Is your horse business… not actually a business? Let’s talk about why that might be true. To start, take a look at the big picture: What IS an actual business? This is likely a question that most horse professionals have never considered. A business consists of a strategic plan on how to deliver services or goods to customers and clients in a way that delivers value, in exchange for money AND allows the provider to profit. A business delivers consistent revenue to a consistent (and growing!) number of clients at a profit.

Being a service provider does not independently qualify as a “business.” As service providers of many kinds - life coaches, business coaches, horse trainers, etc - we often subscribe to a cycle of feast or famine. We either have too many clients or not enough. There's no peace of mind, no predictability, no rest, and no possibility of projection. Most horse professionals never put much thought into the decision to become a service provider. They see an avenue of making money by working with horses and think, “Boom. Done.” 99.9% of horse professionals entered the industry in pursuit of their passion and never considered the business. As with other artistic pursuits like visual arts, acting, or even professional athletics, there’s no predictable or reliable cash flow. 

An important shift in the process of looking at yourself as a full-fledged business/business-owner instead of simply a passionate service provider in the horse world, is the ability to talk about what you do. Being good at what you do is important, but if you struggle with the ability to talk about your horse business, you'll always struggle to scale. You're confident in your skills, in what you deliver, you can do what you say you can do… but you have to gain confidence in being able to talk about what you do. Talk about how you help people and their horses. Your brand identity is your unique contribution, your unique corner of the universe in this industry that belongs to you and you only. This is huge. This gets to be a major point of pride for you. You're what's special about it. The way you deliver your message, your point of view, your unique composition of skills. Nobody knows as much about these things or has your specific awesome brain to put it together into a unique format.

One of the most terrifying factors we encounter in horse professionals is systems and technology. But, we live in a digital age! When you only perform your same routines day after day, you're not reaching the people you need to and... honestly, you're doing things the hard way. Technology has advanced in ways that make it easier than ever before to stay organized, to manage your business, to automate tasks, and take things off of your to-do list. One of our very own clients had absolute, complete terror when she first started working with tech and would completely shut down. NOW, she teaches other people in our coaching groups how to do the things we discuss because she has so much confidence and clarity in the processes. She took the time to learn it, to overcome that fear and feel the self-esteem that comes with saying, "Oh wow, that used to be difficult for me."

As horse professionals ourselves, we hear your concern that automating your business systems will make you lose that personal touch with your clients. In fact, this is actually the best way to amplify it. This allows you to get out there in front of potential clients in a way that is authentic, delivers value, and starts to build a relationship without you having to put in endless hours of hard work "selling yourself." With more time on your hands, you can focus on personal connection and the horse-to-human aspects of your business that truly matter.

Marketing is another one of the most common turn offs we encounter with our horse business professionals. We've heard it time and time again: "Marketing feels icky and pushy, so I avoid it." Whether you're afraid of it or it just gives you the ick, it's time to befriend the process and focus on delivering a true and authentic sell. There's a misperception embedded in this fear of being sold to or oversold/over-promised and under-delivered. But, we're no longer talking about the aggressive marketing tactics of decades past. 

Gone are the days when you push to get the sale at all costs because that doesn't work in our industry. We're building a long term relationship that has to be founded in trust to ensure the welfare of both the horse and the rider (given the amount of risk involved when you're dealing with thousand pound animals!). It's a deep connection that people are looking for with their horses, especially for our horse first welfare-oriented practitioners. You won't attract this type of client using manipulative tactics that don't work. 

In the 21st century, people are savvy. Rather than taking an ego-driven approach to marketing, just shouting from the rooftops, here I am, I'm great, I'm the best... we need to flip the script. It's time to trust that the audience knows what's best for them. It's time for a coaching approach to marketing. When you give them a choice, they feel seen, they feel heard, and they are identified in the way you talk to them in your marketing materials. Your potential clients get to see that you truly and deeply understand who they are and what they want to accomplish. 

You want to run your business, not let your business run you. As humans, business owners, and horse professionals, we want to feel like we are in control. While there will always be variables, you deserve to deeply trust your systems. When your offers and your methodology of marketing by which to acquire the right clients are steadfast. If you have a crappy day or even a bad week, it will no longer shake you fundamentally. We all just go back on the horse and continue fulfilling the strategic plans that we have.

This brings us to the thing that nobody wants to talk about: the relationship to profit and money.  In western culture especially, we are taught that it is impolite to talk about money. Let’s immediately throw that out the window. The number one commonality of like minded wealthy people is that they talk about money. If you don't talk about it, you can't fix it, you can't deal with it, and you certainly can't grow it. For so many people, there’s a culture of shame around money. It means that they can't address their limiting beliefs. They can't determine their own value and worth financially. Again, just like with a lot of artists, we fall back on talking about things like, “Well, I do it because I love it. Because it's my passion. Therefore, I cannot get paid for it.” The catch-22 inherent in this logic is that if you don't get paid for it, you can't keep doing it because you can't afford to. At the very least, you keep struggling along and you never experienced that sense of self worth, that sense of control, the sense of feeling like you are in charge of your own destiny.

Rather than defaulting to a simply transactional business model, we must try to move this new paradigm and relationship - the horse-human relationship - forward and allow the people who believe in it, the people are participating in it to actually feel worthy, in control, and in a healthy, open relationship with money. Taking care of the horse's physical, mental, and emotional needs must be mirrored by taking care of the human's physical, mental, and emotional needs. Thus, we would all be able to show up and lead by example as the best, most authentic versions of ourselves.

How can we structure our businesses in a way that is not solely dependent on our abilities to use our bodies, and at the same time realize that service provider is not the model, but rather business owner? This ultimately leads to entrepreneurship and the security that you're looking for, but have probably never even considered to be possible. 

Our Get Unhobbled course provides the foundation upon which you can become a confident business owner. HorseBizAutomated client Veronique says that the Get Unhobbled Course "has helped to bring a better and more strategic view on exactly how to be working on [her] business from the foundation." Click here for more info on this course and start getting hobbled in YOUR business (which we can actually make sure IS a business) today!