If you’ve been in the horse business long enough, you’re going to meet someone who has no qualms about thanking you for your kindness by taking your property or unpaid work-product into their possession. It’s sad that some people operate with an entitlement philosophy that deems it OK lie, steal and abuse liberties given, but, sadly, there are some in the world that are artful manipulators who exist without integrity. Don’t blame yourself for being stupid to have empowered such players – we’ve all fallen victim to naive trust.

Questionable characters are rarely the culprits. Even if they are, you’re prepared for unethical behavior with these red flags. What really burns is when you go out of your way to help someone, donating time, resources and wisdom, to be rewarded with thievery.  It happens and it hurts, but there are things you can do to help avoid bad decisions concerning  the staff and clients you choose to bring into your equine business. While one will slip through occasionally, we’ve found some early vetting can uncover most bad actors.

Tips for equine business money decisions

• With the young horse training business at Halcyon Acres (http://www.HalcyonAcres.com), we now require the starting fee before the horse trucks in (board is a separate item and it’s amazing how quickly these payments come in when a client is invested upfront in the outcome). The ones that baulk about this (they’re often wealthy), are referred elsewhere and invariable leave a trail of unpaid bills in the horse’s wake.
• Where farm help is concerned, this is a tougher challenge in this remote area. It’s best if you can witness them working for someone else over a period of time, but that’s not always possible. Get references and make the calls. Time spent with employers can be an indication of how reliable (or not) they are. Be wary of those moving from jobs (or states) every couple of months.
• Don’t give away time and resources. Offer an exchange of work for professional services instead, or a trade arrangement where you get something you really need to help improve your equine business. Few seem to value something that is free. Hard-earned benefits are appreciated more. Such a pact also gives you the opportunity to witness the dedication and ethic of the ‘student’ or ‘client’.
• Set clear expectations from the onset. It feels right to bring someone on board with the ideal that they will help define their job, but this rarely works. Instead, take the time to put a job description (with associated benchmark expectations) in writing. Hold the employee accountable (and bring it to their attention immediately when work isn’t up to par) for agreed upon performance.
• Periodically stop in unannounced to see what’s really going on when you’re not there. Sadly, many trainers are now resorting to always-on cameras that they review in fast-forward to get an honest picture of what goes on ‘behind their back.’ This shouldn’t be necessary if you hire the right people, but it’s a clever way to get behind the scenes when you’re unable to be on the grounds.
• Hold on to the gems. If you find someone who is honest, hard-working, talented, reliable, kind with the horses and a joy to be around, pay them a king’s ransom, shower them with compliments and be flexible about time off.

Bad decisions build horse sense

Some years ago, we gave a kid of little means an opportunity at Halcyon Acres. She had a young horse parked on the acre where her family’s trailer sat. Her attempt to start this pony under saddle created a monster that learned violence was her best defense to a training regimen that didn’t reward efforts.  So, with donated training and lesson time to reprogram the filly and the rider, the two parted better connected – and better equipped with a good deal of supplies stolen from our tack room. We installed locks after this incident.

More recently, we opened our home to a twenty-year-old. She was a clever manipulator and adept at portraying herself as a victim to the trusting. Her departing acts would have ended her career as a jockey if we chose to press charges, but we decided to let it go. We filed the police report paperwork needed to resolve some of the resulting problems, but refrained from supplying a name and OKing and investigation that would have resulted in an arrest on federal felony charges.

The fact is, there’s little reward in vengeance for such acts, but you sure feel violated when you decide to extend yourself to someone who sees kindness as an opportunity to case the joint for their profiteering plans. Take solace in the fact that such little minds live a miserable life. If you let them suck you into their world, you’ll spend countless hours shrouded by negative energy that will ruin your day (or week, or month, or year). One trip to small claims court (we won), was enough to realize the cost is too high for any of the rewards to cover the loss.

