Happy New Year

In her first blog post, EEA's new Board member, Ali Dane shares her New Year top tips for equestrian business owners.

"Hopefully, everyone has made it through the festive period without too many dramas; we all know that horses (and clients!) are excellent at throwing in a curveball at the least convenient times.

Firstly, an introduction: My name is Ali Dane – yard owner of 14 years, qualified coach, dressage judge, coach educator, and rider.

As an employer, I have benefitted hugely from being an EEA member, from advice about employment law, to help with creating our staff handbook and everything in between. We all know that employing staff can be full of potential pitfalls, but I can honestly say that having the support of the EEA makes it all much easier to navigate. I have also recently joined the EEA and BGA board as a non-executive director; a role I was very keen to take on, as I feel passionate about making the equestrian industry as positive a place to work as possible.

As I type this, I’m entering my eight month of pregnancy, and truth be told, I’m hugely fed up with carrying a tiny human around 24/7 and can’t wait to meet the little guy soon. I’m slowly winding down from yard work and riding – my staff have been amazing throughout, going above and beyond, picking up my slack when I’ve been too sick or sore to be much use and putting up with me when I’ve been frustrated and/or grumpy at being restricted in what I can do. I’m sure most horsey people can empathise when I say that I’m useless at ‘taking it easy’. I’ve therefore signed up for as much judge and coach development training as I can fit in, as well as brushing up on knowledge from my business degree.

Winter is inevitably an expensive time for us as a collective, but it’s also seriously labour intensive, so it’s very easy to put admin and business management exercises on the back burner, at least until life gets a bit easier in the spring. Usually at this time of year I’d do a review of hay, bedding and feed use per month, check the average number of hours each staff member is working and see whether there were any pressing maintenance issues that would need to be resolved early in the year.

However, this year I’ve kept a much closer eye on our water and electricity use, and even set my staff monthly targets with incentives for keeping below a certain amount of each. I’ve also done a comprehensive review of all our insurance policies and taken a good hard look at my prices, to make sure that all liveries are turning a profit each month – I am a firm believer that yards CAN and SHOULD make a profit (even if it’s a dirty word in our world!) and we should absolutely not be afraid to increase our prices in order to do so.

My price increases take effect on 1^st January each year, and the letters went out to clients on 1^st November last year, so they had ample warning. Staff are given a pay rise, effective 1^st January each year too. My price increase this year is higher than previous years, due to my direct business costs increasing exponentially.

One other thing that we horse people usually dread doing at this time of year is our tax return! If you haven’t done so already, get your paperwork in order and get on with it – you’ll feel so much better once it’s done. Try not to leave it until 11pm on 31^st January, just in case there are any receipts or invoices missing, or discrepancies that need dealing with. Of course, in an ideal world, we’d all get our tax returns done at the business year-end, and we’d know exactly how much tax we were liable for well in advance, so we don’t have to suddenly find money at a time of year that’s typically financially difficult anyway.  

Hopefully, by the time I write my next blog, our newest (two legged!) addition will have arrived safely! Until then, take care, keep warm and dry as far as possible, and should you encounter any employment related issues, please do make the most of the EEA – it’s a veritable hive of information!"

Ali

The Equestrian Employers Association has been created to help employers of all sizes of business to be compliant, thereby helping you to protect your business. Your team are key to the performance and development of your business which is why looking after them is so important.