For many people, the idea of starting their own business is an exciting one. Perhaps you have an idea for an equine business start-up. You have the skills. You have the knowledge. You even know how you can promote your product or service. You are missing something however – funds.

I have recently been reading the Great British Entrepreneur’s Handbook. One of the chapters focuses on enterprise education. Alice Barnard writes about Tycoon in Schools. This is an initiative where students are encouraged to pursue a business idea.

For those who provide a promising looking business idea, they are provided with funding. The sum of 1,000 pounds is to make use of over a 12 week period to get their business up and running and also turning a profit. At the end of this time, students are required to pay back the loan of 1,000 pounds but they can use the left over profits as they see fit. This can be donated to a charity, further invested in their new business or spent on something else.

Equine Business Start-Up Funding

How does this relate to equine businesses? What if there was a business that provided funding to equine related start-ups? This would need to be run by people that are able to cover two areas:

• Finances
• Business education and skills

It would be irresponsible of anyone to provide funding for an idea with no guarantee of a return. However, those who are starting out with a business idea often just need some funds to kick things into motion. Many however, will also need guidance about what is smart in business. If they are provided with funding and some education about how to promote their business, then they are more likely to succeed.

So perhaps here is another niche idea for an equine related business. And also one that helps to kick-start other equine careers!

The people who set up a business to provide funding for equine business start-ups could also prove to be a great boost to the equine industry. They could be the catalyst to help people launch a product like a horse text book, horse clothing or jewellery. Or perhaps a horse business that provides a service relating to competition preparation, sale presentation, education or something else.

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The College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise are currently looking for people to take part in a couple of equine industry projects they are planning. The projects focus on Equine Weight Management and Equine Parasite Control.

Often projects are only made successful by the number of people able to participate. The more numbers there are, then the more accurate the results will be. Interested? Read below.

The Equine Weight Management Project

Focusing on the promotion of equine weigh tapes, weigh bridges and fat scoring as assessing horse’s weight. The project aims to promote them as viable means to maintain horses at a healthy body weight.

It is proposed that this project will aid owners in identifying whether their horse is at an ideal weight, overweight or underweight. This will then help to calculate appropriate amounts of feed and medication for that particular horse.

Project participants will submit their horses weigh tape and fat score results to CAFRE on a monthly basis via an online form.

The Equine Parasite Control Project

Focused on the horse population in Northern Ireland, this project will look at viable parasite detection methods.

Project participants will submit their results to CAFRE on a quarterly basis via an online form.

Are you interested in participating in either of these projects?  Then be sure to check out the equine industry support link.

The fact that you can submit your results online means you don’t need to be at a certain place at a certain time – just able to access the internet! Doing so monthly or quarterly should also help the busy horse owner. You can make a note of results and then submit these at set times.

If you’re interested and believe you can be a part of either (or both!) of these projects, then be sure to check out the Equine Industry Projects.