On This Page

How this Section Works

Advertising and Marketing

   Budget Some Cash

   Develop a Marketing Plan 

     Corporate Identity   Your Logo   

     Web 

         Online Fillable Forms 

         Online Payments

         Affiliate Links

         Online Surveys and Polls

         Marketing Your Website

     Print

         Signage

         Press Releases

   Media Kit 

   E-mail Surveys, E-Newsletters, E-invitations

   Television

    Public Relations and Publicity

         Free Publicity

         Crisis Management

    Corporate, Charity and Other Partnerships

  Direct Online Payment

  Community Business Organizations

  Branded Items for Clients, Campers, Special Events and Staff  via e-Stores

  Other Resources 

On Their Own Pages  Starting a Horse Business Human Resources Equine Business Insurance Shows Clinics Camps and Special Events Marketing

NEWS FLASH-OUR 2008 Best Humane Business Innovation Award went to the National Black Farmers Association for Project Wanted Horse

 (Top of Page)

Del Camino helps small horse facilities and services find timely information that benefits their program and success.  We want to see horse sanctuaries and retirement stables grow and prosper. We would like riding and boarding stables to be well-operated and fully supported by their local communities.  The benefits of horseback riding to humans is a well-established fact, and the therapeutic benefits to individuals, and cultural benefits to the wider society, mean every effort should be expended to develop viable humane businesses that use well-trained, good tempered, well-seasoned horses. It can be done.

How This Horse Business Resource Section Works  (Top of Page)

1. Add us to Your Favorites:  We update this section of our website fairly often, so we recommend you return regularly.  Why not add this page to your browser's Favorites list?  Doing so does not cause us to send you junk mail.

2. Report a Broken Link:  As we find a broken link, we remove it if we cannot easily repair it.  Please notify the webmaster if you find one.

3. Share a Resource You Found:  If you are a horse business using a tool, resource, or website we haven't listed, we encourage you to tell us about it (please provide URL) on our feedback page, so we can share it with others.  Likewise, if you think a listing is useless, let us know!

4. Share a Resource You Offer:  If you are a service provider or vendor with something to offer horse businesses, please tell us about your product, service, or marketing opportunity so we can share it, via our feedback page.

5. Join a Discussion:  We encourage visitors to join discussions in the Forums to share their knowledge or experiences.

6. Recognize a Great Idea:  Nominations for Special Recognition to equine non-profit groups or horse product or service companies are welcomed.  Any entity (individual, business, or agency) that has done or is doing something remarkable for the benefit of the senior horse is eligible.  Presently, the method to nominate someone for Senior Horse Special Recognition is on our feedback page.

Advertising and Marketing                         (Top of Page)

Ideally, you have a board member, officer, or paid staff member devoted full time to your year-round marketing, advertising, and publicity efforts.  Most micro businesses, profit and non-profit, do not.  This is a chronic miscalculation for most boarding stables, horse trainers, riding schools and horse retirement farms.  A business needs to pay real attention to these functions to attract and hold customers to survive and prosper.  You owe it to the horses, your staff, and your own livelihood to be as expert at managing this aspect of your stable as you are at giving a riding lesson or rehabilitating an abused horse. 

Budget Some Cash                                                 (Top of Page)

You need to budget real CASH for advertising and marketing purposes to be able to recruit quality customers, staff, and vendors, and to publicize revenue-generating events, horses that are ready for rehoming, or openings in your programs. 

To survive even a first year, much less succeed and thrive, budget NO LESS THAN ten cents of every dollar you bring in for your marketing plan, that includes advertising and promotion.  Then,  gain skills at finding the best tools, goods, and services at discounts to stretch your budgeted dollars as far as possible.  A for-profit business typically budgets 12-20% of its operating expenses to sales and marketing.  If you are able to get 50% of your expenses in this area discounted, you will still have to pay actual money for the remainder.  Thus, budgeting a mere 10 cents on the dollar is actually optimistic, especially if your horse business is relatively new or unknown now. 

Develop a Marketing Plan                     (Top of Page)

The first things you need to begin marketing your equine-related organization is your business plan and corporate identity, beginning with a color scheme and logo, with or without a tag line.  From these come a marketing plan with a publicity, advertising and events calendar.

