The title of this article is an English proverb that makes good horse sense literally and offers an even deeper meaning figuratively.
You may be able to count some of the following business items in your tally of “good horses”:
- Your employees or professional support team
- Your tack, tractors, trucks, trailers and equine facility
- Your good customers and clients
- Your own horses
- Yourself
What makes for each day in business a journey of short miles?
Employees/Support team
Every successful accomplishment your business makes each working day is largely dependent on your hand picked employees, assistants and professional support team. Whether you learned long ago or are just learning, your business cannot run successfully without the help and work of others.
If you have ever managed a bad employee or have had one as a coworker, you know the pain and frustration of trying to get things done right. Just like a bad horse might make a one mile trail ride an endurance event, the wrong employee for the job can make an eight hour day seem like twelve.
Equipment and Facilities
“Have the right tool for the job” is sage advice from all old timers. But in the pursuit of false economy, some professional horsemen tolerate baling wire hinges, manure mountains high enough to cast shadows on the barn and geriatric fences challenged to stand up to a strong breeze.
While keeping equipment and facility investment as low as possible is good strategy, a horse business starved for tractors, tools and stabling in good repair will be continuously hungering for steady income.
Customers and Clients
Clients who show up late for lessons, appointments, barn hours and the first of the month board fee, sure do make the day and the customer journey long. It’s a given: good customers should expect good service. But, when you are consistently delivering good service, there are customers who can still find fault and reason to complain about the most trivial matters. It’s these customers who make customer service an uphill trek every time they appear at the farm or call on the phone. Not only do bad customers create long miles, they’ll drag you along for a marathon of long miles.
Your Horses
You are admired for your big heart and sympathy for problem horses and scolded for hanging on to those that no longer fit in your program as lesson horses, broodmares or standing stallions.
Lesson horses that are consistently the favorites bring smiles to the faces of the students who ride them, the instructor who shines because of them and the business owner who knows their value. The same smile appears when mares consistently produce quality foals and stallions sire show winners.
Those unpopular horses in the lesson string which intimidate students, broodmares which are difficult to get in foal and stallions whose get is lackluster and dull are “long milers” and need to put out their resumes for new jobs elsewhere.
You, as Business Owner
In your business, are you exhausted because you are the only one who can do it right, inclined to keep the details in your head and disgusted and angry because you can’t find good help?
Or, are you a leader in your business who delegates responsibility to others, conveys a clear message and vision in which the business is going and sets an example for others to follow?
It’s up to you to make the decision to make all of your business miles, short miles using “good horses” in all parts of your business.