So you’ve spent a few years now learning from other people and you feel like you have your own training system down. Now comes the fun part. Now you get to create a business!
First you have to come up with a name. Most trainers just use their names but some have unique barn names. You need to come up with one consistent business name though to create your business under. This makes it easier come tax time. Here is where it all gets boring and businesslike. I would suggest doing what I did: get an accountant! This way you can make sure you are completely legal and everything is accounted for. You will need to determine the legal structure of your business and register a business name, and your accountant can help you decide what exactly is best for you. They can also do all of the work for you for a minimal fee. It’s worth it, and a heck of a lot cheaper to pay them to do it than to actually go to school to become an accountant yourself. Just make sure you get a reliable, trustworthy accountant. If anyone is interested, I have a great one!
So your accountant will help you get all of that started. In the meantime you need to get a filing cabinet so that you can keep EVERY RECEIPT YOU EVER GOT for anything you’ve purchased for your business. The joy of owning your own business is tons of paperwork! You also own a very dangerous business that could potentially get people killed so you need to make a liability form and KEEP EVERY FORM ANYONE HAS EVER SIGNED EVER. People can be crazy sometimes, cover your back by making sure you have an organized file system where you can keep all of these important documents. Along these same lines you also need to get yourself business insurance. Yes, the insurance can be costly, but it is required at most professional riding stables and again, you’re running a dangerous business.
So once you have your official business name, your paperwork in order and you’re covered with insurance, you can start advertising! You probably already have some contacts from working in the field for a few years. The best way to advertise in this business seems to be word of mouth. But another great tool is social media. People find everything online, so you need to make sure you have a website. Even if it’s a little blank at first as you get started. There should be a lot of arrows online pointing in your direction. If you want to reach as many people as possible I would also try to have a presence on many social networks as well, such as Facebook and Twitter. I’m still figuring out the Twitter thing, but it’s amazing how many people you can reach through these avenues.
There are also so many different types of pages you can advertise on! If you want your business to be working with more young horses or problem horses there are Facebook and Twitter pages specifically geared toward connecting people with these types of horses. Make sure you are a presence there, either by commenting ways to help on a distressed post, or actually posting an advertisement for yourself if it’s allowed. If you are looking to do more instruction and teaching people to ride, you can advertise on any page geared toward people in your area. They have sale pages for your area, pages for moms looking for activities for their kids, or just general connection pages for each city. You can post your info on all of these pages.
The most expensive, yet very affective, way to advertise is to sell decent horses. When I first got into this business I was told that I could buy well bred horses, train them and then sell them for around $30,000. That’s a nice dream, but you need a reputation first. If you have the money to buy a well bred horse in the first place and take that horse to a lot of high end shows, then you could probably sell a horse for that much as long as they performed well. But the more common scenario is to find a cheap deal for a decent minded horse, train that horse to be super broke so anyone can ride him, and then sell that horse to a good family. You might not make a lot of money; hopefully you at least covered all of your expenses while you had the horse. But the best thing this does for your business is show people that you know how to train good horses. More people will notice the super broke horse that is being quiet with an eight year old on him, than one $30,000 show horse. Then they will keep you in mind for their next horse that they need for their child. Or they may bring their young horse to you so it too can become super broke.
Building your horse clientele is certainly tough. Horseback riding is a hobby, and not a necessity, so people have to really want to work with you and afford you! Striking a balance between making your clients happy and keeping yourself happy takes practice. Look for advice on that in our next segment!