We have already discussed how mission critical your public image is for recruiting the best clients and good employees, so get professional help with this if it is not your area of expertise.  Once you spend money to produce website pages, brochures, business cards, stationery, advertisements, horse show banners or booth backdrops, you do not want to have to pay setup fees again when you reorder supplies with new artwork or a different color scheme.

1. You can easily extract your marketing plan from your business or project plan.

2. You are competing today for seconds of people's attention, and first impressions are lasting.  They tell a great deal about your organization's culture, competence, understanding of your market (the people you serve by the service you provide with or for horses).   If you don't know who your audience, or client-base is, stop and ask yourself "who do I want to write checks to board horses for a year?"  or "who do I want to loan us money to build a new covered arena for the winter riding sessions?"  or "who do I want to sponsor our end of year championship competition for Senior Citizen riders?"  Then design for that audience's respect and interests so they will take you seriously.

Corporate Identity                                                           (Top of Page)

Your corporate identity should be summarized in a phrase called a "tag line."  It is a memorable expression of your mission that can be expressed in two seconds or less.

Your Logo

Companies typically pay $1,000 and up for professionally designed logos.  Why spend so much?  Because nothing says more about your business and does more to create your unique and memorable identity.

All of these online corporate logo developers can help you get started for $400 or less.  If you use an in-house volunteer graphic artist, be sure this person has experience in logo design (ask to see samples of previous work) and give the person clear information about your organization, your mission, your culture, your audience and goals.  Ask for two or three possible logos shown in large and small print, reversed on dark backgrounds, and in digital media like slides, web pages, or videos.  Form a small committee or use a Board of Directors meeting to discuss which ones have the most impact, longevity (not too trendy) and versatility (not to detailed, so a new element for a sub-program could be added at a future date). See the logo alone and with your tag line on stationery, volunteer T-shirts, and maybe a horse show arena banner size or a truck door ad magnet.  Does it work?

These online logo design services offer a quick turnaround (one week or less) and a logo for $100 or less.  Most have some very good educational material about logos and corporate identity as free content, to help you.

Logo Yes    Corporate Logos     Corporate Logo.com

 Logoworks Start Up Package perfect for new businesses. Includes logo design, stationery design, a 3 page website, & 250 business cards.

If You Specialize in a Particular Breed

Make sure the horse in the logo looks like a Thoroughbred, Belgian, Saddlebred, miniature, as appropriate.  Here's a designer who understands:

Horse Logos.com specializes in logos for horse businesses.  Pricing is reasonable for basic logos, design sets, and professional equestrian clip art you can buy for special events or programs.

Web                                                                             (Top of Page)

Your Site

The quality and timeliness of your website is important, and even more important is that it is extremely easy for donors, volunteers, adopters, surrenderers and the press to find you in a search by a few key words, or through links from related popular sites.  This means you need both the search engine and links working for you.

Even if you take advantage of free hosting, canned templates and a fill-in-the-blanks content editor to make a simple website you can maintain, "simple" does not have the same meaning in 2009 that it did in 1999.  It is no longer sufficient to have static "Home" "About Us" and "What We Do" or "Our Services" pages.  Not only is that below the expectation standards of 80% of American internet users, it is leaving 90% of the excellent work a website can do for your business undone.

There are many ways to get a website for free or at a nominal cost.

Webjam.com  is just about the easiest way to start a website or blog with photos for free. 

Net Firms Plus $4.95 per month turnkey package with your own domain name (much more professional than another domain/your stable.  

LeagueLineup.com hosts websites for sports teams for free. If you mentor a horse association Youth Judging Team or a local Pony Club or 4-H Club, this may be an option for that group.

If you are considering blogging, many companies now offer free blogs, but the industry king for security, ease of use, and professional looking templates is Wordpress  Here's a good overview of blogging. 

Marketing Your Website                                                              (Top of Page)

If your website is not on the first two pages that appear in a search result when someone types in a phrase, they will not find you.  Seven out of ten people today look on the internet before looking in any print media. It is pointless to have a well-designed website that markets your services and horses if no one ever visits it.  So the very next step after creating your site is to get it listed with the most important master lists and search engines. 

