Thinking of starting own horsie business.....help please!!

[SarahK]

Hi everyone,

Would be really grateful for any help/ideas/advice on this...

Myself and my sister are thinking of starting up a business between us, on a very small scale to begin with and hopefully in time build up enough of a client base to have our own premises for a horse rehabilitation centre and livery yard.

My sister works for Business Link and has been chatting to a rather good business advisor who suggested we start with the following....

Using our experience and our many contacts in the industry to assist inexperienced people in buying and looking after their first horse or pony. For example...

- what sort of horse/pony to look for that would be suitable
- help them out on viewings with what to look out for and what questions to ask etc.
- help with finding a good vet, farrier, dentist, yard, insurance company, feed store, tack and rugs
- teaching and helping them to look after the horse/pony
- being a contact for any further advice they may need
- also assisting people in caring for their sick horses if they are unsure of what to do e.g lameness, laminitis, poulticing, wound treatment...

This will be aimed at inexperienced people who want to have a horse but do not know where to start and need someone to help them with everything. We are not claiming to be experts and we will not be telling people what to do - just simply giving advice on all aspects of horses rather than specialising in one thing.
I also think this will also be useful for non-horsie parents buying ponies for their children - how many times have we all seen rich parents spend thousands on an unsuitable first pony that child cant cope with?

Myself and my sister have been around horses for most our lives. We've taken in many sick waifs and strays that were unwanted, brought them back to full health and gave them back their quality of life. We have dealt with problem horses and have always ended up with an angel at the end of it all. This has been alot of hard work but we love it and we have not failed yet.

Do you think this could work as a business? Do you know of anyone that provides a similar service? Any help would be appreciated.

Well done if you got this far!! Wasn't intending it to be quite so long

 

[misterjinglejay]

Sounds good, just make sure you have a brilliant lawyer and insurance to the hilt!

 

[scrat]

Sounds good in theory but I can't help thinking that it would be an awful risk. You could end up being blamed for so many things if it all went wrong for one of your clients. Look at how much conflicting advice is given on this forum alone (albeit intentionally helpful I know) it would be an absolute minefield. If you are planning to teach you would surely need recognised qualifications?I take it the business advisor is not from a equine background so he may not realise how difficult the horse world can be.

 

[pottamus]

You would need 3rd party liability insurance and would need to be very careful about the type of advice you were giving...sadly people sue others for breathing nowadays! Also, you need to think about how you would charge for you advice and time. If by the hour it would be difficult to calculate as a phone call might be minutes or hours and visits the same. If you charged a lump sum you would have to be careful that you did not go running around and not earn your profit.
You also need to look at (if you have not already) your plan of action, how you would market yourself, charges, costs involved in travelling to and fro,the type of people you want to target and how you would find them, what you need to earn to break even and the profit from there on in etc etc.
By the way, I am not being negative, but there is a lot more to it than the initial idea...I realised this from experience! The Business Advisor will point you at very good courses that Business Link run foc for all the areas of setting up a business...I advise you take advantage of them because they do help and point you in the right direction.
I would do some hefty market research before moving further on and do some intensive surveys of what people would want and be prepared to pay for...this will tell you whether there is a market and business potential at all. I would also be getting professional advice on the legal side so you do not get yourself sued. Good luck...it is hard graft but worth it in the long run.
Survey Monkey is great for online surveys and you can point people towards a web link and getting out to riding schools with some simple questions to ask parents of children having lessons.

 

[oln]

sounds like you have a great idea, just make sure you have the relevant disclaimers ,insurance,etc

 

[SarahK]

We have thought about possible come back from advice given and we would have the relevant disclaimers and insurance to cover ourselves.

Any ideas on how best to charge for the service? we thought about an hourly charge but i guess that could get complicated but then again we couldn't charge a lump sum as everyone has different needs...

Its all so confusing but i really think we can make it work - thank you for the replies so far, very helpful

Please keep your thoughts coming

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I think that many people, who are willing to pay for a service, expect the person they employ to have some professional qualifications. Without that how are they to know that the advice they will be paying for is correct. Do you have any recognised qualifications in any Equestrianism?

Some services that you are offering, ie how to look after a sick or ill horse would be better coming from a vet.

