Profitable, Stable Equestrian Businesses

What is profit anyhow? The way it’s talked about, sometimes it seems like it’s a unicorn.

Profit is what’s left over after all expenses have been paid for. It’s created by maintaining the topline and bottomline, which as equestrians we have quite a lot of experience with this. 

The topline is revenue generated with offers that have been strategically priced.

Prices not only communicate the value of the offer, they communicate what type of client you intend to sell to. What type of customer are you attracting? When you picture your day-to-day, who are you interacting with? Throughout your business; build it to speak to them and let them be seen. 

If you’re an equestrian coach, ask yourself if you want to coach recreational or performance riders. Continue to dive deeper by detailing where you want to coach, the level of competition, will it be amateurs or professionals; someone in between? These should all be considered when it comes to determining your pricing. Remove the personal emotions from pricing, this is purely business. The purpose of business is to make money and an impact. The other side of the fence you want to consider will be your operating budget.

A herd of customers won’t help profit if expenses are above the top rail.. In equestrian terms the topline is sales, bottomline is after expenses; the legs must be healthy. It’s important to understand your baseline expenses before launching your product pricing; once you’ve presented prices to the public it is more difficult to change the price and maintain value-perception. I’ve had clients who decide to price their offers solely on industry standards for the area; they did not make money. They had the option to collect the data of their expenses and create a price that sustained the cost of their equestrian business. There are clients that base their price on their expenses and the type of clients they want to work with, they are making money and sometimes; a lot of it. Financial data is available to you; whether it’s in a spreadsheet, software, or just your bank account and coffee-stained receipts. Put the effort into it and reap the benefits, equestrians are hard workers. Take a look at the data of the last three months and it will give you a good idea of your current average costs.

We can continue the broker horse girl era or we can do better.

It’s the money that keeps the barn doors open, food in the fridge, and the horse girl dream going; profit. Profitability is intimidating; it’s sometimes believed to be for the lucky. In my books luck is what happens when you mix preparation with persistence. If you’re willing to build a business that supports the horse girl dream; it’s creating a business on your own terms. I encourage you to explore the resources available on Equestrian Entrepreneur’s website and if you want guidance changing course book a CEQO Consult and together we’ll walk the course and you’ll leave with a map to keep you on course to profitability.