Del Camino offers web site review and optimization services at extremely low prices.  Quick Easy Website Review

Online Fillable Forms                                                                   (Top of Page)

We consult with horse businesses to improve efficiency and make it easier for clients, job applicants, and visitors to take action (pay monthly bills, sign up for a service, or apply for a job).  Invariably, a glaring need exists to get paperwork under control.  An absolutely necessary evil of commercial equine operations, paperwork such as applications, release forms, sign up sheets, timesheets, horse descriptions, show entry forms - you name it, have to be created, made available to the people who use them, completed, received by someone, used, and stored. 

Are your basic client, camper, reservation, or job applications available on your website in obvious places?  Are they in a form that does not require specific software, like a certain word processor or spreadsheet package? 

If they are forms with sections (fields) for the applicant to complete, or boxes to check, did you type a line or symbol, or create a database field that they can fill in without changing the form?  If you created a form, can they download it, fill in the data on their computer, save the form, and send it back to you as a form rather than just a document, so you can import it right into your  client management software and generate a report or make the information available to an employee who does initial follow-up calls part-time from his home computer?  If you are not using fillable forms online, YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD and you are reducing the chance that the visitor to your website will TAKE ACTION by as much as 50%.

For help turning your spreadsheets and documents into fillable forms in .PDF or other formats, and making them available on your website, contact us for more information.

For online software to do it yourself, visit FormSite, an online web form builder  and look at the sample forms, like the camp registration, and the features of the free plan as well as those that cost money to use. There are templates for volunteer applications and other forms you might use.

Online Payments                                                         (Top of Page)

Don't forget how important it is to make online payments, for board, training, lessons, carriage ride or dude ranch reservations, etc. easy to do on your website, and not just on a single page, but at various appropriate entry and exit points.   An excellent example is on this page of Equine Voices, a horse rescue in Green Valley, Arizona that specializes in PMU mares

For detailed step-by-step help choosing the right method and setting up convenient online payment via your website from your customers, see our E-book How to Make Your Horse Boarding Business Profitable in 10 Easy Steps .

Affiliate Links

Take advantage of opportunities offered by horse suppliers to link to their products and services enabling your clients to purchase.   Of course, your website needs to receive high volume traffic for this to produce significant funds.  All the more reason to have a great website with useful, attractive, compelling content, and be easily located with a few keywords via any major search engine!  A link sitting on a never-visited site isn't going to put hay in the mangers.

For step-by-step assistance choosing the right affiliate links for your website, see our E-book How to Make Your Horse Boarding Business Profitable in 10 Easy Steps .

Print                                                                             (Top of Page)

Everything you produce for print distribution discussed below (press releases, media kit, brochures, etc.) must be available in digital form on your website, too.

Signage

Don't forget the importance of clean, crisp, signage that carries your corporate identity and colors in readable consistent fonts and durable appropriate materials. 

You'll need signs on your premises, at speaking events, community outreach events, trade shows, and horse shows, and trail rides.  You may also need booth backdrops or displays, car magnets or window decals to get your name out there! 

 TIP:  A well-placed street sign promotes your event 24 per day, 7 days per week.  About 18% of the neighborhood residents are new to your area. Well-worded, good quality signs can be used for years — they are one of the most economical marketing investments you can make!  Plenty of professional signage at the right height for your event will enhance your farm's professional image.  Even if you must get a permit to put up a street sign, the cost of the sign and the permit may still be one of the best promotional investments you make in your stable's future.

The Small Business Administration has tutorial resources about signage here that is worth reading.

While for quick signs and banners Build-A-Sign and large vendors like them are usually able to offer the most competitive pricing for events, for some designs you need either:

For the main signs that provide a major part of the decor and personality of your stable, budget like you would for furniture, fixtures, and equipment that lasts twenty years or more and visit one of these kinds of sign makers who are like your facilities designer or web designer. 

EZ Signs Online specializes in stable, farm, and ranch signs. A twenty year old company that has offered signs online for about 13 years, they even have designs for memorial markers.

