How much should I charge for assisted DIY?

R2R

R2R

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I have a spare box at the yard, and talking to the girl that works for me, we have decided to try to fill it with an assisted DIY space, which will earn her a bit more money, and help me with an extra livery who doesn’t need quite so much storage space.

We have a yard located 2 mins from the M25, and 30 mins drive from central London. It is very ‘rural’ - timber stables etc, however it is tidy and we have a good bunch of people.

There is a floodlit woodchip school, which isn’t perfect but serves a purpose, grass arena in summer, showjumping paddock in summer months, post and rail/post and electric field, grass all year round, and unlimited hacking.

The minimum we could charge for assisted DIY, where we do everything apart from mucking out, and all feed/hay/bedding is included, is £80. Do you think this is unreasonable?

Thanks!
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So that works out at £20 per week if based on a 4 week month?
I think that is too cheap for your area - would suggest £20 - £25 to cover the 'diy' aspect and then charge additional for feed/hay/bedding.
Hope that helps!
 
Yep sorry I mean £80 a week, which would include rent, labour, hay, feed, straw and bedding?!

If I could find assisted DIY for £20 a week I would sell the yard and move myself!!!
 
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Yep sorry I mean £80 a week, which would include rent, labour, hay, feed, straw and bedding?!

If I could find assisted DIY for £20 a week I would sell the yard and move myself!!!

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I think it's too dear, but then I only charge £15pw basic DIY livery. There's no mucking out in that price and ad-lib straw/hay is usually a maximum of £16 combined. That puts the turning out/bringing in quite high and if the client has to come for mucking out, surely they'll only be wanting either a turn out or a bring in each day as they'll be there to see to the horse at some point with mucking out.

You'd be better off offering to muck out during the week, completely DIY at weekends.
 
We charge £30 a week for DIY which covers me turning out every morning 7 days a week and does not itclude bedding or Haylage.

Part livery we charge £70 a week which includes bedding and haylage, feed, mucking out 5 days a week and turning out and bringing in 5 days and turning out the other 2 so i would say your assisted DIY really falls between the two.


I also charge £8.50 per week for haylage for my DIYS and bedding is wood pellets so about £4.00 a bag up to them how much they use. SO if you take the DIY price of £30 a week add in the £8.50 and £8 for 2 bags of bedding it is £46 so I would say about £50 tops is what you can charge
 
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Yep sorry I mean £80 a week, which would include rent, labour, hay, feed, straw and bedding?!

If I could find assisted DIY for £20 a week I would sell the yard and move myself!!!

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Wow, expensive.

Do a basic £25 DIY livery. And then add on the extra's.

So for instance.

£8 per week for hay
Bedding (however much you decide to charge)

Then:

£2.50 turn in / out
£7.00 muck out.

Feeding - well, personally I wouldn't charge.
 
We are in Derbyshire and the above is £60 per week so I don't think its way off the mark. There is no feed included in the £60 either!
 
That explains it - sorry I just assumed monthly! In that case £80 per week is too much.
You would be better just offering diy, charging separately for hay etc, and drawing up a price list for assisted duties.
So say they pay £20 for the basic rent, £15 for hay and bedding and £20 for mucking out during the week, you would still earn £55 per week which is a far more acceptable figure. I would also suggest livery provides own hard feed to save any complications and additional expense to yourself.
 
When you say £80 inc everyting but mucking out, I think that is an odd mixture. I would (personally) suggest that you keep it assisted DIY, so you offer ad lib, hay and straw owner does all chores unless asked for which is paid either as and when or you come to some arrangement, i.e x amount to turn said horse out every morning... (she visits in the evening) etc

£80 a week london or not is too much, considering the facilities I think.
I would drop down the £45/55 a week with ad lib hay/straw and then charge anything else done on top.
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I wouldn't think this was way off the mark IF it included mucking out during the week.

OP says they're charging for the labour, but there's not that much labour to add on for turning out one extra horse in the morning or chucking over a ready made feed.

Surely the client will fill haynets and cart bedding into the stable when they come to muck out anyway.

Just seems dear to me. I would've thought no more than £45 - £50 absolute maximum, to cover the inclusive food/bedding.
 
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I also charge £8.50 per week for haylage for my DIYS and bedding is wood pellets so about £4.00 a bag up to them how much they use. SO if you take the DIY price of £30 a week add in the £8.50 and £8 for 2 bags of bedding it is £46 so I would say about £50 tops is what you can charge

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My basic rent, for DIY livery is dirt cheap at £25 a week. Before I had the yard the minimum you can get DIY for in surrey is £30.

If I charged £50 I might cover my costs, just about, but what about paying someone to do it?!
 
Paying someone to do what? Turn out in a morning and pop a feed over the door?

If you're not factoring in the mucking out, then I can't see what real labour there is. The client will arrive to muck out daily, so surely they will physically put new bedding in and fill haynets/haybars, water, etc?
 
It seems an odd assisted DIY to me - but I'm open to being wrong.

To me assisted DIY would include some mucking out, stable chores etc but would exclude bedding, feed etc.

