Does this sound fair to you?

M

moodymare123

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 October 2009
Messages
531
Visit site
I am currently running a livery yard and I am thinking about putting the prices up and I would like to hear your opinions.

Most of the liveries on the yard are part livery at £220 which includes.
-mucking out Monday-Friday
- turn outs/bring ins Monday- Friday
- 5 days poo picking
-hay and bedding included.

I'm just not making enough profit to live on and also paying for a part time groom. Would you say it sounds fair and justify-able to put up the prices by ten pounds?

Any comment appreciated!
 
Yes £55 for all that is incredibly cheap a week you are really underselling yourself. I am East Yorkshire and imagine all that would usually be about £70-£75 a week.
 
Whereabouts are you?

My horse is in East Sussex/ Kent borders at livery. I pay £435.00 per calendar month for daily hay & straw, grooming & feet picking out, turn in & out, rug changes. I pay for my hard feed. The yard groom will attend farrier or vet but I prefer to do it. This price is about average for this area.

HTH :)
 
Thankyou guys- I thought I was, how would you go about putting the prices up, letter etc? And how much would you put it up by to begin with?
 
That would come to £420 a month where I am stabled, inc hard feed, hay and straw and 5 day livery.

Would give liveries at least a month's notice to find somewhere else if they need to.
 
Sounds very cheap to me. I'd decide how much you want to put it up (I'd say 10% or so would be fair) and write them a nice, business like letter. Try to avoid being too apologetic. It's a business after all, and your clients are getting a very good deal. How many liveries do you have? Alternatively, if you have a regular yard meeting, you could make an announcement face to face. If that's difficult, write a letter, read it to them at the meeting and then leave it on the yard noticeboard for reference.

If you write to everyone separately, please address it to Dear Sue/James/Mary or whatever. The yard I've left recently, did this and addressed the letter to Dear Livery - I'd been there over 8 years and it felt very impersonal and uncaring.
 
5 day part livery minus hard feed in the south would be £70-110 a week depending on location and facilities.

You are massively under charging, presumably you are essentially working for free!!

Id write a letter with your next invoice giving your clients a months notice of increased charges. Maybe £10 a week with immediate effect and potentially a further rise in 6-12 months time?
 
Prices are very area dependent so have a look at other yards and see what they are charging. I would imagine where you are that you would probably be able to put your prices up by at least £10 a week and still be very reasonable.

Give your liveries plenty of notice. A letter to each one outlining the new charges that is put in a polite but matter of fact way would be fine. You don't need to justify it. I would want to give an absolute minimum of one months notice but much more reasonable to give 3 months.
 
moodymare123 said:
By how much? £10 to begin with? Which makes it £57.50 a week?
Click to expand...

That is going to still be cheap and your "profit" will be £2.50 per week, I would increase by £20 per month at least, you are still competitive and hardly making anything out of the livery, if you do it from the end of Sept it will seem more fair as that is when your costs go up so the liveries will or should understand. I have just told one of mine that part livery will go up from the start of the winter regime.
 
Have you done the sums of how much your outlay is, then how many liveries you have? That would give you a better idea of how much you'd need to charge.
Re telling your liveries, I'd find a date about 6 weeks ahead and tell them your new rates will apply from then - it gives them time to get used to the new charges and gives you time to tell them all and remind them.
 
Sounds cheap to me, I'm in Surrey.
You are in a business at the end of the day im sure people will understand, they can always leave.
 
I was on one yard where 55 a week got you hay, turn out, bring in, rug changes, and skip out, 5days/wk. No full muck out and no bedding included, fields not poo picked.

I think you need to decide whether to reduce the service you offer to something like the above, lose the groom and get a part time job elsewhere yourself to raise your income. Or whether to charge properly for the service you're providing.