Old West Signs and Custom Sign Reproductions has a distinctly western flair. A related sign business, Barn Sign Works offers hand-carved wood signs, gates, and metal artwork of a more New England style.

Wood Signs of Gatlinburg offers custom personalized wood signs have a beautiful Southern flavor from the Great Smokey Mountains.

Custom Hand Carved Signs by Sally Claus Foucht are timeless and elegant.

Press Releases                                                                     (Top of Page)

Most local publications are happy to print brief, well-written press releases accompanied by good photographs. 

Also, many will discount advertising space to new advertisers.  If there is a newspaper or magazine that closely matches your target clientele in your area, you can probably get a feature article with photos about your business into an issue in which you advertise.

Things to Do:

1. Find all the print and online publications that are relevant to your horse business.

2. Send for their "Advertising Kit" that gives pricing, publication schedule (with theme topic for that issue, such as "Summer Vacation," submission deadlines, and contact information.

3. Add a "To Do" to your schedule at least 30 days before appropriate deadlines to write your release or prepare your ad - or both.

4. Make sure your press release gives your web an email addresses, as well as phone number and address of your stable in the closing "For More Information" paragraph, as well as at the top in the "Contact" section.  The first is for the publication staff, the last one at the end of the release is "how to buy" information for the readers.

5. Submit on time.

6. Follow up with the person to whom you sent the release, even if it wasn't used.

7. Contact publications regularly.  Even if a particular one didn't run your press release, the call could create a new opportunity.

8. Regardless of whether or not any publications use your press releases, post them in Adobe Acrobat Reader (.PDF) compatible form in the "News" or "Media" or "Press" section of your website.

Need a press release written for your business and distributed electronically quickly?  Need a planned set of press releases for your next calendar year prepared and a list created of media to distribute it to?  Contact us for help.

Media Kit                                                                           (Top of Page)

Regardless of the type of horse business you have, you must have a media kit.  If you have a mission statement, by-laws, officers, annual operating budget, marketing plan, website, etc. then you are well on the way to being able to create an effective media kit.

The online version of your media kit contains your backgrounder, a copy of your logo, a photograph of you or your stable, and one or two recent press releases.

We refer to the media kit in disaster preparedness, crisis management, free publicity, and other marketing sections.  Without a media kit you are in danger of missing many opportunities to get factual, positive information about your program in front of the public in a timely way.  Need help putting together an up-to-date useful media kit for your stable?  Contact us.

Online Surveys and Polls

Find out what your website visitor's are looking for, and their reactions to what you offer. 

The results of surveys can do more than help you fine tune the design, wording, or features of your site.  You can also use online surveys to gather ideas on services to offer, feedback on a recent clinic you gave, or the satisfaction of your boarders.  Many people will give you more useful responses in a survey, than in a face-to-face inquiry about how they liked an event generally.  Some of the questions can include space for comments in the respondent's own words.   This uncovers areas you didn't think to ask about, and has other benefits. 

A poll can produce excellent "pull quote" customer comments to enliven and personalize your advertising and marketing materials. 

Learn how to obtain those endorsements effortlessly for your horse business to put hay in the mangers and your bottom line in the black!  

Add an easy online poll to your website with Polldaddy.com 's plug-and-play application. 

Another good online resource for quickly and professionally creating polls and surveys is Zoomerang .

Do you agree this makes sense, and want to get started, but just don't have the time right now?  We can help. If you would like a post-event satisfaction, customer service, or website visitor poll created for your horse business quickly and professionally, Contact Us.  We can make a questionnaire for you or your webmaster to link into a web page or an e-Newsletter. We can also conduct brief telephone surveys of past or current participants to collect the specific endorsements you need. Let us help you improve your business and bottom line.

E-mail Surveys, E-Newsletters, E-invitations                      (Top of Page)

Repetition is one of the most important elements of advertising for results.  If you, are using email, your professional communications to the different groups of readers must be well-planned, not off-the-cuff, and frequent enough to get read.  Also, the consistency of your message's look and feel needs to reflect your stable's image, and become a memorable theme.

