During my first few years working as a riding instructor, my least favorite part of the job was asking for money. I hated bringing up the fact that my students needed to pay me, and the task of requesting payment made me supremely uncomfortable.
I think a lot of riding instructors (and other horse business owners) feel the same way. It doesn’t matter why you’re trying to get paid—riding lessons, horse training, boarding, whatever—because you still have to hold your hand out and demand a freaking check.
Shifting Your Point of View
The world would be a lot easier for us if clients just paid us what they owed every month (or week) like clockwork. Our finances would always be in line and we’d never have to worry about how we were going to pay the light bill.
The problem isn’t with getting paid, in my opinion, but with the mindset of most horse business owners. We like to think of ourselves as a laid-back sort, just going with the flow, and demanding payment like a sleazy bill collector makes us feel dirty.
Three words: Get Over It.
I had to. It took me a long time, but I finally felt a shift in my perspective that changed my life. I realized that I wasn’t begging for handouts or trying to finesse a loan from Wells Fargo. I was simply demanding remuneration for services rendered. I earned that money, and so did you.
As soon as you start thinking of it in those terms—like a horse business owner rather than a mere service provider—you’ll find it much easier to get paid. It might not become easier to confront that Mom who always forgets the checkbook on her daughter’s riding lesson day, but it’s a start.
My Collection Process
I can only tell you what has worked for me, then let you work out the details for your own horse business. My collection process might not be a good fit for you, and that’s okay. Just modify it to a point where you feel comfortable and remember that you deserve to collect unpaid bills.
Send Out Invoices. The first step to getting paid in the horse business is to demand payment as early and as regularly as possible. Send invoices even to those clients who pay you on time every month because you’re setting up a system. Everyone is treated equally until the money doesn’t materialize. (Find a template for invoices at the end of this post.)
My advice is to send out invoices two weeks before payment is due. For example, if your horse training clients are supposed to pay on January 1, send out invoices on February 15. This way there is plenty of time for Mr. Postman to carry your invoice to the door.
And yes, you should always mail invoices. You never know when a client will fail to come to the barn for 45 days straight, and you don’t want to take the chance of not seeing a client when you have the invoice in hand.
Charge a Late Fee. Any smart horse business owner knows that some clients will fail to pay for as long as possible before giving it up. In other words, those clients are testing you to see how far they can skate along without giving you your money. You can stop this habit by charging late fees.
Let all of your clients know that late fees will be imposed for payments that are not on-time. Set a specific dollar amount (e.g. $5 per day until the bill is paid), and charge it consistently. And to make sure no one says but I didn’t know about the late fee, print up a notice and have all clients sign it.
Set a Cut-Off date. If you fail to pay your light bill, eventually the power company is going to turn your lights off. They figure if you can’t afford electricity they aren’t going to provide it for free. You need to adopt the same mentality.
Let me repeat it again: Do not work for free. Decide, for example, that if clients have not paid you by the 20th of the month, their riding lessons or horse training, or whatever, are discontinued until the bill is satisfied in full.
Tomorrow I’ll go into more depth on how you can increase your chances of getting paid in the horse business. Until then, find a template below for invoices that you can send out to your clients. Just personalize the template with your contact information and logo, and you’ll be all set.
Horse Business Invoice (.doc)
Feel free to use this invoice free of charge for your horse business. If you need it in a different format, please leave a note in the comments and I will try to accommodate you.
You might also like:
- Kiss Unpaid Bills Goodbye
- How to Structure a
Horse Business Payment Policy - Five Easy Tips for Managing
Finances in the Horse Business - The Power of Incentives
in the Horse Business - Combining Services in the
Horse Business
About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.
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I am a client who always pays on the spot, so no issue there as I am happy to pay for good instruction, which I do get. Love the lessons. However… my instructor will often celebrate when handed money– a very odd thing to do, in my mind.
“I put the check in your logbook.” then… “Yaaaaay! Money! Money is good!”
