Horse Business Blog

World's Toughest Phone - Who Cares?

[Your Name Here] — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:41:56 +0000

For the longest time I wanted all my tech to be tough - Dust proof, water proof and drop proof tough. The horse business lifestyle tends to include lots of barn dust and a large variety of broken water toughs to hunch over.

Well the Sonim XP 3300 Force is now the world's toughest phone.

So, why am I not running to the store to buy this? Because it's huge.

Why can't a company build a ruggedized product that fits in my shirt pocket? Sure we can by an Otterbox, or a LifeProof case, but then we may as well buy this brick that is at the top of the page. As soon as smart phones were small enough to fit into a buttoned shirt pocket, tough went out the window. And if I forget to button my shirt pocket, well... Too bad for me.

But until these tough phone builders make a smaller form factor phone... Too bad for them.

Do you use tough tech? Leave a comment below.

What's required to sell online?
It's safe to say that the majority of the people reading this have purchased something internet. You just sit down at the computer, whip out that credit card and the next thing you know, your package of new wonderful-ness is sitting at the front door.

But, what has to happen on the other side of the computer in order to get your package to you?

E-Commerce.

The typical setup required for a business to be able to accept payments online consists of three parts:

Shopping Cart: Enables customers to select the product they want to purchase
Payment Gateway: Authorizes payments so the business knows if the card is valid, has funds available, etc.
Merchant Account: Enables businesses to capture the funds from a customer once it has been successfully authorized.

How you can be selling within the hour.

BULL CRAP!?!?

Yes, it sounds too good to be true. But this company is moving into the payment processing space by eliminating the need to use so many middle men. Then, they pass those savings on to us - the small business professionals of the world.

They're still a company. They will charge you. But, they only charge you when you make a sell. They provide the shopping cart and payment authorization tools in order to make money on the payment processing.

Now, is a custom shopping cart with your own payment gateway and merchant account more desirable? Of course it is. But not everyone has the budget for that. This type of service allows small businesses to get into e-commerce without having to break the bank.

So go register at WePay.com. Then, email info@ranchforeman.com with a link to your products. We'll share them here on the blog. You can also post the link in the comments below or on Facebook.com/RanchForeman.

Have questions or comments? Is this a great tip? A crappy tip? Leave a comment below.

Get the RanchForeman Newsletter for interviews, marketing and technology tips for your horse business.

Rugged phone cases for our rugged lifestyle.

[Your Name Here] — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:23:22 +0000

Otter boxes are great, but sometimes they are a little bulky for front-shirt-pocket-carrying. Check out this new iPhone case from Lifeproof! We are trying to get one for the 3G, but they are out of stock. No doubt due to the high demand. Those of you with a 4G should get over there and treat yourself! ;)

Hopefully, they will have cases for more phone models soon. (crossing my fingers for the Galaxy S model) - http://www.lifeproof.com/

Texas Horse

[Your Name Here] — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:47:25 +0000

Two primary schools of thought exist in the horse business today.

1) The economy is down. Horse prices are down. It's getting pretty difficult to sell horses.

2) This needed to happen. The market contained too many horses of below average quality. Good horses with quality riding invested in them are still no problem to get sold.

Regardless of your stance on the situation, we can all agree that things are changing in the Texas equine industry. There's no better indicator of this than the recent gaining momentum of Texas Horse.

Check out this link and take a look around: http://texashorseweb.com

When you return to this page, let us know how you think it will effect your horse business:

Great Looking Horse Business Websites

[Your Name Here] — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:58:05 +0000

Design is important.

It takes one twentieth of a second for visitors to your website to make a decision about that site. An interesting and more important phenomenon occurs immediately after that first impression.

It is called the “halo effect”. The halo effect makes your visitors first impression difficult to change. In other words, if a site looks good at first glance, the content itself is judged to be of a higher quality and people are more likely to continue visiting the site. Of course the flip-side to that is if your site looks bad your website visitors will never come back. You could have a great horse for sale on the second page... But they'll never see it.

