Reverse Engineering Your Goals: Why September is The Best Time To Refocus Your Equestrian Business

Photo by Lillie Ratcliffe Photography

For equestrian business owners, September is more than just the start of fall—it’s a golden window of opportunity. The busy summer season of shows, clinics, and long daylight hours may have left you stretched thin, but now comes a natural pause. The horses are still in work, but routines settle, clients return from holidays, kids go back to school and there’s space to breathe.

Unlike January, which often brings pressure and vague resolutions, September is the true reset button for equestrian businesses. It is the second new year in my experience!

At the time of writing this article, there are 18 weeks left in the year, and you still have time to make powerful progress before the year ends. The key is to approach your goals strategically—by reverse engineering them, and getting a lot more clarity on your actions needed.

What Does Reverse Engineering Mean For Equestrian Businesses?

Reverse engineering is simply working backward from the outcome you want, breaking it down into clear, achievable steps. For equestrian business owners, this might look like:

1. Check in with your 2025 goal, and create an end-of-year goal. What would success look like for your business on 31st December? More full training livery spaces filled? A clinic series booked solid? A smoother client booking system? Higher revenue from coaching packages? More products sold online or in a store?

   
   

2. Break it down by month. With 18 weeks to play with, that’s just over four months. Map out where you need to be by the end of September, October, November, and December to hit your goal.

   
   

3. Gain further clarity on your next actions and define the weekly actions. For example:

   • If your goal is 10 new clients by year-end, what marketing do you need to do each week? What’s worked in the past that you can double down on?

   • If your aim is stronger cash flow, what invoices need chasing, or what new service could you promote? Where could you create recurring revenue?

   
   

In short, what needs to happen to make the goal happen? 

If you’re selling products online, your key metrics are likely to be website visits and conversions, so what number of visits do you need a day/ week/ month? How can you increase conversions? Increase revenue with an upsell at checkout?

If you’re looking to increase boarding clients, or fill more appointments, how many leads and enquiries do you need? For instance, if you know that for every three people who you show round your training barn one person will become a client, and you want ten new clients, then you need to focus on filling these thirty ‘show rounds’.

Defining what happens to make the goal happen gives you much more clarity on your day-to-day actions to take. So many incredible business owners are so busy delivering their service, or creating their product, that there is limited time to work ‘on the business’. If that’s you, then it’s even more essential to know what to do! 

4. Track and refine. Horses teach us that progress is rarely linear. Some weeks gallop forward, others feel like setbacks. The power of reverse engineering is that you can adapt your plan without losing sight of the destination.

How To Get Started Today

• Choose one business goal that would make the biggest difference.

• Picture your December 31st outcome—specific numbers or results you want.

• Work backwards—map milestones month by month, week by week.

• Commit to consistent action. Even small daily tasks compound into big results, there’s at least 100 days until the end of the year, can you imagine the impact of 100 small actions? Imagine where you’d finish the year?

• Celebrate progress. Recognise each milestone, however small, to boost yourself, your team, and your clients.

Have fun with this, and I’ll leave you with a favourite saying from one of my clients- ‘consistency over intensity’! 

Photo by Lillie Ratcliffe Photography

Nicola Kinnard-Comedie (Msc, BHSAI Int. SM)

is the owner and founder of NKC Equestrian Training, delivering horse care training to horse owners and business and mindset coaching to equine practitioners.

Nicola is a qualified riding instructor and has over 20 years industry experience, and now uses her coaching skills to assist equine practitioners. Nicola decided to combine her experience of equestrian science, sales and marketing, and teach this to others. Nicola works with veterinary physiotherapists, massage therapists, osteopaths and other equestrians across the world to help them build their dream business. Nicola's work focuses on harnessing the power of your mindset, together with cutting edge marketing strategies to support equestrian business owners to realise the business of their dreams.

You can find out more about Nicola here: www.nkcequestrian.com

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This article is from the September issue of Equine Business Magazine