Business

At the end of the day solid business management skills make the difference between working to live and just living to work.~Michael Stenson~

Here you'll learn how to talk with customers and help them solve performance problems, optimize the health of their horse and ensure their energetic, willing partner is ready to go.

At the end of the Business class you will: recognize and understand how to manage personal character traits needed to own a successful small business; have developed and know how to manage comprehensive business and marketing plans; and have a good understanding of professional, financial and legal aspects of starting up and nurturing a small business.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires perseverance, adaptability, creativity, discipline and a number of other character traits. You will begin with some honest self-assessment that will form the foundation of your personal self-development plan which leverages your personal strengths and mitigates weaknesses.

Businesses do not most often fail from lack of skill in the profession, but from lack of business management skills. So here, you'll create marketing and business plans to ensure that you're doing the important things, that you can differentiate your services from competitors, that there are real opportunities you're striving towards - that you're really in business. You'll be able to clearly state in your own words, readily believable and demonstrable value propositions with compelling links between the needs of your customers and the benefits of your services. Your business plan will include all of the essential elements required to manage your growth including pricing schemes, financial forecasts, one-year tactical plans and risk assessments with contingency strategies.

You will also understand the practical considerations for starting and nurturing your own business including the form of your business, outsourcing, accounting and legal issues, forming alliances with other equine professionals as well as gaining and keeping customers. Policies and procedures, professionalism, social responsibility and ethics, image and customer communication and satisfaction will all be covered in your completed plans.