October 2020
How Being Realistic Can Help Your Equestrian Business
29/10/20 12:45
Have you ever wanted to be a top show jumper?
Or the best that you could ever be in any sport or in your business? As I mentioned in my previous blog post about my T.A.R.A. coaching system, having aspirations is vital. It then enables you to have an aim.
But if you want to be the best in whatever you're doing. Say wanting to be a top show jumper. Or jumping bigger fences. You need to be realistic. And the 'R' in my coaching system, stands for "realistic"!
Now I'm all for aiming for the best. But as you know, if you're training a horse to jump bigger fences. It can be easy to over-face them. So they start refusing or napping, or rushing for instance. Because they're anxious or even scared.
It's not realistic to expect a horse to start jumping 1.60meters if they've not had good schooling on the flat. And started jumping successfully at a lower height. Your horse needs training regularly.
You also can't be jumping larger fences and courses if you've not had good training and practice. That's not realistic either.
So how does this apply to your equestrian (or canine) care business? In my example above, there's no reason why you can't jump larger fences. And be the best you can be a show jumper. But as in business. Get the basics right. Understand what you need to do to get better. To achieve your goals. What do you need to do?
If you want to showjump.
- What training does your horse need?
- Are you practicing flat work enough?
- Are you practicing pole work or jumping regularly.
- Do you need to have lessons to improve your position, so you're helping your horse?
- Do you need to go out to shows and get used to the ring? Learn how to make the most of turns in different arenas?
There's many steps you need to take. But they're not always complicated! The basics are often overlooked for some new gadget. A quick fix solution. Sometimes the basics can take longer to master and achieve. But they're a good foundation.
But don't think it's all hard work or no success. If it's a struggle then it's not the right aim for you. Enjoy the journey. It may sound a cliche but it's true. If you're not happy along the way then what's the point? I love this quote:
(Shawn Achor)"Happiness is a mindset for your journey, not the result of your destination"
Finally be realistic in that you need to take action. And it may take sometime. Focus on the actions. But do it all in line with your aspirations. Take reassurance in the fact that your aspirations can become real. By you being realistic that you need to focus. And don't over-complicate things, be realistic that the mastering the basics will stand you in better stead over the long run than a quick fix.
Action Point
- Review what steps you're taking to achieve your goals.
- Are you taking action that will really help you? Are you being objective and taking a realistic approach? Or do you need to adjust your daily tasks?
These tips are from my goal setting toolkit, which you can get as part of your 1-2-1 business coaching. Email info @ taranet.co.uk for more information!
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Achieve Your Equestrian Business Aspirations
27/10/20 22:21
How Your Equestrian Business Can Thrive With Aspirations!
What does taking targeted action mean to you? Does it seem restrictive? As you'll have read in this blog post, you focusing on a target is the first pillar in my T.A.R.A. coaching system.
The second pillar is A for "aspiring". So do you think having a targeted step by step approach means you can't aspire to achieve your goals?
As an example. Most people who want to learn to ride a horse. Don't want to learn only so that they go around in a manege at walk. For many they want to do showjumping, dressage, eventing, hacking on the beach.
Taking a targeted approach here means they need to learn the basics. From knowing how to mount, adjust the tack, how to rise or sit to the trot, how to canter, steer, etc.
But the aspiration is to do something more. So taking a targeted approach to achieve goals, towards your aspiration here is vital.
So what is your aspiration?
What do you want to achieve in your equestrian or pet care business?
This could be earning a certain amount of money. You could want to have more flexible hours. Or you could want to expand your services or products, and help more animals and people. Knowing your purpose is essential.
Without an aspiration and a goal, then you can't be targeted. Without a goal you'll be taking action without a purpose.
So being aspirational and specific through targeted action sit side by side.
Action Point
- Review your goals. Do they inspire you?
- Make a dream board, brainstorm ideas on your goals, don't limit yourself. Your aspirations are yours to define.
