Build Your Horse Business Strategy for 2025 and Beyond
“Plan so that you can pivot.”
It’s almost New Year’s Eve. No time like the present to look at our horse business strategy and 2025 goals of our business.
We will
Revisit or develop our Mission statement
Map out our 5-year Vision for our business
Set Intentions looking out over three (3) years
Develop Goals and Objectives over the course of of the Next Year
Walk away with a Roadmap for the next 5 Years
Enhance our skills to Plan for the Unexpected
Learn why and how it’s important to apply goal setting and planning with our customers
Below you will be able to walk through this process yourself, however I find that we can dream even bigger and find opportunities we weren’t even thinking of when we employ the power of collaboration. Join me in the Equestripreneur Community for our Open Workshop (Build Your Strategy for 2025 and Beyond) on January 21st to do just that. This workshop is designed to help you leverage the power of community to think outside the box and develop our strategies together.
Whether you walk through the process below or save it for the Workshop, grab a pen and paper (or open your favorite note-taking app) and let’s get to work!
Your Mission Statement
Let’s determine Your Mission Statement (if don’t have one already). Think of this as defining your Why, or your North Star.
First, Identify Your Purpose
Ask: Why does your business exist?
Consider the core problem you are solving or the need you are fulfilling.
My Example: "To provide business coaching skills and resources to equine industry professionals.”
Next, Understand Your Audience
Determine who you serve (customers, clients, or communities).
Reflect on how you impact them positively.
My Example: "To empower equine industry professionals to build thriving businesses.”
Define Your Core Values
Highlight the principles that guide your actions (e.g., integrity, innovation, sustainability).
Ensure these values resonate with your stakeholders.
My Example: “At Equestripreneur we believe in connection, camaraderie, and continued learning.”
Set Clear Objectives
Focus on what you want to achieve (your goals).
Avoid jargon; be concise and clear.
My Example: "To enable equine industry professionals to be more successful and profitable in their business.”
Keep It Simple and Memorable
Aim for 1-2 sentences.
Avoid complexity; focus on clarity and impact.
My Example: "To make business coaching accessible and affordable for all equine industry professionals through connection, camaraderie, and continued learning.”
Struggling with any step of this process? Join the Workshop on January 21st to work on it in the Equestripreneur Community and benefit from the diverse perspective brainstorming with others brings us.
Your Strategic Vision and Plan
Now that you have your Mission Statement, we’ll get right to it. As we walk through developing our Strategic Vision and Plan below, we always want to keep our Mission top of mind and map our results against it to ensure alignment to what is really driving us.
Let’s Start with the 5 Year Vision
Close your eyes. Imagine that it's five years from now. Where do you want to be professionally? What will your business look like?
Think of this in context of your personal and social/relational life, too (friends, family, community, etc). Important, as neither happens in a vacuum.
Will you be running a business that hasn't increased significantly in size? Will you command a rapidly growing empire?
Now is a good time to free-associate. Let your mind roam. Explore every avenue you want your business to go down.
Write down your 5 year business, personal, and relational/social goals. When I have the time, I like to do this in the form of a letter written to myself five years in the future, describing all I have accomplished or how things have changed.
Take a look at what you wrote. Was there anything surprising? Does what you visualized align with your Mission? Revisit the process as many times as you feel you need to for this alignment. You’re developing your Vision.
In the Workshop on January 21st we will break into small groups to look at our Vision together. This is especially important if we’re struggling with alignment between our Mission and Vision. You never know what new insight someone will share that helps you.
Let’s Peel this Back: 3-Year Intentions
To get where we want in 5 years, where should we be in 3 years? Take a few minutes to visualize and write this down.
What we’re doing here is setting our Intentions. Without a solid understanding of our intentions in business, our goals are likely to lack coherence. They will ultimately prove ineffective as they compete with each other and external factors day-to-day without clear prioritization.