Think before you leap into horse business hell

A much better strategy is to be smart in how you screen and/or prepare the people you decide to embrace as you work to build your equine business and reputation. Couple this with the realization that no matter how hungry you are, a client who doesn’t pay or makes your life miserable will cost you dearly and isn’t worth the price, and you’re on your way to working smarter instead of harder.  The next time your gut says no or whoa – listen, slow down and consider the consequences.  Set your mind to turn away clients that don’t fit and wait for employees that do and you’ll be amazed at how more profitable and in-demand you become.

Do you have a story about an employee or client that you want to share? Questions on warning signs you may sense but need confirmation on relative to hires or clients? Great experiences you want to tell to serve as models for others? Ideas others can benefit from? Please leave a comment below to get the conversation going.

Guest post from Alli Farkas

Note from Nanette: I approached Alli asking if she’d like to guest post on this blog because I was impressed with her story, have known a lot of artists who struggle and found her pricing for customized equine portraits to be very reasonable. Her services seem appealing to the novices the Horse Sense and Cents™ book series was designed to help. She surprised me with what she provided, but I think everyone can benefit from the personal experience marketing tutorial she provides below. Please comment with your thoughts on this post (and let me know what you’d like to see in future guest posts) and visit Alli’s website at www.allifarkas.com for more information on her portrait services.

From the voice of Alli Farkas:

My two passions, art and horses, combine nicely. There must be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of equine artists out there. One of the things I realized early on is that the field is incredibly crowded.

It was at that point that I consulted the now rather quaint tomes in the “Guerrilla Marketing” series by Jay Conrad Levinson. These books first started appearing in 1984 and were geared toward folks starting their own small businesses, whether at home or a stand-alone location. Many of the principles extolled over 25 years ago still apply in the age of the internet—they just need to be adapted to modern technology.

A few of these ideas have helped me weather the trials of getting started as a portrait artist. For example: welcoming, friendly small-talk puts people at ease and shows them that you are interested in them as people and not just potential buyers. People who are buying something that is custom-created for them want to be comfortable with the person they will be partnering with.

Next, to survive in a crowded market you must make yourself stand out. One of the best ways to do this is by offering exceptional customer service. I can help a sale by being clear about what I offer, what the terms are, and what lengths I will go to in order to ensure customer satisfaction. I also make an effort to stand out by keeping my prices affordable.

Promotion and advertising are also extremely important. I try to pick my ad venues judiciously; while I know I have to spend money, I don’t want to spend huge amounts in unproductive areas. The current recession may make a lot of people think they should pull back on their advertising because nobody’s buying anything anyway. But this is a tactic that will cost you more in the long run. Advertise now, and when the economy starts to come around and people have a little extra money again, they will be more likely to remember your name or business if they’ve been exposed to it all along.

The internet has taken the place of the previously all-important mailing lists. I had been reading, especially in Art Calendar Magazine, about the myriad ways to put the internet to work for artists—but I had been sluggish about mustering the effort to acquire the skills to do so. I lost some valuable time by delaying, but once I got the information out there people started to find me. I can now tell hundreds of people I have a gallery show coming up with just a few clicks of the mouse. No postcards, no postage, no meticulous maintenance of mailing lists. Customers can see dozens of my paintings without visiting my studio. Everyone can read in excruciating detail every high and low point of my horse portrait adventure on my blog. Ah…heaven!

I want to reassure you that when you take on a new challenge, you are going to make tons of mistakes. The only real mistake is not fixing them so you can move on to your new improved method. Some of my early missteps included putting the sample portraits in the back of the booth (behind me) instead of on

My first booth at Lamplight

the sides at the front. Nobody wanted to walk back there for a closer look! Putting only one large business sign in the back was also a mistake. Another sign in the walkway out front now lets people know about my business way before they even get to the booth.