Horse business websites seem to fall short in the design category. So, here is some inspiration. Remember - Copying a design is in VERY poor taste. It is wrong and it prooves you have no creativity. Use these sites to see what's possible and revise your horse business website accordingly. You may even contact them to see who developed their website.

CenterRanch.com

WimpysLittleStep.com

SDPBuffaloRanch.com

RFN001: Horse Selling - Carol Rose - Chevrolet

[Your Name Here] — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:37:57 +0000

Issue 001 brought to you by EdGalemba.com
Quality leather splint boots and skid boots handmade in the U.S.A.

Q&A with Carol Rose Quarter Horses

Carol Rose Quarter Horses is the American Quarter Horse Association's (AQHA) #1 All-Time Leading Breeder of Performance Horses and a perennial National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) and National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) breeder. Carol Rose has bred foals earning more than 28,900 AQHA points, averaging 69 points per foal and 94 points per point-earner, including 49 AQHA World and Reserve World Championships, 13 AQHA National All-Around titles, and earners of more than $3,400,000 (National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) earners of over $1,000,000, NRHA earners of over $580,000, and NRCHA earners of over $700,000).

We caught up with Office Manager, Nikki Miller, and talked Facebook.

Q: 5,000+ people 'Like' Carol Rose Quarter Horses on Facebook. Do you advertise your Facebook Page?
A: Only on our website - CarolRose.com. Most of our Facebook 'Likes' can be attributed to word-of-mouth. We mention it during tours of the facility, clients suggest it to their friends, etc.

Q: Does Carol Rose Quarter Horses have annual, or monthly, goals for Facebook stats such as number of new fans, percentage of traffic driven to CarolRose.com, number of likes/comments per post, etc.
A: We do have one goal with Facebook - to reach new people. However, we do not have any specific goals or measure any statistics.

Q: Does Carol Rose Quarter Horses experience any direct benefit to the business of selling horses due to Facebook?
A: We ask all sale and breeding inquiries to call the office and we do not check and see where they heard of the horse - website, Facebook or YouTube. So, I wouldn't say that we do not benefit. I would have to say that we try to embrace new outreach methods as soon as possible, but we do not really evaluate those methods.

Q: How often do you post? Why?
A: As often as possible. We post every foal that was born, all show results, everything we can think of as soon as we come across it. We do our best to keep it current. We really feel that Facebook helps us seem less intimidating and more accessible to more people - maybe even a younger audience. This relates strongly to our goal of reaching new people.

Q: What type of content gets the most likes/comments and what type of content generates horse (or breeding) sales/inquiries?
A: Pictures. Without question, photographs and video drive more conversation, gather more 'likes' and result in more sales/breeding inquiries.

The Verdict
Obviously we think the marketing efforts behind Carol Rose Quarter Horses is crushing it! They are always pushing the boundaries of outreach when it comes to the horse business. However, there is always room for improvement. Here's what we'd recommend for Carol:
Analytics - Technology today makes it so easy to know where your online visitors came from, what they are looking at, and where they went. CarolRose.com would definitely benefit from knowing how many visitors are coming from Google Search vs. Facebook vs. typing the website in directly. Knowing this could help them focus on the best traffic generators. (How many people visited CarolRose.com as a result of this article for example?) More traffic means more sales. You can implement analytics features on your website FREE by using Google Analytics. Analytics are also built into Squarespace (the service that RanchForeman.com is built upon). Setup is quick and the analytics software that allows you to study site traffic is built into every subscription level.

Goals - Setting goals should not be done just for the sake of reaching them. In fact, not reaching your goals will sometimes allow you to learn more about your efforts. Carol Rose Quarter Horses' specifically stated that reaching new people is a goal of their Facebook page. There are currently 5,103 people who 'Like' Carol Rose Quarter Horses. It's the beginning of the year, so we'd recommend setting a goal of reaching 10,000 people who like Carol Rose Quarter Horses. It's lofty, but realistic. And it leads us to our last tip.

