Don't Look Back

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