In the drawer of your office you should have a stack of all-occasion cards. In your files on each client (or even potential client), service professional and partner you should have a list of their pertinent “occasions,” such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays they particularly. Why? Because it’s good business to celebrate!

Knowing important dates and facts of your clients and business associates will help you develop business relationships. And today there’s really no excuse for missing something because we carry our calendars and alarm clocks around with us all the time. (Yep! Those cell and smartphones.)

Each client should have a form of important information…horses, emergency contacts for people and horses, etc. Included on that form should be a place to include pertinent, ancillary information. That list might include birthdays, anniversaries, the names of children, pets, or grandkids (great conversation starters or something to give you ideas for gifts) and so on.

After you have collected that information–and you can do it all at once or just gradually over time–make sure you take the time to celebrate what is important in that person’s life. Maybe they always bring treats to their horse on the horse’s birthday. Or maybe they have a special place they like to take riding vacations. Or maybe they LOVE Halloween.

Jot these things down in your files, set alarms, celebrate, and watch the way your clients become ambassadors for you and your business.

This is also true of your service providers. When is your veterinarian’s birthday? What are the names of your farrier’s children? How long has your feed dealer been married?

Seem like that’s way too much work or information? Try it with just a couple of people and see how well it pays off in loyalty to you and your business.