Three Ways to Improve Your Eventing Business’s Financial Flow
The following is provided through a partnership between STRIDER and the USEA.
As part of our commitment to diversity, enabling access, and building capacity throughout the industry, we are pleased to provide this article, originally published on USEventing.com, to benefit the sport of eventing.
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“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it,” says leadership expert and author Simon Sinek. As the equestrian industry is passion-driven, there is perhaps no quote better suited to eventing professionals. Driven by love for the horse and the sport, finances can seem more of a necessary evil than a motivating factor for business owners and operators in the equestrian space.
Because Team STRIDER aims to help build capacity throughout the industry and help businesses to scale effectively, we’ve compiled a few quick tips to improve financial flow for eventing professionals.
Get Creative With Revenue Streams
Consider how you might creatively expand your offerings. Can you take advantage of your facility and offer hourly rentals of your arena when it’s not being used for training or lessons? Perhaps your off-season from competition lends itself to your team’s ability to host grooming or unmounted clinics of some type.
Make it Easy For Folks to Pay
Digital payment tools are an essential investment for your eventing business. It makes it very difficult for riders to “forget” to pay you when they can do it from a cell phone in seconds.
Pick one or two that work for you (and for your clientele!). There are myriad options (PayPal, Venmo for business, Stripe, for example) associated with varied benefits and processing fees. Invest your time in sorting out which will best suit your needs and help your clients pay you promptly and efficiently.
We’ve seen the most success when businesses have between one and three payment options for clients. Yes, you could have 10 different ways for folks to pay, but let’s not encourage decision fatigue and confusion brought on by too many options!
Remember you may have to change your fee structure slightly to account for processing fees…that is to be expected.
Work Smarter, Not (necessarily) Harder
Leverage your marketing through social media, email, and your website. Take advantage of that digital toolkit, which includes your payment and scheduling tools.
Remember that longer hours won’t necessarily be better for your business’s bottom line. Look at some of the other tips we’ve shared in the past few months for more ideas! Find our handy business toolkit for eventers here and marketing how-tos here.
Small changes to your business operations can have significant and lasting effects for the better. And more efficient practices for your business can mean you get more time to do what you love.
Happy riding!
STRIDER is the leading entry platform across disciplines for the equestrian industry.
From enabling riders to discover and book the perfect opportunity to helping equestrians across the industry grow and run their businesses, STRIDER fosters connections to top-tier experiences. Please visit www.striderpro.com to learn more about the suite of software products and services available.