Diversifying can give you options throughout your career. Focusing tightly on one aspect of business can leave you in a lurch if you’re hurt or life changes affect your ability to work.
By Casey Hinton, With Jennifer Paulson
When you begin your career as an assistant, your eyes are probably on starting your own business at some point. Early in your career, it can be easy to have tunnel vision and focus solely on training aged-event horses, for example. I’m here to tell you that thinking about diversification can enhance your profitability now and into the future, as well as give your career a path when you no longer want to ride colts for a living.
I’ll explain my diversification triangle and how it can be helpful at all phases of your career, then I’ll discuss finding your niche and why your reputation matters in each of the three aspects of the triangle
The Triangle
This concept of a triangle came to me after I’d been injured in a riding accident. My focus had been strictly on training horses, but my perspective changed after I was hurt and couldn’t ride. If I couldn’t ride, that meant I couldn’t make money. Not riding opened a whole new can of problems that could’ve been avoided if my income wasn’t solely based on riding horses.
This shift of perspective can also come when you reach a phase in your career when you no longer want to ride horses or maybe you want to slow down or even retire. It’s hard to do that when your career is based on one thing.
Here are the three sides of the diversification triangle that I figured out for my business. Yours might be different when you figure out your niche (I’ll cover that later in this article), but this is a start.
- Horse Training. This is where most of us start our careers. When training horses, you’re in the service business. You’re coaching non pro and youth riders, giving lessons, showing horses for customers, hauling horses to shows—these are all services. Your reputation as you grow into opening your own training business is core to getting clients, keeping them, and having them refer more clients to you. The manner in which you provide services is the key to building your reputation.
- Breeding. The breeding business includes all aspects, from managing a stud to mare care to collecting and transporting semen to selling weanlings and yearlings. It’s a combination of selling a service and a product. Your service comes in the form of buttoning up all contracts, keeping a clean facility, and helping customers find what they’re looking for. The product you’re selling is the semen, delivering a live foal, the yearling you’re selling, etc. This combination requires both elements—service and product—for this leg of the triangle.
- Horse Sales. This leg of the triangle is mostly based on the product—the horse you’re selling—although you must provide good customer service and have a solid reputation to be successful, too. I have all of my help invest in a yearling each year. They learn what goes into prepping the product for sale, which broadens their skill set past only training horses, and it helps them invest in their own futures.
I know that training horses is what we all enjoy and is the main reason why we got into this business, but it can’t be the sole focus of your endeavor if you want longevity and more profitability. When you’re diversified, if you get hurt riding, you won’t lose everything because you don’t have to be able to ride to breed mares or sell horses. Or if your stud dies suddenly, you can rely on your training and horse sales.
Find Your Niche
One of those three elements in my triangle might not be something you’re interested, but that doesn’t mean you can’t diversify. This industry offers many facets for you to participate in. Hauling horses, managing recipient mares, selling tack, judging—these all represent other means if diversification. As you age, maybe you transition from riding colts to coaching and consulting on other trainers’ stock. Adaptability is key.
Your location can also set parameters for your opportunities to diversify. When we were in Arizona, we didn’t have the land and grass to keep a lot of horses around for sale or breeding stock. Moving to Texas allowed us to expand our operation and diversify.
Reputation Matters
In all aspects of business, your reputation matters. How you conduct yourself in business sets the tone for how (and if) people interact with you. In an industry that’s as small as ours—where word travels fast—how you handle your business dealings can make or break your business, no matter how diversified you are. Earn respect by acting with professionalism, doing what you say you’ll do, and standing behind the services and products you sell.
Additionally, hiring a great team is essential and reflects on you. You can’t do it all yourself once you reach a certain level of success. Build a culture of respect and responsibility among your employees, but remember it’s up to you as the leader to keep your business pointed in the right direction.
