Don't Look Back

Sport Horse Magazine Offers Electronic FlipBook Version

Anna Goebel's Sport Horse MarketPlace magazine is in an easy view FlipBook version now.

You can see it here or paste this url in your browser:  http://www.sporthorsemarketplace.com/index.php/flipbook-oct09.

Anna still mails out 20,000 printed copies but, the FlipBook version is the future for a lot of magazines and a good solution for rising printing costs as well as postage. And don't forget the environmental benefit.

Have a look at it.

Tuesday Morning Gallop: The Race Goes To The Swiftest

Memo 5:30 A.M. Eastern Time, Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Tuesdays are busy days.  They're action days. Days we want to get things done in business.  Thirty seconds of motivational thought follows below. Read it now, not later. Then, get your boots on and go to work!

"The Race Goes To The Swiftest"   You've heard this saying a million times. Me too.  Chances are good that you think it only applies to race horses. But you're wrong, it applies to you in your business. Has this ever happened to you? By the time you finally returned the call, the prospect interested in your horse for sale had found and bought another. The chronically delinquent boarder owes you six months board now and just moved out in the middle of the night. You neglected that back fence repair long enough for your former boarder's horse to get loose. It's hard to do everything on time every day. But, when you replace needless delay with action, your sprint to the finish line is a breeze.

Indoor Riding Arenas-Risk or Reward?

Picture this scene. Bright sunshine, clear blue skies, shirt sleeve riding conditions, clippety clop, clippety clop, not a problem in the world for horse or rider. All of us have ridden on perfect weather days and there is no better scene for enjoying horses.

The problem is that in most parts of the world, there aren’t enough of those perfect weather days. Weather and a busy professional horseman are often in conflict with each other. Scorching sun, bitter cold, rain, snow, mud and fierce winds can severely limit the number of days to make money with horses with training, riding lessons or attracting customers to your boarding facility.

A day lost due to bad weather is lost money for the professional horseman. That window of time to generate income for your professional services is gone forever. Sure, you can “make it up" another day, but that means you lose a day off or you have to work long hours the following days to recover the income.

The solution for those horsemen who are always fighting the weather is to build an indoor riding arena for bad weather and early morning and after dark work. I can hear some readers thinking, yes but, GASP, I can’t afford it!

My answer to that comment is a question. Is it possible that you can’t afford not to have an indoor arena?

I am the first to admit that every personal financial situation is different, but for the sake of simplicity let’s consider the following example:

You have $5000 to put toward construction of an $80,000 indoor riding arena with not too many frills other than a roof, four walls and proper footing and lighting.

You borrow conventionally, or creatively, $75,000 at 6.5% interest to be repaid monthly over 15 years. The monthly payment is $653 per month.

Let’s ignore additional real estate tax, insurance, utilities and maintenance expenses because they will vary by location; please don’t forget to include these expenses in your personal calculations in making your investment decisions.

Now, calculate how much horse training and riding lesson income you lose annually due to bad weather and not being able to work before light or after dark. How does that loss on a monthly basis compare with all of the costs of having an indoor arena? You may be surprised with the results. Could the lost revenue due to weather pay for the indoor arena?

I talked with Pete Rohring, owner of Parco Building Systems over coffee last week. (click here for link) He’s been building barns and arenas for over 25 years and had some tips and considerations for building indoor arenas.

• Find out if your builder carries builders risk insurance coverage for the structure during the construction process. Wind damage to partially complete structures is the most common culprit for building damages. If the builder doesn’t offer it, look into getting your own coverage.
• Door openings large enough to drive a hay wagon through are important for ventilation and getting things that need to stay dry out of the weather in a hurry.
• A 36” wide service door is handy for people to move in and out without disturbing riders and horses by opening large doors. A four foot wide sliding door for walking horses in and out and saves large door opening time, too.
• A ¾” plywood liner built on a taper to protect riders legs and steel walls is a nice touch
• A roof vent on the ridge helps keep air moving and minimize condensation. Consider roof insulation for condensation control and noise reduction during heavy rainfall.
• Natural light provided through skylight roof panels is nice but consider the potential for leaks and shadows and sunspots on the arena footing from skylights. Eave light panels in sidewalls are efficient and lower maintenance.
• Overhangs (minimum 16”) create shadow lines on the exterior for architectural appeal and also keep snow and rain away from the building sidewalls.
• Don’t forget ice guards for northern climates.
• Good lighting is important. Talk to experts in lighting commercial buildings.
• Base Footing should be well-compacted and surface footing selected for dust control.

Put that pencil and calculator to work some evening and do indoor work on how you might be able to do more “indoor work.”

Professional Horsemen: Is Your System So Easy, A Cave Man Could Do It?

Just posted my latest newsletter at Profitable Horseman website.

http://tinyurl.com/q7pql6

Self Motivation Simplified

Our son Andrew Emerson designed this self motivation machine.  I'm skeptical about its commercial potential, however.

Use Forget Me Nots to Have the Memory of An Elephant

I'd been thinking about telling you this for some time and kept forgetting.  But last week, I captured the thought on paper and the result is you're reading about it right now.
 
You and I do a lot of thinking each day the experts tell us.  You may be surprised at this, but research estimates you may have 40,000 to 60,000 thoughts each day.  Even though that sounds like a tremendous amount of thinking, most of your thoughts are repeat thoughts.
 
