Don't Look Back

Horse Laughs

Our son brought one of his city buddies to  the farm. Seeing one of the horses wearing a cooler, he said, "Wow, and they wear sweaters, too?"  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Horse Show at Newstead Equestrian Center

I visited Dave Howard of Newstead Equestrian Center in Newstead, NY yesterday and learned about his first horse show planned for July 18th, 2009.

Dave is a "detail guy" and he works hard at developing his relatively new business.  He handed me a color horse show prize list and  showed me the terrific looking ribbons from Hodges Badge Company .  Nice to see the energy and effort put forth to create an enjoyable show for the local community!  And what a great way to promote the facility for boarding, lessons and training,

Social Networking for Professional Horsemen

For those who are working with horses for a living, discretionary time for distraction is as scarce as a shade tree at a horse show.  Social networking via your computer keyboard may be a distraction for some, however it is clear to me that it's a good investment of precious time for making acquaintenances that you'd never (ever) make without it.

Twitter has been an excellent tool for me, as well as Linked-in.  Facebook is not the right tool for me and I've dropped my account.

It seems the magic of social networking is the ability to cut through tradition,stuffy etiquette, shyness and awkwardness with its click your way to instant gratification.

Twitter's 140 ch. rule is brilliant.  Say it succinctly  quick and close the gate.  Thought captured; instantly available for others.  Get back to work.

The speed of twitter news is lightning-like.  As a medium for communication, its possibilities are staggering.

Less newspaper reading, less TV, less radio.  Instant gratification for news for specialty areas like horses and agriculture.

see you on twitter!   @DougEmerson

Change Is Uncomfortable

"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." - Andy Warhol





Change doesn't come easily in the art business or the horse business; everyone is a critic. In an industry built on tradition, ideas for doing things differently take much effort to put into practice.

One of the reasons professional horsemen are reluctant to make changes in their businesses is that some changes just "don't feel right." They are uncomfortable and go against the grain of what we have become accustomed to and are comfortable with doing.

For example, as a youth I learned to ride in a western saddle. Over time, the contact points of my body with the saddle became my points of reference for posture and balance. It all "felt right" every time I sat in the saddle.

Later, my first experiences riding in an English hunt seat saddle made feel awkward, out of balance and generally uncomfortable. My traditional frame of reference had been altered and I was in the "uncomfortable zone". With practice, I managed to regain my composure and balance and the new saddle started feeling better every time I rode in it.

I have not ridden in a western saddle in a number of years and I know with such a long time away from it, riding in a western saddle would not feel "right" the first time I sat in it.

My point is familiarity creates comfort and the natural human tendency is to be comfortable. Being comfortable means trading off potentially better results for the privilege of being comfortable.

In your horse business do you:

• Tolerate employees who don't have the skills to carry out the tasks required of them because they have been around a long time, are friendly with clients and have no other place to work?

• Resist delegating business tasks like, filing, scheduling or bookkeeping because you have become comfortable with the notion that these activities are your job?

• Avoid discussions with boarders about their horse's bad manners or their own unacceptable behavior at the farm?

Making a business decision to act on the types of things listed above is never easy. At first, moving from a comfort zone to potentially stressful situations might feel like you have put your boots on backwards just to make sure it will hurt.

But, you will soon find out that a better analogy is that changes in your business are more like sitting in a strange saddle for the first time. It feels uncomfortable, you're out of balance and have to question again why you are doing this.

Amazingly, in time, the deliberate business changes you make become as comfortable as your favorite saddle and will result in a much more comfortable ride.

Major Horse Shows Feeling the Pinch of Slow Economy

Richard Feldman, Chairman of the Lake Placid Horse Show Assn. reports entries are off about 8% this year.  The Lake Placid, NY Show, a long running competition, will still attract plenty of horses, exhibitors and spectators this year.  Full story here:  http://www.wptz.com/news/19838099/detail.html

Many shows are reporting reduced numbers for this show season.  It's all part of the economic cycle; horse showing isn't going away.  However, show organizers are challenged to do the best possible job attracting people and horses to their shows this year and set the stage for next year.