These tips are from my goal setting toolkit, which you can get as part of your 1-2-1 business coaching. Email info @ taranet.co.uk for more information!
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How Taking Targeted Action Can Help Your Equestrian Business
23/10/20 12:05
So you want to grow your equestrian or dog care business.
Where do you start? You've got lots of ideas or a goal you're aiming at. Whether you're full of inspiration or daunted. Taking targeted action is vital. You can't do it all at once.
I've created a coaching approach, to help you be Targeted, Aspiring, Realistic and Achieving. Or T.A.R.A. This way I can help you focus to get clear on what you want to do, and how to do it. So you can achieve your business goals.
The first pillar of my equestrian and canine entrepreneur coaching system is "Targeted".
So what do I mean?
First of all, do you know what you want? An example could be that you want to increase your number of paying customers. But what does that actually mean?
If you've a variety of services or products. Then do you want new or repeat customers for all your services and products? Or some of them?
Specify how many new customers you want. How often do you want your new customers to buy, do you want them to subscribe on a monthly basis? How much money do you want each new customer to spend? How much extra income do you want from these new customers?
Decide on this and and write it down for your goal. This will then be your Targeted Goal.
Once you’ve defined your goal, it’s important to work out how you’re going to get there. To make it all achievable and doable, break it down into small tasks.
Make a list of tasks that you can do to help you achieve your goal. These tasks must be actions that are going to help you reach your goal.
Each task or ‘micro-action’ should be something you can do in a short amount of time - no more than 15 to 30 minutes. Remember, consistency is your friend. And taking small actions every day will reap better rewards than spending an hour or two once a week. (Or every few weeks!)
This is then your Targeted Action.
Find more information on my T.A.R.A. coaching programme here.
Action Point
- Review what you want from your business. Are you clear on your goal, and is it targeted to help you grow your business?
- Do you have a list of actions to complete? Are these targeted to help ensure you achieving goal?
These tips are from my goal setting toolkit, which you can get as part of your 1-2-1 business coaching. Email info @ taranet.co.uk for more information!
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Grow Your Veterinary Business
19/10/20 12:51
How The T.A.R.A. Coaching Programme Can Help You
I've created the T.A.R.A coaching program to help you achieve your equine and canine business goals.
So why T.A.R.A.? Well not only is the initials of my inspirational horse Tara. It sums up what steps I use to help you to get the business you want. Whether you're an equestrian, dog care or veterinary entrepreneur.
So what do I mean? Well:
- Targeted - Being able to take targeted action is vital. Even though you may have lots of different goals and objectives. You can't do all at once. Take targeted action to achieve each goal one by one.
- Aspiring. Taking targeted actions, doesn't mean you shouldn't be aspiring to achieve lots! Far from it. Knowing your overall business goal is important, and this should be aspiring for you. It should help inspire you. And motivate you.
- Realistic. Keep your targeted actions and aspirations realistic. I don't want to discourage anyone. But so often I've found clients unable to get the basics in place. Being realistic about what actions you should take. Will be more satisfying and more productive in the long run.
- Achieve. Having a clear business target. Having aspirational business goals. And taking realistic steps will help you achieve your business goals.
My approach is to keep things simple. To help you be clear on what you need to do. The T.A.R.A. coaching programme will enable you to do this.
Like to know more? Email me at info @ taranet.co.uk
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
How To Make The Best Out Of Your Social Media
16/10/20 12:36
So how do you make the best out of social media for your business?
There's no perfect way to increase engagement, and generate customers. To some extent it will be trial and error. You can gain a lot of insights on the basics in my other blog posts. But below here are two more top tips to help you.
- Connections. Not the number of people you're connected with. But the Quality of your connections. There's no point having 1000's of followers if they're not your ideal customer.
- So how can you help find out if they are? Cultivate your connections. What do I mean? Engage with each of them as an individual. Don't send generic direct messages. Personalise them. Do a bit of research on who you're contacting. On their profile they may have their name, business or website mentioned. Taking an interest can help you generate rapport. And also give you an opportunity to become memorable for all the right reasons!