A later version of my booth improved to be more customer friendly

Whatever your passion is—horse-related or not—don’t be afraid to get out there and make your mistakes. Keep your eyes and your mind open, and solutions and new ideas will come to you. According to Guerrilla Marketing, “overnight” success for a small or home-based business would be about a year. A “normal” success is probably more like three years. So I still have a little over two more years to prove myself before I start to make any heavy decisions about the worthiness of my endeavor. In the meantime, I’m treating it as if I just started yesterday!

Over the past two days, I have been touched by the number of people I’ve never met (and a good number who I’ve spend a lot of face-to-face time with) that have sent birthday wishes my way through e-mail greetings and various social media sites (April, 12, 1964, for those who are curious enough to wonder). Most of the cyber buddies are people who share a passion for horses. It is amazing how globally connected we have become with friends we may never physically meet.

Today, I also received a birthday greeting from a site I had not visited. I thought this was a brilliant idea (OK – I’ll give them the plug for their creative use of technology because it did prompt me to visit the site – it’s www.horsechitchat.com). I’ve sent them a message asking where they found my name and birthday (it will be interesting to see if they respond – that will say a lot about how serious they are in using technology for engagement). Likely, it was Facebook, or Twitter, or Linked In or Plaxo . . . . It really doesn’t matter where, but I am curious to learn how they are automating this outreach.

Of course, they were clever in how they presented the message – no sales pitch, no link (that would have saved me from having to look up and keystroke the website, but I think it was a good strategy to avoid the overtones of a pitch), no self-directed talk. Just a kind and simple happy birthday wish. Of course, the intent was to drive me to their business site in the hopes of gaining a new customer, but the subtle approach made me feel like I directed the decision to check them out.

With today’s social media, building relationships is becoming more critical than ever. People have never liked an obvious pitch, but now they’re turning to their computer keyboard (or cell phone, or Blackberry or . . .) to tell all when they’re treated rudely. Conversely, good experiences get shouted out in broadcasts to the masses.

It’s not that hard to operate with character and integrity. In fact, today, it’s a lot tougher not to because word spreads quickly and the cost of being called out is immense. The internet also provides great tools for inventive and thoughtful ways to reach out to those who can help bolster your business or personal aims. People are now disclosing information that would have been considered private and tough to get in prior years. They’re easy to find and talk to. It’s about giving before getting, though, and if you want to make social media work for you equine business, be prepared to show you care first, before you ask for business.

How do you reach out through cyber space to make other’s feel special? Please share your brilliance in the comments to this post.

Today, it’s my birthday, so besides crafting this post and focusing on urgent client and vendor deliverables, I’m making it a me day. I’m really looking forward to learning from your input, though, tomorrow.

It’s amazing how many stupid rule decisions get made without considering the associated costs of annoying clients. If you’re an equine professional, selling to the small business market or a horse membership organization decision maker do you think about the customers’ reactions with efficiency or protection ideas? Today’s talkative social media environment demands you confirm the message you send with policy that isn’t offending those you purport to serve.

Social media and technology can hurt you

Do you have procedures in place that say you don’t trust your customers? How much confidence they should put in you? Are you so focused on collections that you implement blanket approaches that fail to consider the longevity, character, history and relationship with important business supporters? How will loyal and trusted centers-of-influence react to this? Have you delegated operational activities to an automated system or person who doesn’t recognize the importance of the relationships you’ve built? What is your reaction to an impersonal, procedural message from an organization you’ve helped build? Do you subscribe to rigid rules that don’t consider mitigating circumstances? Are you prepared to lose some of your most valued and valuable followers?

So many are singing the praises of technology and how much time it can save. Time saved doesn’t mean much if you’re losing clients and supporters. Consider this as you embrace another efficient approach or caustic policy to supposedly underscore your business or organizational goals. You may find it does anything but. With huge numbers embracing the internet and its delivery tools, word spreads faster every day. The question is – what words will they be saying about you?

Chasing away referral agents?