The Customer Is Always Right-Except When He's Not

 "The customer is always right" is a non confrontational policy that has its merits for avoiding argument.  The policy is the foundation for countless customer service policies.

But, what about the customer who finds fault with everything-even the good stuff? 

Allowing the chronic complainer remain in your boarding barn, your lesson program, or as a client with a horse in training isn't worth it to you, your other customers or your employees.

Some people just need to be told to move on because they don't fit in your program. 

Period.

Here is a link to a well written blog post on this subject of "firing customers" by Alex Kjerulf: http://positivesharing.com/2008/03/top-5-reasons-why-the-customer-is-always-right-is-wrong/

SponsorBarn.com Connects Professional Horsemen and Equine Brands Electronically

 

www.SponsorBarn.com went live last week providing a much needed service to help horse related and other popular brands connect easily through the sponsorbarn site.

Manufacturers and service providers searching for the right professional horsemen and horsewomen to represent their brands in the competition arenas, in the clinician's round pen and everywhere horse enthusiasts are, now have an alternative to having a person or department responsible for coordinating sponsorship.

SponsorBarn makes it easy for horsemen and sponsors to meet electronically and create relationships.

Mike Schwiebert of SponsorBarn told me that sponsorships can be simple and easy to put together.  A sponsored professional horsemen may agree to wear his or her sponsor's logo on a patch sewn to clothing in exchange for product discounts. Not every sponsorship has to be a million dollar deal.

This is an excellent idea for promoting products directly to the market.  Yes, you can criticize the idea for being too much like NASCAR drivers' suits, crass and commercial, but personal product promotion is nothing new. 

You are already personally promoting products for free unless you cut the patches off your Levis' or black- out the the Nike swoosh off your apparel.

I put my own profile up, too.  I'm looking for sponsorship to present a multi city tour of business workshops for professional horsemen. Considering the cost of travel, lodging and time away from home for professional horsemen, I can achieve my goal of helping 10,000 professional horsemen become profitable horsemen in the next ten years by travelling to them.  Promoting quality products and services along the way is no problem for me if it helps me reach my goal.

Horse Slaughter Observations From The Killer Auction

Here is a link to an article by Alex Brown of  the New York Times:  http://www.tinyurl.com/pwrfe7

It's an interesting assessment of the type of horses the kill buyers seek.

Some of the comments from readers following the article suggest they missed Alex's point in writing this story.  But, it's to be expected with this divided subject.

Do You Believe You Can Earn A Profit In The Horse Business?

Sometimes people laugh at first when I tell them the name of my business, Profitable Horseman.  A few even ask if Profitable Horseman is an oxymoron. 
 
I smile and say nothing.

And after a few uncomfortable seconds the other person will ask,
 

"So how do you do it?"
 
" Do what...?''
 
"You know, how do you make a profit with horses?"

 
After watching the Kentucky Derby, my answer will be different.  The answer will be the dreaded question answering a question. 
 
My response question will be, "Do you believe you can earn a profit in the horse business?"
 
And whether your answer is yes, no or I dunno, you are certainly right.
 
Because the first sale in your business is to yourself. 
 
If you aren't sold on your ability to accomplish your dream than no one else will be either.
 
Tom McCarthy of Louisville, Kentucky is a lifelong horseman sold on his ability. 
 
He's been buying, training and racing Thoroughbreds since 1960.  An annual Kentucky Derby regular spectator since 1955, he'd only dreamed for decades of making the walk with his own horse from the backside to the paddock area on Derby day.   
 
After the Derby race last Saturday, even though his horse General Quarters wasn't in the winner's circle, the seventy five year old trainer and owner stood proudly in his personal winner's circle.  It was a long trip and he didn't get there by chance.
 
His eye for talent and his training ability with General Quarters resulted in a win at the Bluegrass Stakes in early April.   Take your pencil and underline the lifetime earnings with his colt of $641,000 after the Bluegrass win. No calculator is necessary to diagnose a healthy profit for the original $20,000 investment in the colt.
 
