A market analysis is an examination of your target market in the horse business. It includes the characteristics, spending habits, demographics and other details of your ideal customer.
The purpose of a market analysis in your horse business plan is to ensure you tailor your products, services and programs to meet those customers’ needs. In addition to what your target market wants now, you also need to think about how their needs might change in the future.
Defining Your Target Market
The first section of your market analysis should be a comprehensive overview of your target market.
- How old is your ideal customer?
- How does he spend his money?
- How much money does he make?
- Where does he live?
- What kind of family does he have?
- What kind of work does he do?
- In what circumstances is he most likely to spend money?
- How does he make financial decisions?
The answers to these questions will give you a pretty comprehensive model of your target customer. You must know him inside out and be able to think like him and predict his decisions.
Projecting the Behaviors of Your Target Market
In addition to figuring out where your target customer is today, you need to know where he’ll be in two years. Five years. Even ten years down the line.
For example, a riding instructor deals primarily with kids and teenagers who take riding lessons. If a riding academy is the focus of your horse business, you need to know where your students will be when they get to high school, when they leave for college, when they start their families. If you can build a horse business that will cater to them in each stage of their lives, you’ll have a brighter future.
Or consider the behaviors of competitors. If you want to run a horse boarding business that focuses on competition and training, you’ll want to peer into your crystal ball to find out what needs your clients will have as they progress in horse shows. For example, you might want to offer schooling and transportation for horse shows all over the United States, thinking more globally than locally.
Why This Matters
A market analysis tells you which services your target consumers will appreciate and the type of culture you need to cultivate in your facility. It will tell you how they spend money and where they’re likely to balk at spending so you don’t waste time offering services no one wants, needs or can afford.
Let’s break it down with a real-world example.
We’ll say that you want to start a riding academy that also offers boarding and training for clients. The riding academy will be your focus because you can make money for each lesson you teach.
Your clients will likely be middle- to upper-class families, sometimes where both parents have jobs. This means you need to offer flexible scheduling to accommodate busy parents, and maybe you’ll institute an after-care program where riders can stick around after lessons to help out or watch other students.
A riding academy needs lesson horses, tack to fit all horses and riders, plenty of arena space and a room devoted to un-mounted lessons. You’ll want to create barn rules designed to keep young riders safe, and you may need to hire assistants for riding instructors to keep an eye on all the students.
A riding academy will serve mostly female students, though you’ll have a few boys as well. So you’ll want to tailor your classes to meet the needs and desires of girls, but which can be altered to suit boys when the situation requires it.
This line of thinking will set you up to succeed in the horse business, even if you don’t have the rest of your horse business plan sorted out.
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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.