If you have tried creating and sending e-Newsletters to your show customers, last year's campers or clinic attendees, or prospects whose email addresses you captured, but find it too time-consuming, too difficult to maintain, or too technical, Contact Us. We can create a series of e-Newsletters for a specific campaign, like a scheduled clinic, camp season, show season, or loyalty building board client contact.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just hit the "Send" button and know this week's eNews is on its way?

NOTE:  Studies show that 30% of buyers purchased following the fifth message.

Communicate regularly with clients, last year's campers and lesson students, special event participants, and vendors through e-mail.  With templates, signatures, and distribution lists, you can quickly produce and send e-mails to each group using features in robust user e-mail software like Microsoft Outlook. 

If you want a more polished e-newsletter, with opt-in and opt-out subscription managed automatically for larger databases, the capability to conduct e-mail surveys and polls, and even event invitations, use an online service with the ability to store your templates, address lists, and the ability to import and export data. Here are three popular services:

Vertical Response offers an inexpensive solution for small organizations.  This does not include as robust a design template library, polls, or event invitations as do Constant Contact and iContact below, but does have an inexpensive printed postcard program.

Constant Contact and iContact.  At present Constant Contact offers a longer trial period, while iContact offers a lower monthly rate. Service and features are comparable, so if you are just starting to use e-mail to communicate with distribution lists, besides individual messages, and do not foresee your needs growing dramatically in the near future, getting full service while spending $10 less per month is a good deal. 

1. Do you have small lists (under 50 names) of part-time employees and clients to manage for equine-activity sessions, lessons, or small events? 

2. Do you work from E-mail Address Books, spreadsheets, and simple databases, instead of sophisticated client, group scheduling, and event management software? 

3. Is it okay for people you invite to activities at your facility to receive party planning advertisements and other marketing? 

If the answer to all of these questions is "Yes", then Evite invitations may work for you.  The simple user interface, templates, and email notification of RSVPs may be all you need.  TIP: If you use it, upload your logo and use the "Design Your Own" template, for a more professional look.

Would you like some help getting started with one of these options?  Contact us.

Television and Radio                                                          (Top of Page)

Several specialty cable and online television and radio networks focus on animals generally, horses specifically, sports, outdoor lifestyles, children's activities, or health wellness and fitness.  Virtually all of them are voracious in their quest for programming content.  Your organization could be featured in a one minute, five minute, or ten minute segment of a show. 

Some internet and satellite media devoted to horses:

1. Horse TV now boasts 24 different channels, with more on the way. Audience size not publicized.

2. The Horse Show with Rick Lamb now on RFD-TV.

3. RFD-TV a 24-Hour Network for Rural America online and via satellite. Reaches 350,000 homes per week across the United States on the Dish TV Network (ch.231), Direct TV (ch.345) Mediacom Cable (ch.78) and National Cable TV Cooperative.

4. Horse City produces shows for RFD-TV, and runs them online. Reaches 78,000 per month via the website, mostly Midwestern.

5. The Nicker Network merged with Horse TV above.

6. Clear Out West Radio Show

7. Cowboy Cultural Society

8. BarnMice reaches about 1,700 horsepeople per month, 61% female via the internet.

If you offer services to horse owners, by all means, focus on the horse networks.  But if your customers are tourists or beginners, or military families, or children for camp, or single business and professional women, or veterans, then get on the radio and TV networks that cater to them!

TIP:  Virtually all of these shows have a "Current Events" or "What's Happening" section of their website and/or their broadcast that offers free listings of interest to their viewers and listeners.

YouTube.com  This phenomenon of self-produced short videos posted by the public has swept the country, indeed the industrialized world, like a storm.  Are videos of your adoptable horses or retiring school or carriage horses online?  Are videos of your boarders and students enjoying grooming and barn chores online?  Did you launch a new horsemanship class series at your stable for which you need more participants?  Have you done a video mission statement or brochure?  How about a public service announcement (PSA) that features your horse business' contributions to your community and provides public service information for horse owners, or neighbors of horse owners?  Instead of printing full-color tri-fold mailers, why not post a moving account of your farm as a video?

Examples of YouTube "mini lesson" ads for riding stables at Best of Horses (scroll down to video window.)

