovery of a latent, undisclosed and undetected condition suffered by a horse after the sale is final.

   

Copyright Joel B. Turner 2011 ©

 

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 1.The author is an attorney practicing equine related law for the last 27 years.  For more background information, click here. 

 

 

Business Workshop for Professional Horsemen

Portland, Oregon May 13 and May 14, 2011    How To Run A Profitable Horse Business Workshop       5 Business Strategies You Can Use Today To Put More Money In Your Pocket !   Fallbrooks Farm click here for details

 

 

Risk Never Follows Repetition   You may believe if you repeat yourself you're failing at communication, you're boring to others or you're symptomatic of premature aging and memory loss. That may be why you temper statements with an apologetic, "At the risk of repeating myself"   There is no risk in repeating yourself. Successful radio advertisers know a commercial has to be heard at least seven times before listeners begin to pay attention. While you're not quite background noise on a radio, our distracted society has adapted to filter out most of the 5000 messages offered daily. Your repetition will probably go unnoticed, even if your listener claims to have heard you twice the first time.   When you have to say repeatedly things like:   Check the girth Buckle your helmet Make sure the stall door is latched   Remind yourself it's part of the learning process. Through repetition, you're reinforcing good habits in your clients, boarders and employees.   At times, it's a huge chore to be tactful with your redundant statements. And it's a challenge to suppress your overwhelming desire to sound like your parent and let loose the question, "How many times do I have to tell you...?"   But you don't ask because you already know the answer.   "As many times as it takes."           Portland, Oregon May 13 and May 14   How To Run A Profitable Horse Business Workshop       5 Business Strategies You Can Use Today To Put More Money In Your Pocket !   Fallbrooks Farm click here for details

If you need help with your horse business, call me to see if we might work together to improve your profitability. Now, get your boots on and get to work doing the things that matter most.  doug@ProfitableHorseman.com      (716)434-5371

Repetition Is Never Risky

Risk Never Follows Repetition

 

You may believe if you repeat yourself you're failing at communication, you're boring to others or you're symptomatic of premature aging and memory loss. That may be why you temper statements with an apologetic, "At the risk of repeating myself"

 

There is no risk in repeating yourself. Successful radio advertisers know a commercial has to be heard at least seven times before listeners begin to pay attention. While you're not quite background noise on a radio, our distracted society has adapted to filter out most of the 5000 messages offered daily. Your repetition will probably go unnoticed, even if your listener claims to have heard you twice the first time.

 

When you have to say repeatedly things like:

 

• Check the girth
• Buckle your helmet
• Make sure the stall door is latched

 

Remind yourself it's part of the learning process.

Through repetition, you're reinforcing good habits in your clients, boarders and employees.

 

At times, it's a huge chore to be tactful with your redundant statements. And it's a challenge to suppress your overwhelming desire to sound like your parent and let loose the question, "How many times do I have to tell you...?"

 

But you don't ask because you already know the answer.

 

"As many times as it takes."

 

 

Leaving Your Mark

 

I grab a special handle on the sliding barn door every day to open it. It's not fancy; it's built for function, much like a horse shoe.

 

The manufacturer of that handle put his heart and soul into all of the iron he produced as a blacksmith and a farrier. My door handle is proudly stamped with "Vern H." to let the world know he made it.

 

He's passed on and I often think about him and his work with horses and their owners when I see the stamp.

 

Your pride in your work will leave a legacy that will endure far longer than any of your material goods you value so highly today.  

 

Think about it, when you leave this world, your money will be distributed to your heirs who will use it and mix it back into the economic river where you found it. It's likely your clothes will be donated to strangers and after personal keepsakes are distributed, the remainder of your effects will end up in a garage sale or landfill.

 

What's left for your legacy are your own little stamps you make along your way in life.

 

You know, like the time you gave a kid a job who desperately needed the money and some solid advice in a troubled time.

Or the time you gave a talk to a group of 4-H 'ers where one kid remembers your words about good horsemanship for the rest of his life.

 

And when the riding camp student from twenty five years ago brings her daughter to camp and says please give her the confidence you gave me when I needed it so much.

 

Your words and actions are the stamps that truly make your legacy.  