In your shoes I'd give a month notice by letter that prices are rising and/or services changing, straight to whatever you need them to be. Those who are going to be annoyed and leave will do so whether you make changes all at once or in stages. So you may as well have the money coming in sooner rather than later. If you have a good yard you'll easily find replacement liveries even if you're one of the most expensive in the area. It's no different to if the yard had been sold and new owners/prices/rules came into effect overnight.
 
You need to sit and work out your monthly costs of running the yard, rent (if there is any) feed, hay/shavings/straw etc... lighting costs, water, tools (after all forks, rakes, wheelbarrows do not come free) grooms wages.... work out how much you take a month from the liveries, are you in profit, breaking even or at a loss? if its the latter two, then yes you need to increase your prices, BUT also take into account you need to take a wage, the people who's horses you are looking after will be getting a weekly wage, and you need to also, you have bills to pay just like they do.. you need to decide how much you want to earn, £2 an hour or £10 an hour (as an example) and charge them accordingly. I wouldn't increase it bit by bit, just work out how much you need to earn and put it up, if you do it bit by bit people might complain its forever going up, plus if any leave due to the costs, any new liveries that come will know the prices from the off.

Remember you are running a livery yard for a living, and not as a favour or as a charity.

I would send them all a personal letter and others have said, give them 6 weeks notice
 
I'm in the South and I'm paying £45 per week for DIY grass livery plus a stable. Nothing else included, although we do have very good facilities, water and electricity. Your charges sound incredibly cheap - a couple of bales of hay would wipe out the extra £10 difference.
 
I pay £50 a week and horse gets fed, turned out/brought in, and held for vet/farrier if necessary, hay and straw included. And I feel like that is cheap! I would be paying about £80 a week for what you offer on my current yard.
 
As Bonkers2 says - put the word out there that you can't really afford to keep going at current prices and that prices will be going up - that'll give them time to think about it and do the initial grumbling (as we all do when faced with a price increase to be fair), then give them an individual letter. Perhaps you ought to just make sure what other yards in the area are charging and match those prices.

Some will probably moan and threaten to leave but you could expalin in your letter that the prices need to go up or the yard might need to close - put bluntly like that it should help them understand your situation
 
Last edited:
I pay £190 percent for stable/field and a bring in/turn out 7 days a week. You are very cheap ! I used to pay £50 per week for turnout/bring in/ muck out /straw 7 days a week. Had to proved own feed/hay.

What your offering would be £80 a week
 
Definitely think that is quite cheap! I am in West Yorkshire and pay £180 per month for DIY including hay and straw. This price has gone up recently and we received an email from the YO informing of the increased price and the reason why. We receive our bills through email so it was sent along with the livery bill informing the cost would go up next month.
If people don't have email i believe that it is written in letter format for them.

I would double check what yards in your area are charging for a similar service and go from there. Everyone on my yard excepted the increase without much of a fuss (no one has left because of it!). It was a bit of a nuisance at first but now everyone just pays the rate and get on with it.

I think you need to get a balance between; being too blunt and people getting annoyed, but not being forceful enough and people think they can take advance by not paying the upped price (or thinking they can complain to get a lower price). Explain your concerns and reasons and i'm sure people will pay the higher rate.
 
If liveries pay monthly then I would put a letter in each invoice to say from the next billing date there will be a 10% increase in charges and due to currently running at a loss there will be another 10% increase in three months.
 
Yes, you are definitely underselling yourself. What you're offering, on my yard in Central belt, would be approx. £85/week. Put the price right up to what you need to earn a decent living, and explain in letter that whilst price of hay/groom wages/bedding/living etc has gone up in recent years, your prices have not and you are now operating at a loss.
 
There's no point putting up your prices by £10 a month then finding in 3 months that you're still not breaking even. So £10 a week would be easier and you can then review in a year or even two if you feel you're able to make enough profit on that.
 
Far too cheap. I'd put it up by £10 per week initially, and tell each of them verbally as you give them a letter, and at the same time give warning that in six months it will need to go up to £70 per week. I don't think it should cost less than that wherever you are!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top