More Pictures - Carol Rose Quarter Horses seemed to already know that their Facebook audience engaged more with pictures and video than with other content. We're not sure they realize just how much more. The day this was written, the Carol Rose Quarter Horses Facebook page had 28 posts. Of those, only 7 had pictures. But, those seven pictures had more 'Likes' at 208 than the first 16 posts! (204) AND - The seven picture posts had more comments at 29 than all of the other posts combined, which totaled 21. In order to reach the 10,000 fans goal, we recommend that Carol Rose Quarter Horses focus on the most engaging content - pictures. Does this mean no more Facebook posts like this one?

A big congratulations to JD Yates and Bald N Shiney and Shawn Hays and Shine Smartly for their Worlds Greatest Horseman finalist runs. Fun fact: Bald N Shiney was first World Champion ever sired by Shining Spark. Shine Smartly was the only mare in todays finals, and made a great final run before her retirement! Good job everyone!

Of course not - It does mean that whomever is attending the World's Greatest should snap a photo while they are there and email it to the person running the Facebook page. It doesn't have to be a pro photo, just a relevant one.

What Works In The Wild? - Chevrolet

Marketing nuggets that work, pulled from real world situations

General Motors hosted an unveiling of their 2011 Heavy Duty Pickups - the Chevy Silverado HD and the GMC Sierra HD - north of San Antonio and we were fortunate to be invited. The event was classic. The trucks of course are second to none. No, we are not being paid to say this ;) The fact is, we drive the 2007 model Silverado HD and I can promise you we will be purchasing another Silverado when the time comes. In other words, the trucks speak for themselves. However, if you want to learn more about these two "heavier-duty heavy duties" - Go Here.

This month's What Works In The Wild? marketing tip that we brought home from the unveiling goes beyond the trucks. We studied the GM event just as much as we enjoyed it and we're going to share three marketing lessons we found there - Preparation, Presentation and Knowing Your Competition. First, we'll tackle Preparation.

Get the RanchForeman Newsletter for more interviews, marketing and technology tips for your horse business. Don't miss the next two lessons learned from Chevy.

Preparation
Preparation is the horse industries behind-the-scenes contradiction. It is the least appreciated horse-pro skill while at the same time being the most valued.

Everyone appreciates the end result - a good looking horse, an athletic performing horse, or a great performance by a rider. Few clients/fans/owners consider what it took to get that end result. Blood, sweat and tears - that's what.

Preparation begins long before you're getting ready for a particular event. In fact, preparation is a lifestyle. Chevy did not prepare to unveil the Silverado HD in San Antonio. Chevy knew exactly what its product was, they knew exactly who their target audience was, they developed the Silverado HD into a product that fits a need for THE TARGET AUDIENCE and then... the unveiling became the most natural next step.

Why are equine professionals so likely to forgo the routine of properly preparing?

Too time consuming

Not enough direct benefit

Jaded by preparing and then not having the chance to demonstrate (no-show clients)

How can horse pros overcome these obstacles?

Know your horse business. What specific service do you provide? What specific event do you train horses to do? What specific event do you breed horses to raise? Get specific!

Know your client. Who is it that has a genuine need for your specific product/service? They may be family, friends, colleagues, or complete strangers. Inform them of your specialty. You'd be surprised by how many people DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT YOU DO. Oh, you're a horse trainer. Well how many people want a horse trained? None. They want a two-year old horse started and trained for reining (or something else specific). Find the people who need what you have/do and call them, write them, email them, hell... Facebook them.
Stop worrying about your "unveiling". Forget about the end result. Step 1 is to make your horse business better than it was yesterday. That's it. But, what's better? Better is being closer to the business you want to be known for operating. It may mean sending home your two-year olds to focus on the show horses. Or, it may be the opposite of that. Stop spending time on mediocrity. You are better at some things than others. Focusing on your strengths may mean less income in the short-term, but your enjoyment will improve, your specialty will improve, your specialty will become known, and income in the long-term will be MUCH better.

Have questions or comments? Think we nailed it? Think we're full of it? Leave a comment below.