published: April 30th, 2010
Tips for riding buisness?
I’ve been giving riding lessons for a while now. The last few yrs i’ve only done it over the summer when I go home from school. This year I’m staying up at school because I got a job at a tack store and I don’t want to lose it.
I made a website and put flyer’s up but I haven’t gotten a lot of feed back from people.
I’m sure part of this is because:
A- the economy sucks right now.
B- the horse market in this area is not what it is back home.
C- i’m not well known in this area and I’m a traveling trainer aka free lance trainer.
On my website there are some things that do need fixing.
The pics ain’t very good. (most of my training pics are at home and my mom can’t use a computer to send them to me). I need to find time to go home and get them.
My reference page isn’t done because a few people have not emailed there’s in to me yet and I don’t want to post only 1 or 2…
search: cove crest show stables (I tried to post a link but answers wouldn’t let me) also I’m not changing the name even though it gives the impression of a facility.
Any suggestion?
A WEEBLY page? No. You don’t use free hosts – and advertise it – for a business. Try someone like bluehost. You can find something decent for about $60 a year. For most people, the website is going to be their first impression of you so splurge a little. If I saw a flyer and the website said http://covecrestfarm.WEEBLY.com/ I wouldn’t even bother looking. If they can’t afford a real website, they can’t afford basic training necessities.
You are right about the photos. I am thoroughly unimpressed with the only riding one. It looks old and isn’t very good anyway, both in quality and in riding. I want to see photos of the ring, the barn, the other riders also. You need to give me an intro of your barn through your site if you want my business. There are plenty of other barns out there and I can easily find one that isn’t afraid to post photos of their facilities (which is what I assume now because nearly every barn I have looked at with a no photo site has turned out to be a junkyard with a pasture)
The site is very boring. I don’t really care to keep reading. Pictures, fun little blurbs about "rider of the month", and local events will spice it up.
About the trainer should not be the first tab. That is important, yes, but I want to know about the facilities first. And why is everything underlined and asterisked? It makes it look like one big, hard to read link.
Business cards, more fliers (horse shows, tack stores, feed stores), craigslist, and good ol’ word of mouth are good ways to get your name out there. Make friends with other trainers in the area. Then, if they get a call but don’t want to take on another horse/rider, they can refer them to you. Also let the vet and farrier and anyone else who comes out know you are looking for clients – I have been referred to so many people by my farrier. He is like the gossip and news liaison between my small barn and the rest of the horse world.
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