I just started working at a hunter/jumper barn that is trying to rebuild. It used to be a very successful show barn with lots of boarders but over the years due to different reasons it has declined. The head trainer has managed to get a good number of lesson kids but we only have four boarders. Does anyone know some tactful ways to advertise or attract new boarders? Its an excellent facility and the horses are really well taken care of. I’ve never been in this situation before and I don’t want to step on anyones toes stealing other trainers students or anything like that. Any insight or suggestions would be much appreciated!
an ad on equine.com
as well as your own professional website w/ good keywords and facebook page will go a long way
I’ll be honest from my experience in similar situations: if the barn has no/few boarders, there’s usually a reason people left or don’t feel comfortable moving horses there, especially if there used to be more business. If you are new to this facility/the area, ask around. Local people are more likely to know the specific issues at your new facility and how to best address them.
There aren’t any issues. A couple own the farm and the wife used to do all the training. She was diagnosed with MS 15 years ago and thats when it started to go downhill. Her health was priority and so the barn was pushed on the back burner. Now the husband is trying to build the business back up.
A well run website and lesson program are a good place to start. Lesson kids end up purchasing horses eventually. . .
Other than that, it is quite difficult to attract boarders without having them come from other farms. . . It’s just part of the business. You don’t want to gossip about other barns or try and “steal” their clientele, as that will always come back to get you in the end.
Getting good results at shows where other potential clients will be always helps. Make sure your horses look fabulous and happy, and that your clients at shows are happy. Nothing is better for advertising than happy clients that get along. The hunter jumper world is full of drama, and at any given time there are always people looking for a new boarding or training situation, so putting on the right face and having happy customers at a show is always a plus.
An open house might also be a way to reach out to your local horse community. Make sure the farm is in tip top condition and have a get together. It gives other riders a chance to see what your farm offers.
A clinic could be used in the same way an open house could.
Good luck! Sometimes it’s easier to build a business from scratch than it is to try and fix one, no matter what the reasoning behind the fall off in business was.
Is the husband an equine professional in his own right? If not, I’d suggest he hire a barn manager who is known and respected locally.
Is the head trainer more of an instructor or a successful and well-regarded trainer? IE Is offering training board an option? Is this already done, but it’s not bringing in clients? Are you a show barn? An all-around place? What’s the focus? The facility’s goals should shape where and how you advertise
Are the prices for boarding comparable with local facilities of equal quality? People are always looking to board at a nice facility with competent management that is priced appropriately.
Think about what makes your facility a good bet for boarders, and you’ll probably come up with a more focused response for attracting boarders. Sell us on your barn :).
Lesson kids and families usually become boarders…
Professional barn manager is needed to attract external boarders. If you are offering quality care, from knowledgeable and professional staff, they will come.
Last time I was looking for a boarding facility I asked the local tack store owner and my vet and farrier for recommendations, so you might talk to those folks and tell them that you are looking to expand your boarding operation, if anyone asks them about places to board.
I also checked Craigslist and did a google search for “horse boarding [my city].” So, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure you have an internet presence, including a Facebook page. However, if you do have a Facebook page, make sure you make regular posts. I know that people get busy and neglect their business Facebook pages, but it always makes me wary when I clink on a link to a Facebook page and see that the last post was 3 years ago.
Assuming what others have said about care, experience, pricing… In addition to have an updated/active website and even Facebook page, see if your local tack store will let you hang flyers. The Beval near me has a great bulletin board with flyers for local boarding barns, horses/tack for sale, job openings, etc. and is very useful. Maybe look into hosting a local schooling show to get people at your facility so they can see you’re committed to growing as a show barn again.
Host summer camps, clinics, and schooling shows. Use these as opportunities to let it be known that your farm offers lessons and boarding.
Be judicious in your use of social media. It can be a great business tool, but can backfire if not used carefully.
There is one barn in my area that travels regularly to major rated shows that is doing what feels like an advertising blitz. They post very frequent ads on Facebook group pages. Almost makes them sound desperate to fill their spots. It’s beginning to feel like a red flag that they have problems. Now they might not, but if it’s such a great barn why do they keep posted ads every few weeks talking about their wonderful barn, move-in specials, cost reductions for new boarders, etc.
If there are any local or regional publications with free or low cost barn listings, use them! Even if they aren’t your specific discipline.
I’ve had to look for barns because of moves, those free mags/papers are a great start.
I’ve gotten really tired of horse folks/BOs/Trainers whining they had no inquiries when they wouldn’t bother to put a free ad in the local scandal sheet.
We were actually in a very similar situation at my barn recently. Once very big show barn, but over the last 10 years many of our core clients moved out of town or left horses altogether (pretty much never had a client leave our barn on purpose though), and thanks to the recession very few people stepped up to take their place. It got to the point that BO was talking about selling the place because he just couldn’t keep losing money on it.
I have a pretty strong marketing background and I love this barn, so I kinda stepped up to help my trainer and BO with the whole thing. I took over the barn social media (particularly Facebook) and made a big effort to post something at LEAST once a week. Lots of photos at home, shows, when we go out to eat together, etc. I find it’s a great way to present the barn’s best qualities. In our case, we have an amazing community with a wide range of ages and abilities, and it’s such a fun place to ride whether you own, lease, or take lessons. Plus our trainer turns out great horses and riders on a budget. So Facebook lets me show those qualities, and prospective clients notice.
