Website/apps innovation for new horse business

[ldnrider]

Hi - I’m helping my trainer set up his own barn/business in showjumping. I believe part of the way to distinguish himself and attract customers is to integrate and cleverly use technology to schedule lessons, display shows to go to, take payment etc. (not hard to do amongst the conventional horse set!!!)

Have you seen any good examples of websites that integrate tech well? Or just any great website examples?

Thanks for your help!

[Equitational]

I used Homestead.com to create my barn’s website a few years ago. Pretty simple. You can incorporate a payment button option but not sure how to put a calendar for lesson schedules.

There’s a ton a website builders out there, that charge a simply monthly fee, have easy templates and hosts your own URL.

[jrw4477]

Pay to have a professionally built website done. There are lots of companies out there that specialize in making websites for Hunter/Jumper barns or equine services. This can be pricey but it is worth it compared to using something like Wix.com, Homestead, or other website builders. It is easy for me to tell when someone puts time into their website and makes them stand out. If you do decide to go down the route of making something on your own, PM me for suggestions as I am a web developer too.

[ldnrider]

Hi guys - thanks so much for your responses. Definitely will go down the professional angle. I guess I was trying to gather what cool innovations could be incorporated into a website -

• calendars of shows/automatically signing up for shows
• lessons
• payments

Any other functionalities that would really snazzy?

[mand_asbfan]

I rode at an ASB barn that used Appointy to schedule and pay for lessons online. It was nice to be able to schedule without calling or texting.

[awesomenessity]

If you do go the professional route, make sure that the designer you hire is experienced in PHP/MySQL for coding your lesson scheduling/payment apps. Many many many “horse” web designers are only familiar with HTML/CSS and will not have the skillset to build the kinds of apps you are talking about. There are other options available like Appointy etc. but a professional web designer is probably your best bet to ensure everything looks comprehensive and clean.

[horsegal301]

[QUOTE=awesomenessity;8227055]
If you do go the professional route, make sure that the designer you hire is experienced in PHP/MySQL for coding your lesson scheduling/payment apps. Many many many “horse” web designers are only familiar with HTML/CSS and will not have the skillset to build the kinds of apps you are talking about. There are other options available like Appointy etc. but a professional web designer is probably your best bet to ensure everything looks comprehensive and clean.[/QUOTE]

Glad to see everyone here is telling you to go to a professional… especially as a professional web designer, I’m happy there was only a few mentions of website builders. They reek of security concerns, cookie cutter layouts, and no usability or accessibility in mind.

That being said, some things I’ve been asked for before or have seen myself:

[LIST=1]

Calendar of lessons, where they can register/pay online, or cancel

Request for person to be a judge at their horse show

List of Shows - not sure this would be something I would allow people to just sign up for on a whim, but that depends on the situation

Online Board Payment - Yes yes yes!!! Loved this. Ideally, I'd love to see it with addons - paying for farrier services, worming, etc.

If you had someone diligent, you could have a supplement feature that would require whoever is responsible for supps/medication "check in" that they have given the horse what they need [/LIST]

You could possibly incorporate a show schedule type of app that feeds off of showgrounds maps/ring times/class schedules and what horses are needed where, and students as well. Could be handy for larger barns with lots of students and horses to keep track of.

The question you should be asking is “What problem do I have that could be easily solved by using an app or website” and go from there. That is better than just loading what you have up with fancy features that people might not always take advantage of, then you’re paying someone an exorbitant amount of money to have a bunch of features that are not utilized very well, if at all.

As JRW said, if you are looking - my fiance and I are a User Experience Designer and Software Developer duo that could help you out, should you go down that path.

[BayAreaHunter]

A lot of the yoga studios around me use https://www.mindbodyonline.com

This allows you to build your calendar, have the client pay through the app and schedule their classes. It looks like it is about $30.00/month for their cheapest offering which doesn’t seem to be too bad, and could be a lot cheaper and without the headache of hiring a one off professional solution (this is coming from someone who was an engineer at small web-dev shops where building this type of thing for you would be our bread and butter).

[shmon]

http://planfu.com is another scheduling widget if you’re looking for something like that. It’s even free.