Recently, BookConductors, LLC ® hired a new vendor to help support an equine book series. Great experience with the skill and responsiveness of the team, but this was clouded by a policy process that demonstrates they don’t trust their clients. It’s a sad introduction to the company that unnecessarily undermines the experience. Full payment before deliverables, sign-offs on minutia and defensively worded contracts sent an overriding message that cast-in-stone procedures are more important than building client rapport. Will I continue to use them as a service provider – probably. Will I recommend them to others – probably not. Sadly, I would have sung their praises loudly if they didn’t make me feel like a suspected criminal. Short-sighted.

Alienating your best clients?

The farm mortgage holder has recently decided best practices include engaging an India-based telemarketing firm to call all clients the minute the grace period starts for payments, lying with a message that the payment is late in a manner that is insulting and hostile. This may be an effective way to hang on to some of their lousiest clients, but those with the credit scores and equity to walk will be gone from their portfolio if this continues. Dumb.  

Membership organization losses?

This year, Halcyon Acres left a rare breed association we had given a lot to (including time on the BOD). Sadly, it seems organizations created to help bloodlines avoid extinction draw the crazies (a wise member suggested this was because they had been kicked out of all the popular breed registries). In this case, a tiny minority is determined to drive the culture into combative factions with related actions that chase out any contributors with equine knowledge and success. To the manipulators, this game presents delightful wins that allows them to look important and stay entrenched as gurus.  It’s killing the organization and the breed. The members best equipped to help support the breed and the society leave – along with a good number of others who quickly surmise there’s little to be gained from association and potentially a lot to lose. All the money from membership, registration, advertising, donations, outreach, etc. with this desertion is gone, along with any positive words to support the reputation of the organization. Guess where majority effort is put to spur the conflict – the online forums. Silly.

Dig your own grave

I don’t have much sympathy for those companies and organizations that whine when they’ve fostered their own demise. If you’re alienating your best customers, you deserve to fail.

The economy is admittedly tough right now, but I’m not hearing of struggles from those who operate with character, integrity and smarts. Think about how fear or self-centeredness is affecting your message. Have you tallied the costs? If policy is king without a means to assess how this may jade some of your most valuable existing or potential customers, you’re asking for a hurting that’s probably justified.

There are ways to protect yourself without making your clients feel like dirt. Inflexible mandates targeting the lousiest customers don’t usually work well with the best. Instead of systems designed to handle the least important prospects/clients, think about how you can rise above the norm by making your most valued customers and prospects feel like royalty with a personalized approached. Technology and/or systems can save you a lot of time, done right, but when it replaces all personal interface, you lose.

Friday’s Opinion

Why do some marketers still feel being an aggressive, hostile and avoided herd member is a good thing? Sadly, the very old-school, two-by-four, forget-about-the-audience culture, sell, sell, sell, in-your-face approach is becoming common on some of the social media sites that used to be immune. How can intimidating your buyers into compliance and/or chiming in only to promote your wares in communities that are designed to support each other build good will? Beats me. I see a good number of equine related endeavors (that curiously don’t seem to have any horsemanship in the mix) being rude to their intended audience by ignoring the group needs and feeling justified demanding respect. Curious. I have a mare here now like that – no one likes her, or follows her, but she does get her feed and water first. She’s lonely, though, and I suspect, very insecure.

Even after twenty years in the marketing industry (yes, there is another revenue stream), I continue to scratch my head about those who take such an approach – and conclude it works. Sure, they may boast fat cat status initially from bullying or self-serving methods, but there’s little happy involved in the mix, particularly when those who aren’t part of their cult start calling them on their actions.

Social media networks – build or destroy

Social media is becoming an increasingly important platform for those who seek to build relationships with potential centers-of-influence, buyers, vendors, collaborators and supporters. It boggles the mind that some (sadly, this seems to be most prevalent among those who label themselves marketing professionals – don’t imagine anyone else would) still feel the used-car-salesman approach (sorry to those who sell used cars – this is probably a bigger slight than you deserve) is a good way to do business. Of course, this also begs the question, how would anyone with integrity ever find this a satisfactory method?