Regarding teaching how to look after a pony/horse & advising regarding the type of horse to buy. If they don't know how to look after the animal it would be better to advise them to go to a riding school or take courses in this prior to buying any horse.

I can understand you wanting to work with horses but I don't think you have a business idea that will stand up I'm afraid, I can't see it working out...sorry.

 

[Bossanova]

It sounds like a good job!
Tbh though, I doubt there's much of a market for this sort of thing. Inexperienced people tend to have an instrutor who will advise them on all the above so unless you were already established as an instructor, I think people may be wary of taking your advice.

Setting up your own yard and getting a name for yourselves first may lead into this sort of work

 

[LCobby]

[ QUOTE ]
Using our experience and our many contacts in the industry to assist inexperienced people in buying and looking after their first horse or pony

[/ QUOTE ]

Most people would use thier instructor or a friend, as they would need someone local.
Same for a livery yard- half hour drive time and cost is the limit with current cost of fuel.
You would also need to demonstrate a good portfolio of acheivements and experience.
Agree a yard with 'Assisted Livery for New and Novice Owners' might work better.

 

[LauraBR]

I have to agree with Toby Zaphod; I don't think it is viable for all the reasons listed already

It's a shame as it sounds a cracking idea in theory.

I think another thing you need to consider is how much you will be limiting yourselves by just catering for total beginners? Given the work you would need to do with your client they would need to be reasonably local to you- how many new riders look to buy a horse per month/year within your catchment area? I could be wrong but 'm guessing probably not enough to make a full time business out of it.

I think Boss's suggestion is a good one. Good luck with it all, must be so exciting getting your own place!

 

[TarrSteps]

I've effectively offered this service, almost unintentionally, at two points in my life and I'd have to say over all I agree with the realistic opinions above. Not, oddly, because it didn't work out for me, but because of the very specific situations where it did!

In one case I ran a large school that offered this to lesson students looking to buy a horse. We either leased them one of the competition horses we owned or helped them look for a horse, then we placed them with one of a few professional yards we were connected with. Although we did no livery of our own, occasionally we let a horse come in for a trial and supervised the situation, set up vetting and transport etc.

Over all, it worked wonderfully but ONLY because it was all part of a cohesive system. People we knew, horse we knew, links to competition yards we knew (both as places for new owners to go and sources for sales horses) - all offering a consistent program. It was the scope, the consistency and the professionalism of it that made it work.

Over time you might be able to build that sort of system to offer someone but most of these people had known/does business with each other for literally decades. THAT'S what people were buying.

In other cases it was existing clients of my main business (young horses and retraining) recommending me to friends or contacts new in horses. But again, a known quantity. And it was not at all a focus of the business, more an after thought. Honestly, most of the time I didn't make any money on it unless the person ended up with me for lessons or I brokered a sale for them. Most of the time I did it to be nice.

(And because I HATE seeing people unhappy with their horses or their experiences in the horse world! Totally unnecessary.)

The fact of the matter is you really can't offer anyone objective information because almost everything to do with horses is subjective. How can you say a vet is "good" since that sort of thing so often depends on individual experience. (And if you're going to sell your opinion of other professionals . . . well you better have a lot of proof to back that up. And a very good lawyer.) In both my experiences the whole idea, honestly, was for people to buy into an already established system of contacts and way of doing things. Of course, later on, when they knew more they could expand their knowledge and activities but from the "safe harbour".

I think you could much more successfully promote that sort of service attached to a livery yard and/or a teaching/training service. The catch is most yards and instructors offer it as a part of their regular service anyway, even if not directly.

Also, do not underestimate the cost of advertising. Almost by definition you are looking for people NOT yet involved in horses so the usual, fairly cheap routes, of putting up ads and using the give away horse magazines are not as useful to you. General advertising will require some serious targeting and likely attract a lot of people who will be hard work indeed!!

All that said, the question people are going to ask is, to put it bluntly, why should they listen to you? If you can answer that in a way that appeals to enough people you should be able to make a go of it.

Anyway, good luck! Enthusiasm counts for a lot. It seems a good and useful service if you can get it sorted so I hope it comes together for you.