That is just weird, I hate it, it’s rude, I hope you don’t do it. I have always paid without being asked, and have been there for a long time, but it’s like she’s still scared to death I won’t. Annoying, and that alone would send me some place else if there *were* some place else. I’m also sick of hearing that she doesn’t like the color, gender, breed, or names of my horses. grrrrrr… NEVER insult a client’s horse simply because it does not line up with your idea of perfection.
I don’t think her horses are attractive nor do I like their names, but I wouldn’t dream of saying so. TACT is probably the biggest thing I find lacking in horse instructors in general. Don’t bite the hands that feed you…
I don’t think it’s fair to say that all riding instructors lack tact. I’ve never met an instructor who openly celebrates the receipt of a payment or who insults her students’ horses. A good instructor will point out flaws in horses that might limit the student’s ability to progress, but only in circumstances where it’s necessary.
My advice would be to let your instructor know her behavior bothers you. If she takes offense or if she refuses to change that behavior, it might behoove you to look elsewhere.
Didn’t mean to imply that ALL instructors lack tact, but in general they sure could use a filter between their heads and their mouths. It’s one thing to think it; quite another to actually say it. The instructor I have is the only one I’ve ever heard celebrate her payments, so I don’t know how common that is (hopefully rare). But there are oh so many that have latched on to a particular breed/color/gender who make it very clear that your horse isn’t… theirs… or think you should sell yours and get a [fill in the blank] horse. As long as a horse is safe and has a good disposition (like mine is/does), let people enjoy their horses. Not everybody wants to jump or whip around barrels.
Alas, there is NO where else to go for lessons in my area. She is a good trainer and a good riding teacher… it’s the rest of the time she needs Etiquette 101. Anyway, this is a good learning experience for my teens on how NOT to be, and I mainly wrote this for any instructor out there who may think it’s okay to insult their clients or their horses/tack, or perhaps they don’t realize they do. I find it far worse in women than in men, as I travel around the country.
Wonder why that is.
I think that, in some cases, there is a lack of professionalism among equestrian professionals as a group. This is not the case for all of them, of course, but I understand why it happens. I’ve written about it before—just because you don’t work in a corner office and wear a suit to work doesn’t mean you shouldn’t present yourself like a C-level executive.
And there are definitely biases among horse trainers and riding instructors who prefer certain breeds, colors, even genders. I recently received an e-mail from a young lady whose parents (with whom she worked at her stable) did not want her to buy mares for lesson horses because, in their eyes, geldings were the only way to go. It’s hard to offer advice on these things because some, like you, literally can’t escape it.
If I were in your shoes, the next time she insults your horses, I would say something along the lines of: “To each her own, but do you realize that every time you say that, you cut down my guys?” Keep it friendly, but it’s important to make it clear that her comments are unacceptable.
And they are. You’re paying for services, not for unsolicited criticism. If she’s not careful, she’ll drive all her clients away.
I’ve taken your advice on what to say, and she did back off some. What also caused her to stay a little quieter is that people have pulled into her drive asking about my horse… and not any of hers. So there is something they are seeing in that mare of mine that stands out. I did get one compliment from Ms. Instructor just the other day during my daughter’s lesson: “Wow, she is really athletic.” Well, it’s a start. She still insults her looks, which is odd given the fact that people think she is the prettiest one on the ranch. *shrug*. I bought that mare from a rescue, so maybe there is some kind of pride thing not having her registered. Or maybe it’s that I have a gaited horse in Quarter Horse country. (that gait is just so easy on my back, and it’s just plain fun)
Regarding money, my daughter decided that if she ever ran an operation with her horses, she would get an outsider to be the money collector so she wouldn’t have to deal with it directly. Or rather than taking money physically, she could have it automatically drafted from bank accounts. I, too, don’t like to take money from people, which is why my husband collects rent payments from our rentals, and I don’t! The kids and I do so much volunteer work (with people and horses, both) that it isn’t in our nature to take money. But like you said, we need to “get over it” [if we don't wish to starve to death].
We will never jump for joy loudly over payments, though