A Case For “Working Less” In An Industry That Values “Hard Work”
Let me guess, you’ve had the thought “The harder I work, the more my business will grow.” Or maybe deep down you believe, “The more hours I work, the more money I make.”
These are already common misconceptions people have in the business world, but it’s even worse for the equestrian industry. The equestrian industry is one that prides itself on needing to give your blood, sweat, and tears to make it in this world. That there isn’t any room for those who don’t want to work hard. If you aren’t willing to break your back for this world, there’s someone else who will.
It’s an interesting industry for me to observe as someone who didn’t grow up in the equestrian industry. I grew up in the tech industry, where laziness is rewarded. When you work for deep pockets, you could create elaborate solutions and spend a lot of money doing it. But you were most rewarded when you could be efficient, effective, and simple. It was a world where more work does not equal more money... In fact, it could mean the opposite.
Let’s Slow Down To Speed Up
What is the reason behind why you created your business? And there may be a few. Some common examples I hear the most often are to have more time freedom, the ability to go to the barn whenever you want, to never have to ask your boss for PTO again, to have enough financial freedom to pay for all your vet bills or to buy the house, or take nice vacations. Maybe you want to be your own boss; you’re tired of having to do work to grow someone else’s wealth.
Now, what is the goal of your business? Most people confuse this as the goal of why they created it. But the ultimate goal of your business is to make money. If it’s not, it’s more likely you have a hobby on your hands, and this discussion on automation may not be beneficial for you.
Breaking Down Those Money Mindset Limiting Beliefs
Did you resonate with the idea above?
“The more hours I work, the more money I make.”
This is the most common limiting belief I see when working with equestrian entrepreneurs. This thought is more aligned with an employee mindset. “My time is my value.” As an entrepreneur, your time is not your value. Your value is your idea. It’s your vision that you are bringing to your business. And in fact, as the leader of your business the more time you spend away from focusing on the vision, the less growth potential your business will have. The more time you are spending doing emails, administrative tasks, building landing pages - whatever your admin work is, the less growth you’ll have.
If you want to run the most successful business and create the most profit, you’re going to need to have a mindset that working hard does not mean you will make more money. Working efficiently, working in the areas that are your true genius zone, and then automating and delegating the rest is how you will have the most successful business. In fact, if you do not get into the constant mindset of looking for ways to automate your business, you will frankly get left behind.
Your Automation Focus
We want to focus on your money maker. What is the one thing (and I mean one!) you are doing to bring in your revenue. For On Course Equestrian, that’s online business training. Nothing else, just selling online training. Pick your one thing.
Next, who do you serve? Lucky for you, you’re already niched down if you’re focusing on the equestrian space. If you can niche down more, that’s perfect.
Finally, how do you want to serve them? Do you want to show up and do face to face coaching? What values do you want to bring to your customers?
Answering these questions will guide you to exactly what you should focus on automating. Your goal is now to create consistent, predictable revenue for that one thing that brings in money for your equestrian business.
The Unforeseen Roadblock
Where do most people fail? They think creating consistent, predictable revenue means they need to create new products or service offerings every day of the week. This is not it!! This will take your focus off of your money maker and put you in a worse spot.
Most people get shiny object syndrome and don’t last long enough to see the rewards. What they did not realize is that if they had stayed the course and in their zone of genius, they would have started to see results.
How? By slowly tweaking the processes you have around your money-maker. Now that we know who we’re serving and how we want to serve them, does your marketing need to make a small shift? Maybe your ideal client wants to see more of what the end results will look like for them and less of what goes on behind the scenes in your business. Does the product need a small shift? Maybe your audience loves the way your breeches fit but wish you had the style in more neutral colors.
Ready To Get Started?
Hopefully by now, your wheels are turning on why switching your mindset in a way that gets your business to work harder for YOU versus the other way around, may be the right direction to take in your business.
If you want to dive into the details on how to automate your business, I’m sharing my Automation Masterclass inside On Course Equestrian’s The Stable Society this month. I’ll be breaking down the exact automated sales funnel I use and specific examples for how you can start automating your business in manageable yet extremely effective ways. There may just be a new FREE masterclass dropping Mid-May that will get you promo pricing into The Stable Society to access the automation training and more, *wink wink*.
To learn more about what we offer at On Course Equestrian, head to: oncourseequestrian.co. To follow us on Instagram, check out: @OnCourseEquestrian and @VictoriaLynnEquestrian. Finally, if you haven’t made the jump into equestrian entrepreneurship yet, sign up for this training: oncourseequestrian.co/Business-101-Masterclass
The Story Behind On Course
We're passionate about empowering our equestrian community and have seen the huge lack of business and marketing resources for the equestrian industry. We created On Course as a business, career, and entrepreneurial resource specifically designed for the horse world – what works in other industries doesn't always translate here, but we know how the equestrian industry operates, how horse people think, and what strategies are proven to get results.
On Course Equestrian is your hub for actionable, practical, results-getting resources for your equestrian business, brand, or career, as well as a supportive network and community of industry experts and fellow equestrian businesswomen.
Victoria Gibilterra
Founder & CEO of On Course Equestrian
Hi there! My work focuses on any and all things related to the internal business growth as well as client relationship management. My day job is a Cyber Defense Manager at a Fortune 300 company working with clients to transform their Cyber Defense strategy and operations.
Outside of the office, I'm an amateur eventer in Phoenix, Arizona and recently started working with an OTTB, Milo. I'm focused on giving back to my community and spend time on the board of Ellevate Phoenix; working to develop women in leadership in the Greater Phoenix area. During my free time, you can find me at home hanging by the pool with my fiancé, Nick, and two dogs, Leo and Roxie.
Article submitted by Victoria Gibilterra
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