Is professional horseman Tom McCarthy a retired high school principal who just got lucky?
  
Jockey Calvin Borel is a professional horseman who is sold on his ability, too.
 
Humble, hard working and emotional, he understands persistence and showing up for work every day.  From a less than sophisticated start in bush track racing in Louisiana, Calvin labored in the work he loved until he and Street Sense found their way into the winner's circle at the 2007 Derby. 
 
Success loves a hard worker and Borel proved it with his combo at Churchill on the first weekend in May with wins at both The Kentucky Oaks on Friday and the Derby on Saturday.
 
Success as a professional horseman isn't reserved for the rich; just ask Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai who has spent tens of millions in an empty handed grab for a Derby win.   
 
Success is reserved for everyone on the unlevel playing field of life who is passionate and hardworking.
 
And that's because passion and hard work eventually draft luck to your team to make the difference for you.
 
Ask Tom McCarthy why he got a second chance to buy General Quarters. 

Ask Calvin Borel why holes open up on the rail just when he needs them.
 
Your story is your story and success for you can only be defined by you.  And only your positive attitude about your ability will lead the way to your success.
 
Negativity has a permanent gig as the advance man for Failure.
 
So I want to ask you again, do you believe you can earn a profit in the horse

business?

More articles like this one at my website www.ProfitableHorseman.com

sign up for my Free Newsletter about making money in the Horse Business

Hire A Bookkeeper To Do The Heavy Lifting

Our barn has an automatic waterer-it's me.  I automatically start refilling water buckets during chore times. 


Depending on a person's ambition level, a full bucket of water weighs between thirty five and forty pounds. 
 
Forty pounds isn't much of a lift for a guy six feet- two, approaching two hundred pounds.  But if you're five feet- two at half my weight, it's a job you want to outsource as often as possible.  Ask my wife.
 
Because even if you have biceps and triceps of steel from riding, heavy lifting is not your specialty and should be delegated.
 
In the business half of the horse business, there are some tasks that are a lot like carrying buckets of water.  It's hard work and often no fun, but can't be ignored.
 
Bookkeeping is similar to carrying buckets of water.  Essential work, but a task that should be delegated to others when you don't have the skill, attention span or time to do it.    And even if you're good at bookkeeping, is it the best use of your time as a business professional?
 
I've found many professional horsemen reluctant to use a bookkeeper for these reasons:

•   Can't find one. (But, never looked)
•   Too expensive. (why pay when I can do it myself,         when my other work is done, after 10:00 P.M.)
•   Can't trust my numbers to an outsider to leak. (as if  you're earning millions)
•   Bookkeeper will steal.  (If they don't handle cash, deposit checks or sign checks, highly unlikely)

The reasons are lame.  Get a bookkeeper to do that heavy lifting.  There are many part-timers available for the bookkeeping job.  Ask around in your sphere of influence in your community; you can't find what you're not looking for.
 
As an alternative to conventional bookkeeping, I suggest you check out Jennifer Foster's on-line bookkeeping service EQBookeeping.com. 

I spoke with Jennifer recently about her business.  Here is what she told me,  "We take the stress and frustration out of managing the paperwork and details, and allow you to focus on your horses and clients.  We own and breed horses, compete in shows, and overall understand the challenges you, as a business owner, have to face.  Our goal is to make things easier for you (and help you avoid problems with the IRS.)

She went on to say, "Most importantly, our services are priced at an affordable rate that won't cut into your profits.  Running a horse business can be difficult so we price our services at rates that make the decision to get help a "no brainer."
 
You input your data-let them worry about debits,credits and balances.  Bookkeepers love the heavy lifting of buckets of numbers.

 I "met" Jennifer Foster on twitter. While some people think the twitter exercise is a waste of time, the microblog gets results for people in business.  Her twitter name is @equineaccountng and she is followed by many horsemen. 

I suspect that our conversation would never have happened without the ice breaker effect of twitter.