Free speech doesn’t work for the daft

Fortunately, we live in a world where freedom of expression is encouraged in most countries (at least for now). You’d think this liberty would foster an opportunity for all to gather the smarts to recognize stupid approaches which create more bad will than good don’t develop long-term prosperous businesses. Horse herds allow freedom of expression too – and immediate ramifications for poor behavior. Too bad we’re not as adept as a society at banishing and discouraging the bad actor as our equine counterparts.

Unethical horse dealers – you lose

Over twenty-five years ago, I started interfacing with horse dealers supplying lesson and boarder horses for facilities I managed. I was dumbfounded by the short-sightedness of some who knowingly sold an unsuitable horse for the quick buck. Catch me once . . . these charlatans made $500-$1000 on a single sale at the time, but lost a potential exponential revenue stream that could have come from honest transactions. Had one who preyed on the novice riders with the spiel that horses never ridden and inexperienced riders are an ideal match because they grow together. He not only lost any future business at the stable (he was banned from the property), but also lost a potential huge revenue stream associated with the necessary lesson and trail horses required for the business.  I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now. Lairs are worse than ignorant and abusive marketers in the equine industry. With the advent of the internet and the bevy seeking out online opinions, word will spread faster of such practices now than they ever did way back when.

Horse herds and horsemen unite

As most of the world seem s to be getting more savvy about filtering out and broadcasting about the hype-masters, charlatans and bad eggs, let’s hope we see a new world where those who operate with character, integrity, honesty and good-will no longer find it necessary to deflects attacks from those who have been dragged through the mud by less ethical operators.

Horse herd dynamics can teach us a lot about communications, marketing and leadership. Usually there are two in the herd that get primary notice. One mare is selfish and wins first dibs, commands attention (avoidance), is left alone and disliked. There’s another who is kind, confident, understanding and fair. That’s the one the herd follows, appreciates and respects. Who would you rather emulate?

Do you have marketing, herd, leadership or business stories that have taught you lessons you’d like to share? Please include your experience in a comment below and get the conversation going.

Tim Van Loan launched www.HorseShoeCorner.com in July of 2008. It’s an interesting concept borne from personal challenges. While he’s still working on gaining critical mass to make it a regular destination for buyers, he has created some useful tools for those tired of trying to compare horse services and products.

Horse Sense and Cents for geographical markets

Basically, the site came about due to the frustrations he experienced searching for a suitable boarding facility in central New York State for dressage horses.  After a four hour search that discovered a perfect facility, until he realized it was in California, he saw a need for a better solution and started the research that became www.horseshoecorner.com. This site allows the viewer to put in geographic and facility parameters for 13 business types, which include boarding facilities, tack shops, massage therapists, trainers and more. The site also includes horses for sale, classified ads, a US national events calendar, discussion forums, articles and product reviews.

Virtual equine store needs more product

Right now, Tim says “I’ve built the largest equine store in the world, I just have empty shelves.” He’s looking to increase the number of equine businesses listed and is offering free membership to all for a three month period (and isn’t requiring he capture your credit card information to do so).  So, if you’re a horse service provider or sell equine products, this might be a sight worth trying to move your wares. We’ll be putting a link to the Horse Sense and Cents blog up there as soon as design is completed and if we can get a day without gray skies and ice, we’ll probably head out with a camera to capture some of the horses for sale at the farm. I can see a lot of ways we could use the site to promote Halcyon Acres services and plan on doing so in the near future. I’ll report back on the results. Of course, you can’t beat the price, so it’s a matter nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Horse non profits reside free here

Another interesting feature of this initiative is a not-for-profit component. It’s actually a clever business idea and I’ll be curious to see if it proves effective. Realizing critical mass is going to be necessary to attract visitors, Tim’s crafted a program where he offers non profits (interest seems to be coming primarily from the horse rescues) the profits for membership sales they make. The non profit will be able to sell the annual membership for a reduced rate of $30, $10 of which will go to horseshoecorner.com’s administrative costs, with the rest going to the organization. These organizations also get free membership to the site for a year.

