Hippocrates Blogging

Who doesn't dream of the new horse becoming a "perfect match"?  

We have met Sophie Linde, owner of the company Swedish Equillence with the vision "We make your horse dream a reality".

A little background on Sophie.

Sophie's first step into adulthood started at the university and IHM Business school, her goal was then to work in marketing, sales or as a project manager. When there was time to reflect on roads and choices, it was the horses for which her heart struck an extra blow and this resulted in a trip to the United States that lasted five years. Starting out as a volunteer at the Wild Horse Rescue Center in Florida, on to Mississippi, and the last stop on the trip was in Texas, where she had truly fell in love with life on a Ranch.

Sophie´s dream of starting a business of her own in Sweden emerged along the way. She wanted to give lessons, clinics and inspiration to create a relaxed and calm relationship between horse and rider. Going on the third year of running her business, Sophie has met many horses and their owners that get nervous in different situations, such as standing still when shoeing, being spooky in new environments and getting loaded on a horse trailer.

She compares herself to a couple’s therapist, who works to create a mutual understanding between horse and rider.

She landed in Sweden in February 2019 and by March Sophie had all the paperwork figured out and the company was registered. The first client and lessons in Sweden was booked when she was still in the USA. She started with saved money and worked as an hourly employee to get the business up and running.

Today, Sophie has achieved what she dreamed of, but also supplemented with routine work in a stable. There she and her employees offer various kinds of services for customers who board their horses in the stable.

The services in question can be, for example, turnout of horses, cleaning stalls, various exercise work for the horses and trailer loading training.

In order for Sophie's work to flow effortlessly and making sure she does not miss the services she is planned to perform, she uses Hippocrate's proStable system daily. She feels that she saves a tremendous amount of time; time that she can spend on horses instead.

Sophie adds the service to the individual horse´s profile in the app, then she bills the clients monthly, and the invoice is created automatically and is already ready to be emailed out to each customer.

The system also offers for the invoices that are paid getting checked off automatically. This makes it easy to get an overview and see if someone has not paid and send a reminder.

"In three minutes I have emailed all invoices and received SIE file for my bookkeeping with all accounts correct. In addition to time, I also save money here as I do not need to hire an accounting firm to perform these tasks.

Another thing I like is to look at the forecast in proStable – comparing how much money the company made in the same month two years ago and what does the prognosis for the coming month look like. It spurs me on to develop the company."

What advice do you have for those who are interested in starting their own business in the horse industry?

1. Keep costs down when you start up. For example, I have chosen not to own my own horse.
2. Dare to charge for what you do. Pricing is important and stick to it
3. Use Facebook and Instagram for free marketing
4. Believe in what you know and are good at. Deliver accordingly
5. Take it one step at a time. I worked out a weekend clinic setup to begin with based on my circumstances at the time and is letting that grow organically into new business ideas and additional clinic setups
6. Build your brand and let it shine through everything you do. Professional responses by email, your appearance, how you dress market yourself and how you speak. Networking is key – try to get some good recommendations and word of mouth going
7. Figure out your unique knowledge, why should customers choose you over someone else?

We thank Sophie for a great chat, always fun to meet such a talented horse entrepreneur!

Read more and book a lesson, clinic or coaching session with Sophie::
https://www.swedishequillence.se/

Photographer Lovisa Karlström