What do most horse boarding, lesson and training businesses have in common with an eight year old chestnut gelding at a weekly horse auction?

They are everywhere and they aren’t making the owner any money.

Why do horse businesses fail to prosper? For some of the exact same reasons all other businesses fail:

1. 78% Don’t have a well thought out business plan.
2. 77% Fail to set prices correctly and have a poor understanding of cash flow.
3. 70% Don’t recognize, or ignore, what they don’t do well and fail to seek help.

These are a few of the statistics from a S.C.O.R.E. website. If you want to waste valuable time, here is the link to the site: click here.

I’ll save you some time by telling you again what you probably already know: There are a bazillion postings on the net of reasons why businesses fail.

Have you wondered what is the number one reason why businesses fail?

If your business is not earning the profit you expect and deserve, you can find out the number one reason by walking to the nearest mirror and having a quick look. Let me be the one bold enough to tell you that the ultimate reason you don’t make the profits you deserve is because you have chosen not to be profitable.

I have something else to tell you. I know a secret. The person who can turn your business into the one you’ve always dreamed of having can be found by walking back to that same mirror and having a quick look.

The privilege of owning your own business is choice. When something is not right, you have the choice to fix it. The hardest part of having choice is deciding when to fix a problem. The best choice of when to fix a problem is now. The default choice is later.

When you choose to be someone other than an unprofitable horseman, you will get help to:

1. Create a three year vision for your business
2. Get control of the money
3. Plan the time to plan
4. Build a team to help you
5. Deliver extraordinary customer service
6. Master the art of selling
7. Market Methodically
8. Achieve balance in your life between work, rest and play.

Easy? Nope.

Achievable? Yep.

Have a talk with the person in the mirror today. Then starting making choices.

flickr photo credit by Mountain Mike

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“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." -- Goethe

"It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny." -- Jean Nidetch

"The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television." -- anon

I read of the recent births of fillies cloned from top performing cutting horses. Perfect genetic copies of the donors, the fillies have had great expectations placed on them. The owner of the clone of cutting horse champion, Royal Blue Boon, will not campaign the horse in cutting competitions, but instead put her to work immediately as a brood mare.

I can see the merits and the negatives of cloning horses. Time will help us all understand what we are getting into with the cloning process. Breeding is both a science and an art form. We know some things, the rest we feel, think or guess. I’m convinced that a horse’s soul has as much to do with its performance as its bloodlines.

One of my favorite quotes about breeding horses comes from a book on the history of the Quarter Horse: “You can breed it out of ‘em faster than you can breed it in.”—Ott Adams.

Life is short.

Ride hard.

Doug

I show Professional Horsemen how to use 8 key strategies to build a business that creates more profit in less time. Call me and we can talk about how your business can benefit.

If you know other horsemen who would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them! I am on a quest to tell 1000 people what I do and I need your help.

The purpose of this publication is to help professional horsemen also be Profitable Horsemen.

I write another weekly newsletter about the business of life. Curious? Click here