What are you selling, or buying?

Right now members on the site come from a variety of states and the focus is not on New York. If you have tack or horses for sale, are an equine business, or work for an industry that supports horse activities, try it and feel free to comment here on what you find. If you want the free three-month membership, you need to contact Tim directly at either infohorseshoecornercom  infohorseshoecornercom   or (607) 369-2982. And for the feds now mandating full disclosure (and readers who want to know), there are no paybacks involved in this one. I just like what he’s trying to do and hope it works for him and us.

I imagine if my horses could manage a keyboard and were connected to the Internet, they’d have a lot to say about how dumb some people are when it comes to communications. In the herd, horses learn who to embrace and who to avoid and they follow the one who is courageous, caring, kind and fair in how they treat others.

Horses follow caring leaders

Relationship building is a purported hallmark the Web 2.0 movement and smart small business owners (most who got this long before the internet came to be) are incorporating the tools and technology afforded by this claimed new marketing think to bolster their businesses. The savvy ones are listening the herd of customers and prospects they’ve already lead with understanding and responsive solutions to concerns by selecting what works based on feedback from their trusting and supportive clan. They’re not wasting energy on what doesn’t work given welcome and forthcoming feedback from a respectful fan base. Of course, this has tremendous applications for equine professionals (and their approach to online communications is probably more telling than they would like on how they handle their human and horse students).

Ever feel like some people who are celebrating Web 2.0 as their sandbox and turf come at you with teeth bared and heels flying with their unrelenting “embrace me and my offerings” barrage of messages and never consider what might be comfortable for you? They may get an initial sale, but early buyers tend to lament their decision and warn others of the danger.

Do you sell, or get buy-in?

Usually there’s another mare in the herd who commands respect through fear (or in human terms, selfishness). She gets her pick of the hay pile, is first out of the gate and chases others away from water until she has her fill, but no one will follow her. They avoid her. Some commanding the Web 2.0 moniker as their platform for selling, using it a justified excuse to be in-your-face, fail to recognize their methods results in retreat. Sure, they might get a few early followers, but ultimately, the herd sways the lemmings away from the cliff.

Human or horse – herds tend to behave the same

I learned a lot about horses (and humans) when I fenced in 26 acres last year. Initially, I divided the herds for compatibility, but as time passed, horses were sold, and winter bore down, I culled out the broodmares (a requisite to weaning foals), and combined the rest. An interesting thing happened. I was most concerned about a client’s horse that had shown extreme aggressive behavior with the boys. I was worried about him hurting the babies with his dominant tendencies. He tried, and was immediately lambasted by a three-year-old filly (who’s the leader of the herd now) and banished for his actions. He is not permitted to eat with any of the other horses anymore and must wait until all others are settled with their feed before he gets his.

We do have another mare in the herd. She’s hostile, bossy and avoided. She gives her message in an obnoxious way and gets what she thinks she wants – but isn’t respected, just avoided.

So, how does this apply to social media (and combating some of the economic challenges the small business and horse industry is facing right now)?  If you’re there for others and show you care, they’ll follow you. Those who feel they can bully buyers with manipulative and self-centered approaches may get their way at first, but won’t likely gain a following.

Think about how you operate with people who are just getting to know you over the seemingly impersonal venue of the internet. Are you putting yourself out there as a leader willing to be on the line to help others gain security and traction, or are you operating with a selfish approach to making your needs heard without regard to how others may feel?

Get real

Horse or human, it’s not rocket science, but does seem to be an elusive insight for some. The buzz around the new Web 2.0 is no different than what successful small business owners have always known about being smart in building relationships and gaining traction with centers-of-influence. Give and you get exponentially. Do nothing but take, or defend your turf, and your gains will be fleeting.  Do you want to be avoided or embraced? It’s your choice, but don’t blame the herd if they choose to dismiss you.