Help and advice from yard owners?

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sallyg84

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Hi,
I am currently in the early stages of trying to set up my own livery/training business with my partner and am looking for people who have done something similar who can share their experiences, eg: finding yards, sourcing clients, rates to charge, average bills from running a yard etc etc, also from people who would be interested in having their horse with someone, ie what you would look for, whats most important, facilities you couldn't be without etc etc

Thank you very much all!
 
Don't do it, or if you do make sure you also have a full time job as well. By the time you add in insurance - 3 years ago for our livery yard this was £2k per year plus a £1k excess and business rates of £5k it means you have to do an awful lot to make any money at all.
 
I've had my own livery yard for 33 years and unless you are very famous and people will flock to be taught/send their horses to you, you won't make very much money.
Mine did ok when it had a riding school working alongside it, but I wouldn't dream of doing that now with costs and litigation.
The easiest money now is to have literally dozens of DIY liveries and charge them for lessons, extras tec, and produce horses to sell as well.
Full livery is no longer viable because of the high costs of feed/rates/wages etc, even if you do the work yourself you need a wage!
We breed a few, produce and sell, sell a few as foals and have retired liveries plus the odd DIY.. Sometimes we have horses in to start or re-school too.
This is financed by an income from two other businesses, without them we couldn't even pay a mortgage...
I'm not putting you, off far from it, I did it and would encourage anyone to have a go, but it's a long tough road (I only took odd days off to go to a show for seven and a half years to start with and had three jobs to give me enough income to keep going..
Just be aware there is little money to be made unless you are a "Big" name, and one of you will likely have to keep working in a normal full time job..
pm me any questions tho, I'd be happy to help..
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Don't dream of making lots of money!
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I have my own yard, it finances my competing and enables me to breed aswell....maybe one day we'll make some money from that!

We have full liveries only in, as DIY is simply not worth it, my husband and I both also work, financially we have to, so we are always incredibly busy and free time is a rarity. I love it, to have big enough success competing so I could eventually make money from this is my dream, but how many people ever get there?
 
From your post you are in the very early stages of your proposed venture.

A friend of mine had a livery yard, it was run down & I restored it for her at material cost, labour cost nothing. When completed she had all stables full. mainly diy with a few extras & at the end of about 12 months she decided to give it up. She had wasted away to nothing, she worked dickensian hours & made no money at all. The rent of the yard was killing her as well.

If you own the yard yourself or are only paying a peppercorn rent then you may actually make a living. But, if you are renting, by the time rent, insurances, electric, water, Rates etc have been paid there is very little if anything over.

I know many on this forum would love to have their own livery yard.....but in reality many fail in the first 1-2 years.
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Go for your dream........but run it by an accountant first
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Before running any business where you are providing a service as such, you HAVE to know what your base costs are to supplying that service. These are the business costs and must form that basis of any costs and charges that you set.

You have to put a plan together. Firstly estimate (over estimate) what it will cost you to provide the service by way of all the overheads and do not forget a reasonable wage (!) for a whole year. Next you have to work out what the horses will cost to feed as this will be your biggest cost for them. So you are then setting all the individual costs. In the real world each horse if different so really each charge should be different. Add their costs to the base cost and you have you workable livery charge. If you can't make it work on this cost then the business will fail.

You must get the maths right first, it might frighten you but you have to be realistic. Working with horses is great but you have to have a business head too!
 
yeah busted (as per the PM) I was quoting what i'd got back from a very nice business person (who was recco'd to me on here) great advice though me mateys. Sounded all knowing for a minute didn't i. This was just some of the stuff I was emailed simple stuff but too true. Just passing it on, no stress. My bussi is gonna be spot on next year. Good luck by the way!
 
I agree with the others...I think the only way you can make money is to offer good quality teaching (£20-25 per hour) or a riding school (but this needs the outlay for suitable ponies) alongside the livery and stud businesses. Raise a few horses and sell them. Get some competition/hunter liveries and hook up with a good instructor that gets people winning their classes, then everyone will want to come to you...at least while people are winning.
If you just want to have a yard and take in a few DIY'ers dont expect to make any money to support any kind of lifestyle outside your own horsey pursuits...loads oh hassle for no money really...but a great lifestyle if you can survive.
 
whatever you offer make sure you get the basics right and cover your costs. Liveries are your cashflow because they are guaranteed income to a certain extent. Lessons won't be, they will be the icing on the cake and your means of growing your business so if you get those charges right, then the lessons will make you rich!!! lol Good luck mate.
 
Opened up my own yard this year, I'm not getting rich out of it but I am getting by. My insurance is about £1k per year and each horse costs me about £40 per week to keep so I have to charge at least £75pw to make any kind of profit. The key is good PR, treat your clients and their horses well and they will keep coming back (and hopefully bring their friends). Don't invest too much cash too quickly or you will struggle to see a return.
 
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