- Don't copy and paste. If you're contacting many people. It can be tempting to copy and paste your wording.But this is rarely personal. It can lose impact. Most people will spot a generic "ad". This is what it'll look like if you're copying and pasting.
This extends to your posts, as well as direct messages. Write your social media posts so that they're writing to an individual. Not like broadcasts to the world. Why might you say? Well you're not going to have the world as your customer. There are thousands of animals and people who your service will help. But it won't be for everyone. And that's fine.
Finally. Above all be yourself. Don't try to be someone you're not. As when your customers do meet you, then they won't find consistency. Being consistent and congruent in your business and life is important!
Your Action Point
- Message or post to individual pf
- Personalise your messages.
- Comment on a few posts every day from people in your groups, newsfeed. Ensure your comments are helpful and useful. Not a sales pitch for your service!
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Find Customers In Challenging Times
14/10/20 12:46
Finding customers for your equine therapy business is always a priority.
But in these challenging times we find ourselves in, it's upper most in many of my clients minds. So what ideas are there?
First of all, is cutting prices a good idea? No. It devalues your service. Unless your own overheads have reduced and your profit margin has increased. Then it's going to be unaffordable too.
A better idea is to offer a customer loyalty programme. This can be for new and existing customers. Do you find yourself buying coffee from a favourite brand, because of loyalty points? I know for sure it's great to get a free coffee from time to time, because of collecting points!
So what can you offer? Ideas include:
- Attend 9 therapy sessions and get the 10th free.
- Attend 10 sessions and get a free gift. Now this could be a head collar or rug. Or why not partner with a fellow equestrian business for them to give away an item. This is also promotion for their business. So can be win-win!
- Attend 5 sessions and get the sixth half price.
- Or have a free prize draw every month for customers who've had an appointment that month. The prize could be anything that you know your customers will love. And remember, try partnering with another equestrian business too.
Where should you be promoting your service?
- As i've mentioned in previous posts, there's many places that you can advertise.
- Are there any local equestrian or community newsletters or magazines?
- Does your local riding club have a newsletter?
- Use social media. Be consistent in your posting. If you can't manage more than one network. Then concentrate on using one really well!
When advertising though. Remember to sell what benefits your service offers. If you're an equine massage therapist. Don't tell people only that. Tell them why their horse will benefit.
Do any local vets know about your service? Remember that equine vets often travel a large area. So it's worth letting a number know you exist. They'll still be seeing horses every week (or day!), who you could help. So make sure they know you're there.
See my previous posts for more ideas. Have a browse through this blog, but these two are a good starting point:
Action Point
- Review your marketing. Where are you promoting your service? What messaging are you using?
- Can you change the places you advertise? Do you need to revise your messaging?
- Try and take an objective look. If you didn't know what you did, would you know? (if you know what I mean!).
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Have A Great Website
11/10/20 22:04
Simple Design Tips For A Great Website
People find your website, and that's it isn't it? Your great content will let them know what you do and they'll buy your service or product? Not always!!! Can people actually see past the design? Is it obvious what you're saying and what your company does?
Your website should be a great "shop-window" for your equine or canine business. Creating a website can take a lot of time. But unfortunately this can be time spent on choosing elaborate fonts. Or a very bold or clashing colour scheme. So your potential customers, can't find out if what you're offering is what they need. Why? Because they can't read it well!
Here are a couple of top tips to help you audit your website. With a critical eye, see if your website is ok, or needs some amendment.
Tip 1 - Fonts
Are the fonts on your website clear? Are they decorative or elaborate? Can anyone, including people who may have any visual impairment read what you're saying? Or does it take a lot of effort to see past the font?
Tip 2 - Colour Scheme
Bold colours can look great and be eye-catching. But be careful to choose colours that don't detract from your website's purpose..... You want to present professional information about yourself. And get people to get in contact with you! So make sure your anyone can read your website. And aren't distracted by the colours.
