Routine and repetition are the foundation of most businesses including the horse business. You do many of the same things day after day and month after month in your operation. Routine feeding, watering and mucking are a sure thing. Trimming or shoeing, routine veterinary work and routine training or exercise programs are givens.

Boarders, students and training clients are also part of your familiar daily routine. And there is nothing wrong with this. Steady work is steady cash flow. That translates into money to pay operating expenses, put food on the table and make the mortgage payment. Conventional wisdom supports the "steady as she goes" theory of business management.

Routine, however, can be the enemy of financial growth. When you are caught in a cycle of doing what you've always done, you keep getting the same results, both good and bad. As an example, a full barn provides a blend of good and bad results for your business. Some horses are money makers, others are break even and worse, others are losers.

Aristotle may have proclaimed, "Nature abhors a vacuum", but experience in the horse business suggests to me that Aristotle should have added "Nature also abhors an empty horse stall." An empty stall has a magical way of filling itself in a short period of time. Barns are full of horses just because, well, there is a place to put them. Sometimes the stalls are filled with horses that should be living elsewhere.

Your "elsewhere list" might include

• Lesson horses who have earned retirement rights and an easier lifestyle.
• Horses owned by chronically delinquent boarders.
• Horses you own that can't physically perform at the level you expected.
• Broodmares difficult to get in foal.
• Ill tempered horses who don't like where they are.

Is a full barn a good thing or a bad thing then?

It's a good thing if your barn is full of ideal horses. It's a bad thing if it closes the door for the greater opportunity to find you. What's a greater opportunity?

• A horse with potential or admirable past performance that you can "buy right" due to the seller's circumstances and need to sell now.
• A new client who needs a bundle of services like board, lessons and training
• A new client looking for you to train, polish and market a horse for a commissioned sale.

Greater opportunities often materialize at times when we least expect them. Have you ever had one more horse than you have had stalls for and have opportunity kicking at your barn door?

Followers of the Law of Attraction will tell you that opportunities don't appear until you're ready to receive them. If you're looking for greater opportunities and the No Vacancy sign is always lit at your barn, don't expect to attract fortune to drive in your driveway honking the horn.

Make room for more business opportunities to appear by relocating horses that should be housed elsewhere. It's good business to strive toward maximizing your income stream with more sales from the resources you have on hand.

Whether your business is the size of Wal*Mart or a Lemonade Stand, use your time, money and business assets to your full advantage.

Need a speaker about the horse business for your horse organization?

Talk to me about talking. Keynotes and workshops available. (716) 434-5371

"Most are engaged in business the greater part of their lives, because the soul abhors a vacuum and they have not discovered any continuous employment for man's nobler faculties." -- Henry David Thoreau

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." -- Sir Francis Bacon

"The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened." -- Saki

If you're self employed, you know the value of investing in your own professional education and professional growth. There is so much to keep informed about and so little time to absorb it all. Squeezing in reading time a few days a week helps, but distractions abound and it's difficult to focus on new material.

I dedicated time last week to attend a half day seminar in Syracuse, NY presented by a well known business consultant. His horse knowledge may be limited to identification of which end to feed and which end to shovel from, but his wisdom and knowledge of operating a consulting business his world class.

I traveled with a consultant friend who got the same outstanding value as I did from attending - information worth tens of thousands of dollars over a career. The greatest expense of attending professional training is usually not the admission fee, but rather the opportunity cost of being away from the business for a day or two.

Considering the value of the information we got, the opportunity cost to our own businesses and the admission fee were lost in the giant shadow of the information value delivered.

Education is a lifelong process. I'm seldom disappointed with the value received for my investment in acquiring knowledge. There is always something for people of every age to learn, with the exception of eighteen year old males, of course.

Forgive me for reminiscing back that far, but if I only knew now what I knew then. . . . . .

I work with Professional Horsemen who are struggling with the business half of the horse business.

Just like a top performing horse has a strong foundation, so does a top performing horse business.

If you've had enough with not enough: time, money or the right people in your horse business give me a call and we can talk about how Profitalbe Horseman strategies can help you.

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