I also helped the barn find a different pool of potential clients. We didn’t feel right about deliberately poaching clients from other barns in the area, so we looked for an alternative market. We’re located in a college town, so we honed in on incoming freshmen to try to find girls who didn’t want to sell their horse. We’ve picked up a couple great clients that way. A lot of the university is California kids, and for them, it’s so much cheaper to bring the horse up here and board with us than it would be to leave them home. We’ve also picked up a few half-leasers and the IHSA team actually just decided to move to us in the fall.
We have picked up a couple boarders from around the area who left other barns, but in all the cases those people had been ready to leave their old place behind for whatever reason and approached us. I think in those cases our strong social media presence really helped – it showed off what we have to offer, which just happens to be a fantastic product. :winkgrin:
We also do summer camps through the Y to pick up new lesson kids – some of our juniors came in that way. We do annual open houses, where we offer free 10 minute intro lessons and a 10% discount on lesson packages. Both are pretty hit-or-miss, but sometimes the kid you think will do once-a-week WTC lessons forever suddenly wants to buy and start showing. So you never know.
Sorry for the novel! Feel free to PM me if you want any specifics on my tactics. Really, as long as the market isn’t grievously oversaturated, and you have something good to offer, you CAN build your business back up. We thought it was impossible for a while due to the small size of our city and the lack of real wealth like what we see in the big cities nearby, but our barn is now almost full (37 stalls! although some are retirees/lesson horses) and we’ve kept the “soul” of the business intact (fun, competitive, and a real family).
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There aren’t any issues. A couple own the farm and the wife used to do all the training. She was diagnosed with MS 15 years ago and thats when it started to go downhill. Her health was priority and so the barn was pushed on the back burner. Now the husband is trying to build the business back up.[/QUOTE]
Of course there are issues. You just started working there and are getting your information filtered through the BOs point of view. You need to learn why the previous boarders left. Address those in your marketing efforts.
Since location alone will keep some boarders willing to compromise on care and management, why not ask the 4 boarders that are left what they don’t like and thoughts on how to improve?
15 years is a long slide in reputation to try to turn around. Is her health no longer a concern? What’s changed to guarantee me, a potential boarder, their business is now the #1 priority? As a HO, I’ve heard every excuse for deteriorating care in the book for almost 50 years so I need to see proof of the turn around. Not hear promises things will change. IME, they never do, unless they get worse.
Value for the price paid compared to similar barns may also be an issue, that needs to be reviewed, particularly in light of what sounds like an iffy reputation over a substantial period of time.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8211253]
Be judicious in your use of social media. It can be a great business tool, but can backfire if not used carefully.
There is one barn in my area that travels regularly to major rated shows that is doing what feels like an advertising blitz. They post very frequent ads on Facebook group pages. Almost makes them sound desperate to fill their spots. It’s beginning to feel like a red flag that they have problems. Now they might not, but if it’s such a great barn why do they keep posted ads every few weeks talking about their wonderful barn, move-in specials, cost reductions for new boarders, etc.[/QUOTE]
Thats exactly what I was worried about when I first started thinking about offering incentives for new boarders. I agree it puts a negative view on a barn and won’t bring in the type of clients I’d want.
Let your vet and farrier know that you have openings. They tend to know if someone is looking and can ususally atest to the personality of them as well.
There’s no better reference than that of your professionals! 
Before you can put anything on social media, you need to be sure you have the product to back it up.
If I moved to your area and asked about local barns in tack shops, asked local vets/farriers/hay guys and asked at local shows, would your name be in the top two or three that keep coming up as top choices? Or would it be on the “rolling eyes list” or get a “wouldn’t be my first choice” reply?
Every barn has a detractor or two but if you are trying to rebuild an iffy reputation, you have to start by offering that good product and making sure every horse person in your area that might make a recommendation knows you have improved. Start there.
If you have a strong lesson program I would suggest “growth from within.” Get a couple of nice quality but not expensive lease horses to lease to your more advanced lesson horses and, when they are ready, sell them to them for a reasonable price and turn them into boarders. this also gives you the ability to pick good, solid, well-broke horses for your kids to own.
Remember when using social media it can hurt as much as it helps. Lots of photos showing what others might see as dangerous activities or sloppy looking turn out with poorly repaired fences is worse than not advertising at all.
Since this is an existing barn that is now lacking clients, I agree the first step is to determine what it is about this facility that caused the clients to leave. It could be as simple as the boarders felt like the care of their horses was not important anymore with the owners having medical issues. Which to you seems like no big deal but to others it is a huge deal. Changing barns is a hassle, who wants to go back to this facility only to find that the care will decline if something happens again. If the barn has done something (like hire an outside barn manager) to make it run more professionally get the word out.
I think for a boarding barn to stay full it has to offer something all the other boarder barns in the area do not offer. The list for that is huge. More turn out, better turn out, all the hay you want is included, better quality hay, private tack lockers, great footing, cheaper than all the others, more options for level of care, all included care, self care, etc.
Decide what the owner wants this barn to be, advertise it as that, have an open house or host a fun show, etc.
ETA - a professional looking web page helps a ton too. No web pages that look like they were made by tween. No music, nothing that moves and sparkles. If you have to have moves and sparkles then skip the web page all together.
I think “Under New Management” would go a long way in your advertising.
If you cost it out, you all might come out even if you waited for new boarders instead of offering incentives for new move-ins. That strikes me as a bad idea-- you don’t want someone looking for a bargain in the boarding business. JMO: There’s not enough profit in it. And different prices for different boarders sucks. I know it gets done (usually very quietly) and I have been on the receiving end of that favor… and probably on the crappy end, too. But it seems like a way to piss someone off, sooner or later.
Can your BO afford to run things with some empty stalls? If they have been in the biz for 15+ years, I assume they don’t have a mortgage anymore?