Choose a background colour that contrasts well with the font, so that the writing can be clearly seen..... Black writing on white background may seem not to be very exciting to some. But it's usually clear to read. (That's not to say of course that's the only colour scheme to use!)
In conclusion.
Remember people will often look initially at your website for a short period of time. Sometimes seconds. If they decide that it's going to be too difficult to find what they need to know. They'll leave the site and find another one to look at.
Action Point
- Review your website, and imagine you're someone who knows nothing about your business. Is it easy to read? Would you carry on looking at it? If you're not sure, ask someone you trust to give their honest opinion to have a look!
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Make More Focused Decisions
04/10/20 22:11
How To Keep Focused In Your Equestrian or Pet Care Business
You can always find lots of ideas for anything. Whether it's choosing a new rug for your horse. Or the best food for your dog. And the same is true for management theories and business advice.
How Do You Make Decisions?
Do you feel like you're decisive? Know instinctively what to do? Or do you dither and spend a while deciding what to do? For whatever choice you're making, sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. Whether in business or personal life and caring for our horses or dogs.
But having a framework to help you decide on what action to take is important. This could be anything. But you need a reference point to help you make a decision. Or to take action. Comparing with showjumping your horse. Or doing a dog agility course. Or even you running a marathon. How will you do this, if you've know idea where the course is? You may do the jumps or do the distance, but if it's wrong, then it'll not get you the result you want.
To help my coaching clients i've devised the T.A.R.A. programme.
Yes named after my dear horse Tara.
So what is this?
T = Targeted. Helping you to take action targeted to helping your business.
A = Aspiring. Helping you to aspire to the life and business you want.
R = Realistic. Helping you to take action that is realistic in achieving your goals.
A = Achieve. Helping you to achieve success in your equestrian or canine business.
You can use this framework to keep you on course. To get the results you want in your equestrian or pet care business.
Action Point
- Consider how you make decisions in your equestrian or pet care business. Do you feel like you need some mentorship and guidance? Or are you ok as you are?
- Review my previous blog posts for more tips to boost your equine or canine or veterinary business.
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/
How To Promote Your Equine or Canine Business
02/10/20 22:12
Do you need more customers in your equine or canine care business?
Advertising your service. Whether on social media or in printed publications. Or posters/business cards on noticeboards can all help.
But before your do anything. Think about what you want to say. Sounds obvious right? But no! So often I see great horse and dog care professionals not selling themselves very well. And often miss the mark when it comes to getting new customers.
Here's 3 top tips to help you promote your business to success!
1. Target your ideal customer. What does your ideal customer need? If you're offering an equine physiotherapy service, then don't tell people only that. Tell them why their horse will benefit. For example. You could say: "Is your horse tense when ridden? Physiotherapy can help relieve tension. Give me a call to find out more and book an appointment."
Don't try and say what all the benefits of your service are in the one ad. It will overwhelm and confuse your potential customer. You can change your messaging over time and in different locations.
2. Check your website and social media. Is it clear who you work with. And where you work? And your contact details are prominent. Sounds simple. But I often find when I audit clients websites they have overlooked the basics.
Remember people don't hang around on a website searching for information. Not normally anyway. So make it easy.
3. Collaborate with equine or pet websites and other business owners. See if you can write a blog or article for their website or social media. And with your contact details on it, it will help a wider audience know about you.
Action Point
- Use these ideas to generate interest and get leads for your business.
- Review my previous blog posts for more tips to boost your equine or canine or veterinary business.
How to Get Confidence Running Your Equine or Canine Business
Click here for more information on consultancy. Or email me at info @ taranet.co.uk for info on coaching opportunities with me.
About The Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.
PS: You can find more equestrian and pet care themed business articles over at my Linkedin, see more here https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-harris-mcmi/detail/recent-activity/posts/