How would you deal with a horse that needed haylage rather than hay? Or an expensive type of feed, supplements etc? That could cut your margin down signficantly. If you want to limit who you rent to based on their feed, bedding etc needs you might cut your potential client base so far that it becomes difficult to rent out.

Don't forget to include costs for insurance for yourselves as a buiness, third party liability and employers insurance if you don't already have it.
 
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Paying someone to do what? Turn out in a morning and pop a feed over the door?

If you're not factoring in the mucking out, then I can't see what real labour there is. The client will arrive to muck out daily, so surely they will physically put new bedding in and fill haynets/haybars, water, etc?

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Be there twice a day, 7 days a week, to bring in, turn out, change rugs, check the horse, make feeds, order hay, feed, straw etc, hay when they are in, water and skip out when they are in, etc?! All livery woudl have to do is come down, ride, and muck out.

Maybe we do things differently in Surrey!
 
I would say that the service that you are offering falls halfway between assisted DIY and part livery tbh.

At my yard, assisted DIY is £45 per week. That is for stable, grazing and use of all facilities, but one end of the day done for you, e.g. morning – feed, change rugs and turn out, or evening – bring in, clean legs, change rugs and feed. Does not include any feed, bedding or hay. Part livery is £115 per week includes stable, grazing, use of all facilities plus feeding, turning-out, bringing in, changing of rugs picking out feet and hosing/brushing legs where required, mucking out stable, refreshing hay and water, skipping out and bedding down for the night. Plus bedding, hay and feed.

Based on this, the service you are offering is a combination of both . At £35 less than the part livery price, and not including mucking out, that equeates to my place being around £5 per day mucking out. This is very cheap for mucking out morning, and skipping out in the evening, so would say that your price should be slightly less. I am in Hampshire.

Maybe your price should be more around the £60-70 per week mark, not including mucking out. I know that I wouldn't pay £80 per week, to still have to come down every day to muck out, regardless of whether I was riding.
 
Ok, so I should charge £70 for mucking out etc Mon - Fri, hay/straw, and leave hard feed out of it? That is much more do-able!
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Ok, so I should charge £70 for mucking out etc Mon - Fri, hay/straw, and leave hard feed out of it? That is much more do-able!
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I think this is a good price
 
A yard my friend was on was £30 p/w basic DIY, £2 to throw (ready made ) feeds in, change rug and turnout, £2 to bring in and change rug, check water and put up (ready made) haynet, £6 to muck out per day so assuming all of those services were taken Mon- Fri it would cost £80 not including any bedding/ hay(lage) Facilities weren't that good either!! (and the woman wasn't the best at mucking out!)

My friend left.....
 
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Ok, so I should charge £70 for mucking out etc Mon - Fri, hay/straw, and leave hard feed out of it? That is much more do-able!
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I think this is a good price

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I charged £55 for exactly that last year, but with no menage & 'up north'. It's a good option for someone who works during the week & can't spend much time on the yard until the weekend. Also, it's a good idea to leave the feeding up to them, as owners have their own ideas about what to feed & how much & it avoids potential 'niggles'. For instance, I would probably have fed our good doer 'paying guest' differently than his owner did.
 
Where I keep my horse is probably similar in terms of area and pricing in that it's within the London commuter belt. Facilities similar - our school possibly slightly better as drains well in winter than woodchip but no jumping paddock.

We pay 33.50 for box rent, straw and hay or haylage. All horses get fed breakfast free of charge.
If you added a turnout and catch everyday at £2 it would come to £63 per week (though realistically people do either one or the other depending on when they muck out.

I have 5 day livery for £82 a week which is pretty good. I get my own hard feed but if I used the yard feed it would be £5 per week extra.

There are yards that charge more (some alot more!) but they have better facilities such as horse walkers, cross country courses and bigger better lit or indoor schools.
 
For me Assisted DIY would mean that i did everything for my horse i.e provided food, hay and bedding etc but some days may want help with feeding, turnout, bringing in and or mucking out. each would be charged individually...

going rate seems to be about £2-£3 for turnout / bring in inc rug change and £5 or so for Mucking out, hay, water and mixing feeds..
 
There is a riding school near me and they charge between £70-£90 a week(diff must be stable ) and this is for full livery so all you have to do is exercise your horse and you have the use of indoor school two outdoor arenas and a jumping arena and they let you join in any lesson for free also handle for vet and farrier for you.can I ask do you have any problems with your woodchip arena?
 
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I have only ever seen DIY including mucking out, at least during the week.

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I have never seen DIY include mucking out?! Tell me where andI will move!!!
 
I would say my livery works out about £80 per week when feed, hay, bedding is included, and that is with mucking out 7 days a week.

Basic livery is £50 per week, which includes feed/to/rugs/muck out am and bring in pm, so still have to go down every day. Then add on 4 odd bales of hay @ £3.30, 1 or 2 bedding @ £7.50 and hard feed at about £15 p/w in winter, and its about £80.

Would the livery be able to have horse out 24/7 in summer? Possibly factor in summer price reduction in that cast?
 
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