You can add captions and subtitles to videos you upload using YouTube's own features, or Google's Picassa, or via the software in your camera or on your computer.  You can even add interactive commentary and links, so people can click on a scene and go to the target page on your website.

If your target audience for a short video is women who already ride horses, consider BarnMice as a place to post your movie message.

If you really, really, cannot afford to use a professional videographer, then recruit an employee who is an experienced amateur and get busy.  Be SURE to see samples of his or her work, before you commit to a project.  You can start by adding video clips to your website, media kit, and sponsor presentation kit.

In Arizona we know a great professional videographer who works with horses.  Contact us for more information on how to storyboard or script a compelling short movie, and for referral.

Public Relations and Publicity                        (Top of Page)

Where's your Media Kit?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.  It must include a backgrounder about your business, a few excellent reproducible photos, your logo in a media-friendly format, and a current press release.  Everything must have current contact information, including a knowledgeable spokesperson contact who can be reached after normal business hours.  The media does not develop stories during banker's hours.  (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Where's your Prospective Client Packet?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.

The annual marketing campaign, and the campaign for special projects, plus general news, must include press releases, and other publicity venues. 

Because you have an annual Marketing Plan, it is easy to decide what to promote on the various month pages of your stable calendar that you sell and/or give away.

Free Publicity                                                                          (Top of Page)

Master the art of the one-page press release!  Put together a media database to email press releases and newsletters to.  Then actually do it in a timely fashion! 

Remember that "news" by definition is fresh.  What to put in your database, and how to keep it up-to-date with the actual names of contacts, deadlines, special issue themes, special interest sections, is practically an art form of research and organization.  If possible, you should have an employee with publicity or public relations experience spend several hours on this aspect of marketing your stable every month.  You do not need to be putting on Celebrity Events all the time to warrant publicity.  Every organization should plan to distribute at least eight press releases per year. (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Do you have partnerships with other local businesses or a school?  Can you put a banner up at a local horse show or school event?  Will a regional equine event or state fair discount an unsold booth in the concessions/vendors area?  What if you have a card table with brochures and water for people and horses at a trail head when a local riding club arrives for a planned trail ride?

Crisis Management                                                  (Top of Page)

Sooner or later something negative or sad happens and you may be asked to comment about it or even be interviewed for television, radio, or print coverage.  It could be something directly involving your business, such as a fire, flood, or current hay prices.  Or it could be something more general, even politically charged, like a proposed city ordinance or the national debate over horse slaughter.

Surplus Horse and Mule Auction

Some points to remember, at all times:

1. The reporter, news producer, or editor is NOT your friend.  Even if this individual is a personal friend, or has supported your stable personally in the past, in this context, he or she has a single goal:  to get a juicy "sound bite" from you that draws viewers, listeners, or readers so that the station or newspaper can sell advertising.  If making you, your business, or your efforts appear disorganized, or unkind to animals, or polluting will help "sell" the story, whatever the story's supposed "angle", that is the slant your contact will use.  If your contact doesn't, by the time the editor or producer gets finished with it, you may not recognize the story as having anything to do with what the reporter claimed to be covering.

2. Whatever you say WILL be taken out of context.  That is the definition of a "sound bite."  Make sure every sentence can stand alone if it could be used by itself.  Now don't you wish you had a media kit with a one-page backgrounder handy?  Don't you wish you kept a database of call logs, or service records, not just a monthly income statement from the accountant?  Then you could refer to facts about clients served, costs to maintain a horse, the actual percentage increase in feed costs year-to-date, or, if the figures are not available, have a prepared answer that sounds responsive, organized, but not speculative, other than "I don't know." 

3. For obvious political issues, such as zoning, animal cruelty laws, feed cost increases, horse slaughter, horse identification, government subsidies, disaster relief, livestock waster pollution, the unique relationship of horses to man in history, etc. your rescue should have a brief one paragraph position statement followed by supporting bullet-style single sentence facts citing reliable sources, such as the USDA, your state or county extension service, the actual law or ordinance, or proposed bill.  If you don't follow political issues that impact your operation, you are shooting yourselves in the foot.  Discuss these matters with your Board of Directors periodically or when they arise, develop a position paper, contact your city, county, state, and federal representatives and give them your position as a concerned local business, and keep those positions updated in an accessible manner.

