If you think you don’t need a horse business plan, you’re mistaken. Every business needs a strategy if it wants to succeed, a path paved to financial solvency. No one needs to see this document but you, so leave self-consciousness at the door and dive in with both feet.
The first thing you need to write in your horse business plan is the Objective. This is the section of your plan that describes your goals and aims with regard to your horse business: how much money you intend to make, what programs you hope to offer and which goals you want to achieve.
The Objective portion of your horse business plan needs to answer three very specific questions:
- What do you want to achieve?
- How do you intend to achieve it?
- What measure will be used to quantify success/failure?
Outlining Your Goals
Sit down with a pen and paper and write out the goals you hope to achieve in the first (or next) five years of your horse business. Next to each goal, write down the date by which you want to accomplish it, and make sure the timeline is realistic.
There are tons of goals you might set forth in your horse business plan, and these should represent your core values and desires. What shape does success take when you think about it carefully? Do you want to impact your community? Meet specific financial goals? Become invaluable to your customers?
Some horse business owners are in it primarily for the money, so their horse business plans will be centered around finances. Others are more concerned about the services they provide, and their goals are oriented toward customer service.
No answer is right or wrong, and you need to be honest with yourself. If, in your heart of hearts, you really want to be rich, don’t deny yourself financial goals. It will just slow down the progress of your horse business because you’re afraid to admit what you really desire.
My advice is to come up with at least ten—but no more than twenty—goals for the Objective section of your horse business plan.
Making an Action Plan
After you’ve determined your goals for the horse business, you need to decide exactly how you will achieve them. What steps will you take to ensure your success?
Write each goal on a separate sheet of paper, then number one through ten down the margin of the page, leaving three lines or so between each number. Then, thinking sequentially, write down the steps you will take to achieve the goal at the top of the page.
For example, if one of your goals is to establish a riding lesson program with at least 100 students, your steps might look like this:
- Purchase ten lesson horses with varying qualities and abilities.
- Clear schedule for three lessons per day, six days per week.
- Establish reward program for riders who refer new clients (one free lesson).
- Advertise in three local newsletters/magazines.
- Send out flyers to nearby neighborhoods.
- Visit local horse shows to promote riding lesson program.
- Create riding lesson plans to ensure student satisfaction and progress.
- Take students to horse shows to increase visibility.
- Start a summer horse camp program.
- Survey other riding academies to fine-tune pricing for riding lessons.
Obviously, your steps would be tailored to your own horse business plan, and this is just an example. But you can see how these action steps would start the ball rolling and increase your chances for success.
Quantify the Results
A horse business plan is just a document. It does not possess magical qualities that will force your goals to fruition, and unless you take control of the plan it will be useless in the long run.
Your Objective is not just a pie-in-the-sky list of wishes, but a valuable tool. Unless you find a way to quantify the results of your efforts, you won’t be able to stay on top of the action steps described above.
If your goal is specific, such as earning $10,000 per month or gaining 100 students for your riding lesson program, the quantification is built in. However, less specific goals—such as satisfying clients or building successful equestrian programs—are not as easy to judge.
Figure out how you will determine success or failure. For example, if you want to gauge the satisfaction of your clients, you might do so via an anonymous survey distributed in your sixth month of operation. This will tell you how close you are to reaching your goal and whether your efforts have been sufficient thus far.
Check back often over the next few days as we explore other aspects of the horse business plan, from mission statements to competitive analysis, to marketing plans.
You might also like:
- Horse Business Plans 101:
The Mission Statement - Horse Business Plans 101
- Horse Business Plans 101:
Marketing Plan - Horse Business Plans 101:
Industry Analysis - Horse Business Plans 101:
Management Plan
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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