 

Leave your mark with pride.       

 

Now get your boots on and go to work doing the things that matter most.

Farriers Hit The Nail On The Head

 

Profitable Horseman Newsletter

December 23, 2010

Farriers Hit The Nail On The Head   I  asked  farriers Danny and Johnny as they took a mid-morning break for their thoughts on running small businesses and what the important points are for planning in 2011.   Instead of answering, they asked me if I really wanted to hear business advice from two guys who work all day bent over with their heads lower than their backsides.   After the laughing stopped, it didn't take long for them to volunteer three tips for professional horsemen serious about building a successful business.   1.       Raise your prices a little bit each year. Your costs creep up slowly as the months fly by and you need to pass these on annually in small increments instead of  jacking them up abruptly in one move to recover lost profit from years long gone by.   2.       Be working on an exit strategy from your business. Who will you sell it to, what is it worth and when will you know it's the time to sell?   Too many business owners convince themselves they will never want to retire or no one can pay them the true value of the business, or buyers aren't available when the time comes.   3.       Put a little away each year for emergencies and retirement. Horses, tack, machinery, trucks and trailers scream for the attention of your profits, but peel some dollars into an investment account to have for emergency or retirement spending.       Good advice from two guys who work hard like you do.     Others have said...   "Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it." --Will Rogers   "High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation"--Charles Kettering "It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere."--Unknown

New Audio Program What Professional Horsemen Ought To Know About Horse Boarding Contracts!   New 2 hour 2 CD set on understanding horse boarding contracts. Only $19.97! Attorney Laura McFarland-Taylor and I teamed up to produce this audio program discussing the essentials of a horse boarding contract, what the legal terms mean and what you should include in your agreement. Pop it in your vehicle's CD Player and learn while you drive! Click here for more information Back At The Barn Our family will be enjoying a guaranteed White Christmas this year as will many locations in the world. If you live in snow country with horses, you know a merry barn attitude starts with warm winter boots. Treat yourself to a new pair if yours have gone the distance! Stay toasty and enjoy your celebration! Profitable Horseman Tip  Are your 2010 income and expenses posted in your accounting system? If not, why not? If you don't like bookkeeping, delegate to someone who does.   Until next time, Doug Emerson Profitable Horseman   (716) 434-5371 doug@profitablehorseman.com

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Do You Know This Shortcut To Growing A Profitable Business?

I bought a book twenty five years ago for my business library that has been an exceptional investment.

 

The book's pages are dog eared from use over time and filled with pencil and ink notes.  I paid $8.95 for it; its value to me now is at least ten thousand times that.

Each chapter is filled with sound business advice on how to improve your business and your personal lives.

Chapter 9 has been particularly helpful for me and I'm sure its contents could be the boost your business needs.

It's all about the value of being a member of a MasterMind group.

Don't be alarmed. A mastermind group is not a collection of white coated evil scientists plotting to take over the world.  It's a group of forward thinking individuals who agree several minds working on a problem or goal is far better than just their own.

 

The author describes a mastermind as "a coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose"

 

More simply stated, a mastermind group is a collection of like-minded individuals interested in improving their businesses and themselves by meeting on a regular schedule and capitalizing on the collective thinking of the group.

 

I've been in a mastermind group for over five years. The benefits I've recognized:

 

• Fresh thinking and discovery of new possibilities for solutions to problems
• Shared business experience between members
• Staying positive and continued pursuit of goals
• Shortens and flattens the learning curve
• Accountability for your performance to the group

Distance prevents our group from meeting face to face on a regular basis, but an easy conference call at a scheduled time solves the geography problem.

 

Your mastermind group could be two to eight people. More than eight in a group can be troublesome to manage. You might seek help from your group for the following subjects:

 

• Raising prices
• New Programs or Services
• Handling Difficult Employees
• Launching marketing programs
• Getting organized

 

If you're aim is to do great things with your business in 2011, start working on joining or forming a mastermind group now.

 

Oh, I almost forgot, the book I mentioned is "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. It was first published in 1937. It is the grand daddy of most business books published since.

 

If you don't own it, get it. You won't be disappointed.