Have you ever walked into a store and searched in vain for a sales associate who can help you find what you need? It’s a frustrating experience, and it usually happens because when the employees at the store see you waiting for some help, they tell themselves, “It’s not my job to help her.”
This creates a total break-down in the business model of the store. If no sales associates are available to help customers, those customers are going to patronize a store where the employees actually seem to give a damn.
You might think that your horse business is immune to this particular flub, but you’d be wrong. Just because you don’t operate a retail store doesn’t mean you can neglect assigning jobs.
A horse business runs smoothly only when every aspect of stable management is planned out from top to bottom. Your employees must understand their job descriptions, and every task must be covered by someone.
In a retail store there is a hierarchy of positions. You’ve got the district manager, for example, who is responsible for coordinating all the storefronts in a particular area. Then you have the store manager, the assistant store manager, the sales associates—and on down the line.
In order for the hierarchy to work, the district manager must know his job, and must take care of all his store managers. The same works for all the other managerial positions, and the non-managerial workers must focus on doing their jobs correctly and learning their duties as assigned.
In the horse business, you must create a similar hierarchy of positions, and assign each position a set of duties. Your stable’s hierarchy might look something like this:
Each of the colors represents a position in the overall company, and each box represents a person holding a specific job in that position. Once you’ve figured this out, you must assign duties to each specific person.
Whether it’s cleaning stalls, teaching riding lessons, training horses or mixing grain, every task must be covered if you want your horse business to survive. Proper stable management requires structure—as much as you might detest it—.
If you don’t, your horse business will be like that retail store, and your clients are going to go elsewhere.
Stay tuned next week for more about stable management organization.
You might also like:
- Horse Business Plans 101:
Management Plan - Managing Stable Employees
- Horse Job Spotlight: Stable Manager
- 7 Things Stable Managers
Should Never Say - Do Your Employees Care?
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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