Hoofcare Business Strategy _ Take charge of your business

by John Suttle

3 Hoofcare Business Mistakes

Farriers Make When Scheduling Appointments

Planning your appointment schedule to accomodate your needs, the horse’s needs and the client’s is a crucial component of a smoothly running hoofcare business. Recognizing problem areas and finding ways to avoid them can save hours of time over the course of a year and save a lot of headaches too. Here are 3 common mistakes and what to do about them.

Hoofcare Business Mistake #1

Trying to accommodate horses on different shoeing cycles into your business.

Having some horses on a 5 week hoofcare cycle, others on 6 weeks and still others on 8 creates havoc when trying to plan a workable schedule. An efficient and profitable business strives for a consistent number of horses and income each day. Having horses on different shoeing cycles creates some weeks where two cycles overlap leading to very busy weeks with too much to do and lean weeks with minimized income. That also means some weeks you push your endurance and then have to recover detracting from your life outside of business.

What to do instead: Take charge of your business. Choose the number of weeks in a cycle you want to work, how many days you’ll work and how may horses you can comfortably work on each day. Decide what type of horses you want to see, the length of hoofcare cycle you want to see them on and begin converting your clients to that schedule. Start seeking new clients who want what you offer. Stick to the schedule. The transition will take time but you’ll find that the quality of your business goes up and the number of headaches diminishes.

Hoofcare Business Mistake #2

Not having an overview of your schedule for the coming two cycles.

It’s a pain trying to schedule appointments when you don’t know the up coming major events. Things like truck maintenance, clinics, family commitments and time off. You schedule clients and then must either call to reschedule or move the conflicting important event. Either way it’s extra work and the time could be spent doing something else.

What to do instead: Use a month view calendar and plan six months ahead for all the important business and personal events. Mark these days in the appointment book you use to schedule. (Be sure and make an appointment for truck maintenance.) Take this with you and schedule your clients around the important events.

Hoofcare Business Mistake #3

Not scheduling the next appointment while you’re still with the client or at the barn.

If you wait for the client to call, it’s usually because the feet need attention. They want you now … which throws the schedule off leaving you with lean days and busy days. If you call them later, it takes time after the work day is finished. You loose out on family time.

What to do instead: Take the initiative and ask to plan the next appointment. The client will appreciate it and begin expecting to schedule like this in the future. For larger accounts where you spend all day, several times a cycle, it helps to schedule six months to a year in advance. The only caveat is … you have to show up or they loose confidence in you.

Planning makes a huge difference in how smoothly your business runs. This is your business, take charge and make it what you want and need it to be.