4. If there are celebrities, academics, renowned professionals, or politicians who support your position, you should be able to name them.  Especially if you are a relative "nobody" in town, or your organization is not a well-established pivotal member of the community, cite someone famous or authoritative with credentials on the topic, with whom you generally agree, rather than being sucked into stating your own opinion badly. 

Public Speaking                                                                          (Top of Page)

Is one of your board members, officers, or employees a dynamic speaker with a story to tell?  Has your organization implemented a successful program?  Have you overcome adversity?  Is your mission important? Is your stable part of a rich local heritage, that many new residents of your area do not know?

Perhaps you can package that enthusiasm, knowledge and message into a half hour or fifty minute presentation.  While many opportunities to speak are not paid, others are.  It is appropriate to receive an honorarium for speaking, in addition to travel expenses.  The same presentation that you give as a guest speaker at a corporate event for $1,000 plus expenses might be delivered gratis to a non-profit association.  Why make the non-profit presentation?  Not only are members of the non-profit audience possible customers, in many cases, members in the audience are decision makers at for-profit or government agencies that would be able to pay for the same presentation to be given to their employees or customers.

Visit idealist.org and search their database of 3,668 speakers for some ideas of how presentations are marketed to non-profits, a friendly venue in which to get your feet wet and hone your topics that sell.

Special Events                                                                               (Top of Page)

If you like to throw a party, or put together other social events, this combination of marketing and revenue-generation may be an annual event that brings in a substantial portion of your operating expenses or capital improvement dollars, and enables you to publicly recognize your major clients and employees.

A special event, whether a silent auction, horse show, trail ride or a party, is an opportunity to network with people.  Attend the most successful special events you can in your town to learn what attracts individuals as well as businesses before planning your stable's event.  Set goals and use a committee of talented people.  The easiest way to do that is to partner with an equine non-profit and donate some of the proceeds to that charity. 

Most of the good annual events for equine non-profits in Phoenix require the dedicated work of many people for nine months of the year - but produce as much as 25% or more of their annual funds.  We know a great equine non-profit in Tucson that takes such pains over its annual black tie event that they even care how the napkins are folded.  Don't laugh - they are highly successful at capturing the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of attendees!

Here's one aspect of special events where tables are sold as food for thought: Who will be your table captains?  Perhaps you just assumed people will come from the company that purchased a table, and one person in particular  will play "host" and fire up your dinner guests to participate in the Silent Auction or learn more about the charity you are benefiting.  Just because a local bank sponsors a table does not mean there will be people sitting in those chairs who bid on your items.  If you are satisfied with selling all the seats and do not care how much the auction items raise, this is fine.  If not, it is much better to recruit and educate someone from the bank to be the "table captain" and bring its employees or guests and then engage them as participants during the party to get them interested in your mission and projects.

After your special event, follow up!  Use e-mail and survey software to get attendee satisfaction with their experience.  Zoomerang offers a free version of their service for simple surveys, and there are templates you can easily customize, so this is not time-consuming and no programming is required.  Want some help?  Contact us.

Pfizer Animal Health & Stable Management magazine present the 2009 Giving Back Contest.  Top Prize of $10,000!  Equine professionals running a profit-generating business in the equine field are eligible, not non-profit organizations.  The contest is about using your equine business to give back to the community, either locally or globally.  Visit Stable Management to view Giving Back's 2008 winners and get complete 2009 contest details.  Entries must be received by June 15, 2009.

Corporate, Charity and Other Partnerships      (Top of Page)

Corporate events can be staged at your facility to bring you the benefits of their professional paid publicity.  Even a department picnic that is covered in the company employee newsletter can help you. This is called "co-branding."  They get the benefit of getting their name in front of people interested in your service, and creating community goodwill.  You get money, or the ability to do events you could not afford to do otherwise.

Business isn't just for making money. It can also bless the lives of the less fortunate. But what if you were able to make money AND bless other people's lives at the same time? Partnering with horse-related or other charities gives you scores of ways to market your business, build your brand, and attract more clients.  There are many ways to partner with charities besides hosting fundraisers or other events for them.