Thoughts like:
 

•     What's the temperature outside?

•     I need to clean the house

•    What's for lunch?

But, mixed in with the business-as-usual thoughts are great thoughts and ideas.  Your best thoughts and ideas about your business and personal life bubble to the surface in your conscious mind and then are lost faster than cash at the race track betting window.

 

Thoughts and ideas like: 

• Marketing your riding lesson program to home schooled children

• Calling two good candidates to lease your underutilized lesson horse
• Checking out pricing for an indoor arena and financing possibilities
• Approaching a part time employee prospect for helping with weekend barn chores
• Starting your own electronic newsletter

 

Thoughts like those above and thousands of others are lost each day.  Some times they resurface for you, other times the thought ocean undertow claims them for others to discover and put into action.

 

There are almost as many ways to capture ideas for your horse business as there are bits for a horse's mouth.  But just like bits, the favorites should get tried first.

 

Index cards- don't leave them in the package! Spread them around. Keep a few in the barn, in the truck, on your desk, next to your bed and in your pocket.  Collect them daily, rubber band them and look at them several times a week.

 

 

Post it notes-buy 3-M brand only.  The sticky part on the knock-off brands is as useless as a 3 foot lead rope. If you use a pencil based calendar planner, stick your thoughts on the pages of the calendar on the appropriate days.

 

 

Spiral pocket notebook- buy pocket sized only, in multiple packs. Get in the habit of carrying one with you.

 

Moleskine- these are impressive and this classic notebook of choice of writers and artists. Not only cool looking, it frames your thoughts as you re-read them.  Good enough for Hemmingway, good enough for me.

Cell phone:  Dial, dictate, done.  Call a phone number and your words are automatically transcribed, captured and e-mailed back to you with service called Jott.com   

PDA's  Once you make the shift to electronic notes, these are extremely useful tools for capturing thoughts and converting them to notes.  However, even though PDA's are durable, they're not as forgiving as paper when your horse's foot is standing on it.

Personally, I log a lot of my work day at a desk focused on a computer screen and talking on the telephone. It requires concentration and as a result, my best thoughts do not occur while I'm engaged in work.  I've used the above methods to capture brilliant and not so brilliant thoughts while feeding, mucking stalls, being a tractor jockey and cooling out a horse.

If you want to make more money in your horse business, capture your ideas and take action on the best! 

If you like this posted article subscribe to my free newsletter about making money with horses!  click here to go to the ProfitableHorseman.com home page

Dust Control for Indoor Riding Arenas

Controlling dust in indoor riding arenas is a chore for all horsemen.  While footings vary in the amount of dust fines created from daily use, there are no footings that don't break down eventually.

I used to spend hours watering our indoor arena with a garden hose, lawn sprinklers and eventually a tow behind tractor waterer.

Time required:  Seven minutes to detach manure spreader and hook up to waterer. Thirty minutes to fill the waterer, six minutes to apply.  Repeat every other day in dry conditions.  Tolerations:  Overfilled waterer tank due to forgetting, uneven distribution by waterer, can't apply water in below freezing weather, most annoying of all, it cut into my riding time.

I discovered MAG Flakes for dust control two years ago and am so delighted with the results, I sell the product.

Learn more at:  www.StopArenaDust.com

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What Makes a Good Website?

Annette Riley, Web Designer, makes good points about websites in her recent newsletter below.

Good Fast Cheap

You probably know the saying - Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick 2. The premise is that you must sacrifice one to get the others. If something is good and fast, it won't be cheap. If it is good and cheap, it won't be fast. If it is fast and cheap, it won't be any good.

I was all set to write a clever article about this topic, extolling my virtues as a Web designer, but I kept getting stuck.

Then I realized it is because there is only one choice. Good.

In the 8+ years I've been in business, I have never had someone walk into my office and ask for a bad Web site. Some want it "yesterday" and some want it for as close to free as possible, but the quality desired is always high.

What makes a good Web site?

First and foremost, it must present a clear picture of what your company has to offer your customers or potential customers. At the beginning of the web development process, it is more important to examine what makes your business different from your competition, than what colors you like. I sometimes meet resistance here, but I have to keep pushing. Taking time to plan and determine goals for the web site saves time and surprises later. The Web site will be more effective because it will be easy for visitors to understand how you can solve their problem.

Fast and Cheap are relative terms. There are many factors that determine time and cost, such as: size, complexity, desired features, existing budget considerations and/or how fast I get information such as text and images from the client.

A Web site an investment. A good Web site is the foundation of your marketing plan and adds value to your other marketing venues. You have to make the commitment of time and money to make it the best it can be.

Don't worry, however, I make the transition to a new way of marketing as painless as I can and will walk you easily through the Web design or re-design process from start to finish.

 

You can visit her site here

Twitter and Horsemen

I'm amazed at the number of horsemen and farmers active with posts on twitter on a regular basis.  I never would have guessed that busy folks, outdoors most of the day, would stay connected.

With the aid of wireless technology, no one is left out who chooses to stay in the stream of conversation.

Granted, the twitter conversation is as mindless as coffee break chatter at times, but the brevity of messages and speed of delivery helps develop business relationships instantly.

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/