Even though the horseman's world is entrenched with tradition and leather bound, you can't ignore technology for results.

READ more articles about the horse business on my website click here

Operations Manuals For Horse Businesses

It's spring in my part of the world and that means an abundance of water.  Melted from ice and snow and delivered by relentless rains, water is everywhere.  Motionless water is standing in low pastures, puddled in driveway potholes and trapped in my leaky rubber boots.        

There is water in motion as well: trickling, flowing or roaring toward larger bodies of water.  Nature sees to it that water stays in motion without instructions.  It goes wherever gravity chooses to send it.  Natural flow for water is easy to see and understand; it's downhill and usually along an obvious, well carved path. 

Ideally, the work in your business should have natural flow to it just like running water, resistance free along a clear path.  But in many businesses, work flows like ketchup from a bottle.  Following inverted shaking, taps and slaps, the ketchup bottle temporarily spurts and drips an appeasing amount, very similar to the way some employees respond to the boss's instructions.

Workers (assistants, volunteers, family) often have difficulty maintaining work flow because the path, that is what to do next and how to do it, is unknown.  They're trapped like water in a low spot in a field, waiting for a drainage ditch for guidance.
 
Sure, you've told them, more than once, in different ways when and how to do things.  But, most likely the instructions you gave were in your own concise language.  You see the problem with your concise language is that it's too concise, lacking details and only presented in one way and in your style.

Consider your assignment of the task:  sweep the barn.  You have the mental image of a swept barn and it's done according to your standard.
 
The recipient of the order is now faced with many decisions:
 

What broom?

Where is it?

Where to start?

Sweepings into stalls or into a shovel or out the door?

Sweep the feed and tack rooms, too?

How much sweeping, rough, medium or squeaky clean?

Sweep behind trunks and under mats?

Catch cobwebs too?

What about horses cross-tied in the aisle in my way?

Where does the broom get stored when done?

 
The process of sweeping, simple at first glance, is filled with decisions.  The other work tasks in your business require decisions too:  Feeding hay, turnout groups, when to blanket, how often to check water buckets and scrub, greeting customers, cleaning tack, taking messages, fueling the tractor, filing receipts, loading the trailer for the show and so on.
 
Unclear expectations about work and how to do it by the owner, guarantee inconsistent performance in job completion by the employee.
 
Well defined expectations in the form of an operations manual for your business will help communicate the order in which to do work and the steps necessary to complete it.
 
WAIT, before you stop reading, an operations manual doesn't have to be difficult to produce! 
 
Be easy on yourself and your employees, construct the manual one part at a time.  Start with feeding, or stall cleaning or cleaning tack.  Begin with a notepad and take notes on the process and what's important.  Use your digital camera to take photos of what a clean stall looks like, the right level of bedding to maintain in the stall and the image of a rack full of clean bridles with sparkling bits.
 
The photos will save hours of writing and explain certain parts of operations more easily than words.  Draw on the photos if that helps explain.  Don't go to extreme details at first.

Describing eleven ways to operate a rake in the barnyard may be overkill.  Add detail, or better yet, have your employees add detail as they analyze the process.
 
Operations manuals are often associated only with large corporations like McDonalds, Starbucks or Wal*Mart.  

Small businesses have less room for error than  large corporations; lean with employee numbers by economic necessity, there are no extra people in small businesses to pick up the slack for low productivity.
 
An operations manual is the basic support for a system to allow work to flow like water on a clear path.  Your development of systems for your business will help:
 

•   minimize conflicts between employees
•   create consistency in quality of work done
•   speed the completion of work
•   reduce training time for new hires
•   minimize worry while you're out of town

Let me know your results.

I publish a FREE newsletter written just for the business of horses.  Subscribe here

Is Discretionary Income Shrinking and How Will It Affect Your Horse Business?

If your customer is employed, receiving the same steady paycheck as eighteen months ago, is there any change in discretionary income?

 

No.

 

If  Discretionary income = Gross income - taxes - necessities, then the dollars are still available to spend.  The change in D.I. is fear. Fear has changed the customer's attitude about spending money on horses.

