Horse Boarding – What to Charge?What to charge is the most important financial decision you need to make if you are in the horse boarding business. If you get it wrong, you won’t be boarding horses very long. If your price is too high, you won’t have enough customers to make money. If your price is too low, you will lose money and burn through all your cash.There are many types of horse boarding; stall only, stall with full care, stall with a run, paddock, pasture, etc. There are many expenses, direct and indirect, variable and unpredictable, associated with each type of board. Setting the right charge will vary with each type of board. The direct cost associated with ...

Every business has a profit pencil, but no business as a cash pencil. What does that mean? What it means is, profit is an accounting opinion and cash is fact. You can fool yourself and others about your profit, but you can’t fool anyone about your cash. You can under or over report your profit by moving expenses and income to a different reporting period. But, you always need to know if you have enough cash to pay you help, pay yourself, purchase your feed in two weeks and make that truck payment on the 15th of the month. In a horse business, more so than most other businesses, budgeting and cash management are both extremely important. Cash flow is king in a horse business. However, ...

Branding is one of the most important activities within any business. Branding generates market awareness. Market awareness generates potential customers. Potential customers become customers. Customers buy your products. That was easy! Now the world knows about you, wants your product, you’re having fun making money, and life is good! From 50,000 feet you might think that is all that needs to happen if you want your business to become an icon in your market space and have the world demand your products. Unfortunately, at 50,000 feet it is difficult to see what really needs to happen unless you have the business discipline to take a high resolution look. When you are in business, ...

The majority of horse business people think their financial transactions are financial records they only need for filing their taxes, and occasionally satisfying their banker. While financial transactions are a starting point, and in some cases all you need for your taxes, they are not sufficient when your tax authority or banker requests supporting documentation. And don’t get caught in the ‘receipts are documentation’ trap! Receipts are only a small part of the supporting documentation a tax authority will want to see. Your tax authority will want you to prove that your financial transactions are legitimate and your business is viable if you are reporting a loss. Your ...