Setting up a yard - business plan?

[ella_showjumper]

Hi, I have another account on HHO but I am using this anonymous one I made years ago to ask this question as you never know who is reading!

I am planning on setting up my own livery yard hopefully over the next year and am currently trying to work out costs to work out how much I will need to charge. I will be offering Part and Full Livery (including bedding, haylage and hard feed) and I will obviously need to charge for labour as well. I have found a potential yard which have said I can rent approximately six stables off them at £20 per week per stable. I'm just trying to work out what I need to charge to be able to afford everything - any struggling!

Would be lovely to hear from other yard managers to compare prices, etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[measles]

I'd suggest that you don't do it! Sorry, but with rising costs for feed, bedding and utilities you'll struggle to make anything. I have a yard and if you are legitimate and paying everything that you should you'll approximately break even. Good luck and prove me wrong!

 

[Whoopit]

I have no idea but i'd recommend getting a good accountant who knows loopholes and how to make money disappear!

 

[rowy]

I think renting a yard at £20 a stable may make it difficult to make any sort of profit. Especially as hay etc is so expensive!
It depends if you will include turnout, riding etc.
Without turnout, each horse will go through about 3 bales of bedding a week, possibly more. Bulk buying bedding is cheaper but will still cost roughly £6 a bale.
i'm not sure on current prices of hay since I had my own cut but 1 horse goes through about 3 bales a week and that is with turnout.
Hard feed is hard to cost because it depends what feed you are going to use etc.

To be able to charge a large amount a good reputation and being well known in your area is pretty vital.

 

[ella_showjumper]

That's disappointing to hear. It will only be a small yard with five liveries and my own horse. I already have 2-3 potential clients. They are willing to help out things such as evening checks but not sure how this would work in the long run - and if they did this would they be entitled to a discount on their livery?

 

[Baggybreeches]

I'd suggest that you don't do it! Sorry, but with rising costs for feed, bedding and utilities you'll struggle to make anything. I have a yard and if you are legitimate and paying everything that you should you'll approximately break even. Good luck and prove me wrong!

Sorry to agree with this, but unless you are based with family you have very little chance of making a living out of 6 stables.
I keep my horses at home and take in the odd livery for rehab or whatever once in a while and I only just about break even on the costs of keeping the additional horse/pony (which isn't such a huge issue as it's short term favours for friends!). Setting up any kind of business in the current climate requires a huge amount of capital investment e.g. my husband and I own a garden centre we turn over approx £60k per annum and we are 8 weeks away from year 2 completion and he has yet to take a wage as everything is being swallowed up by costs (this has been the worst year in this business for 30 years) fortunately I have a relatively well paid job which pays most of our bills.
If I was you I would look towards an eventing/hunting yard looking for a freelancer and see what contacts you can make.
I'm not saying you can't do it, but it really often isn't worth the hassle.
Good Luck whatever you decide

 

[carthorse]

Not much to be made. Haylage/hay £20 hard feed £15 bedding £15 thats £50. Plus insurance and muck heap removal (businesses have strict muckheap rules) So how much are people willing to pay. You will have to charge well over £100 and will then only be getting £5 a day each horse.

 

[ella_showjumper]

Clients are wiling to pay about £100 per week for good quality service. I have worked out that to cover costs of feed, bedding and haylage, plus labour costs that part livery with seven day muck out is going to need to be about £400 a month.

 

[smellsofhorse]

I think you will struggle with the basic stable rent being what it is.
£20 a week is very near the average diy rent so trying to make a profit on that will be difficult.

you would have more chance if you had your own yard and a lot more stables but then labour costs would need to be factored in.

 

[be positive]

I agree with the others, 6 horses done properly will be pretty much full time, even without much exercising, if you are offering full livery you need to be there to take care of the horses it is not feasible to do at either end of the day.
Rough costs per week, £120 rent, £120 hay, £60 - £120 bedding depending on what you use and if the stables have mats or not. Feed upwards of £10 per horse, then you need to cost other overheads, insurance, water, electric, running a vehicle to get you there.
You will be lucky to keep your own horse free and break even unless you can offer a premium service that people will pay over the top for, unlikely if you are not on site 24/7 that is many peoples priority, really top notch facilities and an indoor school would make a difference to what you can charge, part livery is around £100 per week, full £120- 140 but will still not pay you much for your time.

 

[WelshD]

If I was paying good money I'd want someone living on site I think not a rota of liveries doing late evening checks

I think you'd struggle if it was nit your own land but if you have a second income to fall back on it may be worth looking for a place to rent that has a yard so you could pay yard and house rent in one

 

[Honey08]

A girl around here set up a full livery yard at someone else's yard and did fine. She didn't live on site either. She had about 25 boxes though, and small indoor and outdoor schools. She paid about £40/stable when you broke it down. Everyone scoffed, but she kept it going for a year until the owner put the rent up a lot more to get her out and so his girlfriend could take over!

I don't think she paid business rates though, which would have made a huge difference.

Insurance and rates are your main factors. Also, if you are offering 7 day livery, which you must for a good yard, how will you get a day off..?

 

[Wagtail]

I'm afraid I would never leave my horse somewhere that there was no one living on site. I have five liveries and my own two horses, and do only part and full livery. I only just make enough to pay for my own two and run the car and trailer. Nothing more. If I had to pay £20 per stable on top, I would not even break even. Sorry.

 

[Archina]

You need to think about the possibility of not being full aswell. What happens if your short a cpl liveries, would you be able to afford the stables sitting empty?

Even if you where full I think you would struggle to break even and its a lot of hassle for no return.

 

[Wagtail]

Don't forget business rates. You have to pay them on all stables that would be used for liveries, even if you are not full.

 

[ella_showjumper]

There would be someone living onsite as it would be at a farm and the owner would be living there. How do I find out about business rates?

 

[measles]

Contact your local council about rates. You'll also need to pay an accountant to produce and file your accounts once a year, and have serviced fire extinguishers, and public liability insurance and maintenance to the yard (this depending what your £20 sub let per stable covers) etc etc. it's very important to cost it all out first and why not investigate business start up support in your area as they should be able to help?

 

[night_mare]

With renting at £20 a stable I'd say forget part livery and just look at full livery - as the labour is the "profitable" part where you can charge more than it costs you by doing the labour yourself, employing staff on minimum wage or getting NVQ students.

Work out rent of stable, hay, bedding per week per horse - then work out other costs relating to business/premises (eg rates, electric, insurance, water rates, etc) and divide this by 6 so you have a cost per stable - then add on labour costs for turning out/bringing in, feeding, mucking out (all the services that would be included) per horse - then add on another hour or 2 labour charge per horse per week for general yard tidying/maintenance as you need to cover costs of labour for sweeping yard, repairing fences, breaking ice on water troughs in winter, poo picking/harrowing fields, etc. Then add on a profit - then you know how much you would have to charge to make a profit - and then see how that compares with other yards in the area.

I would say keep all duties to yourself and your staff. Don't have liveries doing yard duties or evening check in return for discounts - if they don't turn up or do something wrong, they aren't employed by you and won't be covered by any insurance you may have if something went wrong and the owner tried to sue you.