how do i start up my own business?

[almorton]

sammie, if you want the real hard facts, here they are. not biased on whether i think you can or cant run a yard, this is what it costs me!
i have a 20 box yard.
this are the general costs we have to cover before i make a 'profit', (ie take a very basic wage!! i dont even pay myself minimum wage!)
we do part livery, charge £37 a week for a box and haylage.

yard loan - 1700 month (if you can persuade the bank to lend it you!)
muckheap removal - £175 every 6weeks at least
haylage - approx 35 bales every month at nearly £30 a bale =£1000 month
insurance - £2400 year (£200 month)
yard maintenance- depends what get broken but allow minimum of £2000 for arena topups, fencing getting smashed, hosepipes getting stood on,burst pipes etc!
additional staff - 15hours a week at above minimum wage (i have to work 3days a week to pay the mortgage on the house at a local college, so need to pay staff in my absence! plus i have the girls in at the weekend who im very lucky to have, so i can get to some shows myself)
water / gas / electric - £150 month (if you are careful!!)
if someone leaves a tap on overnight and you are metered, who knows!
anything ele ive forgotten, if you have your own horses dont forget to add feed and bedding.

we are lucky to have plenty of good facilities, and we are always full. my parents are fantastic and help out all the time.
still, my last day off was the 1st week in september 2008. since then i have worked 7days a week, i generally leave the house before 8 and get back after 8.
i buy and sell to try and top my wages up. however, times are HARD. no one has any money to spend and yards are going bust left right and centre.

the best advice i can give is if you are not 100% committed, dont even think about it. the hours are long, the pay is bad and the weather generally minging, but if you are like me and thrive on horse poo, mucking out, caffeine and fresh air, youll love it. (well at least 90% of the time!)

if you do go ahead, i would at least get some plans drawn up, remember everythin costs more than you originally think, and i would seriously wait until after the recession.
And get a seriously good alarm clock, and the ability to keep everyone happy despite wanting to kill said people sometimes.

 

[Tia]

To be honest, unless you own the property outright, there is little chance you will be successful in it, regardless of how good your reputation or experience.

My livery business is successful and I have a decent amount of liveries here however I still have to subsidise my livery business by producing and selling top grade hay, producing horses for the selling market and breeding (what seem to be) sought after horses.

Reputation is everything in the horse world. Knowledge and experience is everything in the livery world. Yes there are plenty of places and people who do not have these, but I'll wager they do not make a profit large enough to survive solely on.

My farm is completely self-sufficient and pays for my entire family's entire lifestyle, however I know exactly what I am doing. I have an excellent equine grounding behind me, very good veterinary skills under my belt and a keen eye for market trends. I also own my farm outright so my monthly outgoings are minimal.

People are not saying what they are saying to be mean to you - they are saying them because they are realistic and don't want to see "one of us" losing their shirt, so to speak.

Just think about this; I have 50 horses under my care. I have to have money sitting in the bank to make sure I have enough to keep these horses ticking over for months if something hits us out of the blue. You need thousands of pounds as a safety net. You NEED to have a darned good amount of experience otherwise you are opening yourself to serious legal ramifications should anything go wrong.

When I started my first livery business in England I was already known so had no trouble finding clients, however even I started out small. I started with just a few stables which were filled immediately. After a few months I decided to enlarge the business, but gradually and not in huge increments. I always kept my head well above water however I also had a husband with significant amounts of money to fall back on if anything went wrong. As it was nothing did go wrong and over the years I continued to gradually increase the size of my yard. I happened to be in a highly desirable area which enabled me to always have a waiting list. I must mention this as it is very relevant; at NO time during the 15 years that I owned that yard did I ever take any income from it. I constantly pumped the money back into the yard as I knew that one day we would want to sell up and realise the huge investment we had made over the years. The selling of this yard was where we made enough money for us to split the proceeds and it enabled me to buy this farm I own now out of my share of the money. My husband put his share elsewhere and due to an unfortunate incident ended up losing pretty much all of it. He still owns his UK company though so although we don't have a huge amount of savings to fall back on, we are still in a position that even if we closed this farm down, we could still survive without its income. This farm is my "baby" though and there's no way at this point in time that I would give this level of independence up.

My overall profits run at over 65%, however this is as an overall profit for all of the sub-businesses I run from this farm. Livery is at the lower end of the profit margin. Horse sales are at the very top of this profit margin.

My advice is this; if you have over 10,000 sitting in the bank; if you have excellent equine knowledge under your belt; if you are highly familiar with liability Laws; if you have a clear business plan spanning at least 5 years; if you have laid down plans covering all eventualities ... then go for it! If you don't, forget it.

 

[Llwyncwn]

You have been given excellent advice on this thread and Palamino has given you the financial outlay.

In my experience Sammie, liveries come and liveries go and you cannot base your income on this business alone. My OH's income pays our mortgage and all the bills and my business just about scrapes by.

I truely believe that the highest percentage of skills needed is PR, this will keep your liveries loyal and hopefully they will remain with you for years. Diy liveries can and often do cause the most amount of stress, especially people with little common sense, i.e. tying their horse to a stable door, horse spooks and rips said door off, inviting friends, family and a herd of children without prior notice which is a huge Public Liability risk. I often feel the intense urge to throttle some people, but have to smile sweetly and try to educate them. Learning to bite your tongue is a hard one, whatever you say and do, even in your private life will be talked about within a 20 mile radius. The horsey world is very small and your reputation is paramount.

At 3am this morning I was wakened by a noise from one of the stables and had to investigate incase there was a colic or cast horse, which is no fun in the pitch blackness, however I did have my 3 GSDs and a torch

Like a mother who can hear her child turnover in its cot, I sleep with my window open and am always accutely aware of my charges outside.

Your liveries need to know that you will be their rock in times of distress, i.e. hold their horse when pts and always be there to dry their tears, patch them up when they fall off, treat horse injuries and know the difference between a swollen fetlock and tendon damage/infection of tendon sheath.

You will have to wear many hats: janitor, road sweeper, cleaner, authoritarian, odd job person, fencer, poo picker, agricultural expert, vet, first aider, psychologist, ambassador, et-al.

When you have just got wet through to the knickers for the third time that day, exercised horses, mucked out and filled nets/water/made feeds and you can actually knock off for the day, its then time to make those all important calls, ordering feed, haylage/hay, bedding, answering phone messages, booking farrier, checking diary and writing invoices. THEN you can have your bath, cook food, sort animals and small children/OH and finally yourself. Also remember that when you are exhausted, want to cry or throw yourself off the nearest bridge, you still need to be the Godess that attracted your OH in the first place

I admire your energy and enthusiasm and would strongly recommend that you print off this thread, read and re-read it until all this makes sense.

Best of luck x