 

In conjunction with your marketing program, sell the value you offer in your business.  You provide much more to the boarding customer than a clean and bedded stall, feed and water.  You offer atmosphere, community and emotional relief in the form of recreation.  A therapy that is most effective and greatly undervalued.  Your lesson program offers much more than an improved seat or better lead changes, it offers personal growth, achievement, and confidence building which are benefits hard to find for youth and adults.

 

Periodic, thoughtful review of your sources of horse business revenue and their related expenses help make sound business decisions in all economies.  This work can be ignored more easily in good times because there is forgiveness due to greater perceived amounts of discretionary income.

 

Focus your horse business enterprises on the customer groups with the ability to pay and understand the complete value you offer.

 

You can find tips on operating a successful horse business at my site www.ProfitableHorseman.com

Don't Look Back, There is no future in it.

On the theme of don't look back:

“When the lion is chasing the antelope, he doesn’t look back.  He has to eat.”

 

--Robert Cheruiyot  four time Boston Marathon Winner

The Secret of How to Deliver the Best Quality and the Best Service at the Lowest Prices

The Secret of how to deliver the best quality and service at the lowest prices: 

You can't.

Yet, so many business owners try.  I've tried, you've tried or maybe you are still trying.

As an example, I've stayed in a lot of hotels. You probably have, too.  They've ranged from discount national chains to luxurious and pricey Ritz-Carltons.    And, I've never gotten Ritz-Carlton accommodations and service at a budget hotel. But, I didn't expect to get it either.  In the hotel industry and other industries, consumers have reasonable expectations for quality and service in consideration of the price charged.

That's not always the case in the horse industry.  Sometimes, the customer is not educated in the ranges of quality and service offered and makes no evaluation of the fairness of price because she has no experience to judge by.

As a person in business, you want to deliver the best boarding care, the best lesson program or the best training program at a price that is affordable to everyone. After all, you consider many of your customers as your friends and want to give them a break.

 But you want the impossible.  It defies logic to try to deliver top quality product (think boarding, lessons, training) and outstanding customer service at discount rates.

 Because the relationship between the three factors: quality, service and price is established as a law of business.   You can have two out of the three, but not all three.

You can provide the best quality and the best service but not at the "best" or lowest price.  When you offer low price, it is delivered only with either okay service or okay quality; there simply isn't enough margin in the sale to deliver any more than that. For example:

The discount boarding barn might have to skimp on bedding or hay quality to stay in business,

The $20.00 a session riding instructor starts her riding lessons 40 minutes late because her disrespecting students value her time as if she is a twenty dollar riding instructor or,

The owner of a "one month training miracle" horse finds her horse canters on command, but seldom on the correct lead.

If your business profits are skinny, consider if you are attempting to deliver the highest level services at the lowest prices.

If that is the case and you want to bring about change, your two options are:
 
1. Reduce your level of service to match value and price.
 
2. Increase your fees to a level appropriate for the service you offer.
 
Looks simple in writing, doesn't it?  So do something about it!
 
But wait, I forgot!  There is a third choice.  That is to do nothing and struggle with the finances of your business in a battle you cannot win.


If you liked this post, you should subscribe to my free newsletter about the horse business.     You can subscribe at www.ProfitableHorseman.com

Operations Manual for Horse Businesses

I've been doing some thinking about operations manuals for horse businesses.  A few, I suspect very few, have them.

Most horse businesses and small businesses in general have none.  The default ops manual then becomes the Nike tag line:  Just do it!

"Just do it!" works, but only if the employee understands the core principles of the system.  And with many horse businesses, inexperienced and untrained employees are the norm.  Self starters are rare and kick starters are too common. 

Starting an Operations manual with three pages may be all you need to get going.  If you are a writer, keep adding items.  If not, find an employee who will.   The exercise and process of creating the manual will help you evaluate wasted motion, unnecessary habits and highlight processes that work well.

Employees want to do things right.  You need to make clear to them the right things to do.