To brainstorm how to incorporate these types of partnerships into your horse business, Contact Us for a coaching consultation.

Direct Online Payment                                                      (Top of Page)

PayPal.com  You must ask for the order!  When people visit your compelling website, they come from various searches.  The "landing page" may be the ad for a particular adoptable horse.  It may be your "home" page, our the story of a recent event you held.  There should be an appropriate PayPal button on that page.  Do you want a regular monthly payment from lesson clients and boarders?  Do you want camp registration deposits and balances easily paid, so checking the campers in on the first day is a breeze?

There should be a monthly recurring, and a one-time only fill-in-the-amount button on that program's page. 

Once someone navigates away from the one page where you have placed clickable payment buttons or links, there is a 80% likelihood they will not return to it.  Put the links next to the topic.  PayPal enables people to immediately make a payment while the spirit moves them.  It is safe, since they don't have to give you their credit card information.  The buttons are easy to build.  The money goes into your PayPal account, from which you can pay vendors directly, or transfer funds to checking or savings accounts.  If you are not using PayPal to its full potential, you are missing the boat!

PayPal may have pioneered online secure payments, but there are additional ways besides PayPal to take payments and confirm their legitimacy. Here are two alternatives:

1. Direct Deposit online to one of your business checking accounts.

2. Google Checkout.

For detailed step-by-step help choosing the right method and setting up convenient online payment via your website from your customers, see our E-book How to Make Your Horse Boarding Business Profitable in 10 Easy Steps

Community Business Organizations                               (Top of Page)

If your horse business is new, small, remote, or run by someone very smart, it will have membership dues set aside to belong to the local:

Some of the benefits include:

  Better Business Bureau. also keeps track of and helps resolve complaints.  It's seal on your website and signage can give new customers and tourists peace of mind.

Branded Items for Clients, Campers, Special Events and Staff via e-Stores  (Top of Page)

Four of these methods are online shopping solutions that enable you to offer logo items without the initial outlay of cash for inventory to stock and resell.  What was formerly only available to larger companies is now accessible, via printing on demand and drop shipping to even the smallest home business and start-up.

Do not underestimate the value of a coaster, calendar, mug, ball cap, refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or mouse pad.  Companies worldwide spend millions per year to provide permanent positive reminders to buyers, investors, employees, and, yes, vendors.  Small service businesses like riding academies, bed and breakfasts, wedding carriage operators, and boarding stables have even more reasons to recognize clients and staff and participants in clinics and special events like in-barn shows. 

It is also important to identify staff as professionals on your property for visitors, at community outreach events, or to new clients.  While you may give a sports bottle or T-shirt as a gift, many people will gladly purchase additional items to enhance their sense of belonging.  Make it easy for them to do that, and put some money in the till at the same time.

Lands' End Business Outfitters E-Store.    Submit your logo, select your items, and receive commissions on purchases made by donors, clients, staff, and special event supporters.

CafePress  provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  CafePress offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can set up your e-Store with logo items from among thousands of products that are printed on demand with your logo, wording, photo or event artwork. You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Fund-net  provides an e-Store that links from your website with logo items you select.  Fund-net specializes in logo items from among 800,000 products for non-profits, schools, clubs, teams, corporate, special events, and medical facilities.  You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Zazzle    provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  Zazzle offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can select items to customize with your logo, wording or photos from among thousands of products.  They are printed on demand in the size and color the buyer chooses.  You simply prove the artwork and select the products and receive commissions on the sales.  Here is an equine rescue example.

Other Resources                                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

  Mounting ramps and blocks for persons with disabilities, waler and gait belts, breakaway stirrups, bareback pads, therapeutic riding surcingles, reinbow loops, instructional aids for therapeutic riding programs.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Horse Welfare Statistics

Product or Service Providers                                    (Top of Page)

If your company offers a discount to horse business, or offers them a service or co-marketing opportunity, please let us know.  Presently, the best way to do that is by e-mail with a contact name and website address.

Thanks for visiting and come back again soon!  Add us to your browser's Favorites list so you can find us easily.  You are also invited to evaluate our website by Clicking Here

Want us to keep you informed of great ideas for your horse business?