Finally, Let’s Look at Setting Goals for This Year
Look out over the next year. What goals and objectives can you set that you can realistically achieve within a 1-year timeframe? They should be easily measurable and help you meet the long-term intentions and vision you have already set.
Examples include:
Minimizing business expenses to increase my overall profits
Expanding existing services to increase revenue
Rolling out a new product or service to replace a percentage of my revenue that is more in line with my vision
Some ways to think about goal setting:
Improvement Goals - What would it look like if you were to be fully successful in realizing this goal?
Doing / Not Doing - What are you currently doing and not doing that gets in the way of your improvement goals? What new thoughts, feelings, or actions would you need to make?
Hidden / Competing Commitments - Resources are finite. Are there other commitments you have made that may impact your ability to meet certain goals, intentions, or your vision? How might these need to shift in the coming year?
Big Assumptions - While not necessarily immediately impactful, assumptions are just that - they may or may not happen. Have you explored alternative scenarios, should you need to pivot during the course of the year?
What cognitive, social, or emotional behaviors impact your ability to reach your goals? Will certain objectives help you get back on track? What can you change to reduce or eliminate their impact?
What first steps will move you forward toward your Improvement Goals?
Cycle considerations - Is your business cyclical? Impacted by the seasons? Consider these impacts when setting your goals and objectives. Can we start taking steps to align our strategy with these impacts?
If you have the time, and enjoyed doing it in the 5-Year Vision Exercise above, write a 1-Year letter to yourself to capture these goals, too.
Now, take a look at all that you’ve written down. You have a 5-Year Strategic Vision, a 3-Year set of Intentions, and several One Year Goals and Objectives to help you get where you want to go. The new year is just around the corner. Let’s start implementing them today!
Plan for a Pivot
In the Equestripreneur membership I emphasize building flexibility into our strategy.
It’s important that we consider things like
Identifying potential market shifts
Regularly gathering feedback from customers
Diversifying our revenue streams
Developing adaptable skills
Recognizing and accounting for multiple prospective outcomes
When considering taking on something new, map it against your Mission and Intentions above. Do they align? Should this be prioritized?
I recognize some things are transitional. For example, you may need to bring in client horses for training now to fill the gap and pay the bills until you have your own established breeding program flourishing such that you can train and sell your own horses. That being said, if you keep your eye on your Mission and your long term Vision, and understand where these transitional pieces serve as a means to get you there, you will continue to move the direction instead of getting pulled off course trying to chase a dollar or react to unexpected scenarios.
Things don’t always go as we expect - in our business, personal, or relational/social lives. For example, transition opportunities aren’t always just a means to an end. We may find that we really enjoy that transitional service more than we expected and it ultimately serves as a catalyst to change our goals, intentions, and vision. Perhaps an unexpected change occurs in a family member’s status that is leaving us with different long-term goals than we originally anticipated. That’s why we plan, so that we can quickly and easily pivot and adjust the direction of our Vision, Intentions, and Goals as life requires.
Join us in The Herd Membership, opening in January, where we host a Quarterly Strategy and Planning Workshop to create space to do just that!
Bonus: Do this Exercise with Your Clients!
Working with your clients to set goals between you, their horse, and themselves has many benefits:
Gives you and your client something to look forward to and work toward throughout the year
Sets a clear direction in the partnership
Provides realistic expectations management
Creates perspective alignment in the relationship
Take the above process and adapt it in your business.
Want a worksheet you can use with your clients? Join us at the January 21st Workshop to get one or find one in The Herd Membership when it opens in mid-January!
Hugs and Happy Riding!
Kristin
_____________________________________________
If you have questions, want help with your business operations, or want to learn more about the Equestripreneur Community, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Equestripreneur offers coaching and community for equine business owners like you!
Learn more about author Kristin Bowers.
Blog posts from Equestripreneur are not meant to replace individual professional advice, which will best inform personal circumstances.
Comments