Stakeholders of your business are any individual or group who have a direct affiliation with you and in essence depend on your business. Stakeholders for a horse farm or stable would include you and your family, employees, boarders, the people who take riding lessons, your lesson or private horses, and so on.
Why is it important to outline who your stakeholders are?
Because that can help you determine what you need to do to keep those individuals happy and your business prospering.
One thing to remember is that each stakeholder group doesn’t have the same connection to your equine business as the others. Employees, such as your bookkeeper, might not even like horses, whereas your boarders like them enough to invest in owning and caring for them 365 days a year.
Sit down and make a list of your stakeholders, expanding the list as it suits your business. Do you have horse shows? Then you have stakeholders that are horse owners in your area, but might not board at your facility or train with you or your instructors.
If you do put on shows, other horse farms and stables also might be your stakeholders if they depend on you to give their clients a place to compete.
Your vendors are also considered stakeholders in your equine business. Your success is important to them. That could be your veterinarian, farrier, feed store, tack shop, and so on.
The community also might be considered a stakeholder. They are depending on you to maintain an aesthetic green space and offer specific educational experiences such as lessons and camps to the community.
Communicating With Stakeholders
Once you have your list of stakeholders, pick one and determine how you can better communicate with that group. Perhaps you pick employees, and in having open communications with them you learn they would rather you text than call them with any information you might need to pass along.
Maybe in going to a local PTA, 4-H or FFA meeting in your community you learn that having clinics on horse topics would be very welcome (and profitable).
Take-Home Message
Focus on those people who are your stakeholders and try to think about how to improve your communication with them and what that group can mean to improving your business.
