Well, I made it back from the Emotional Alchemy workshop in Albany, NY. It was BEAUTIFUL, but humbling, as big weather events always are. I'm grateful to be back in North Carolina!

The workshop was most interesting, and if you've not already read Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, be sure to ask for them for the holidays. I have been a big fan of his work for several years now.

I also was introduced to his wife's work. Tara Bennett-Goleman has written a book called Emotional Alchemy, which combines aspects of Jefferey Young's Schema Therapy with Mindfulness meditation and vipassana practice. She talk about us all having "the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion or emotional pain into insightful clarity." Heady stuff, and a remarkable weekend.

The other exciting thing about the weekend is that Tara and Dan are also horse people, having just gotten an Icelandic to bring into their already existing herd of two.  I introduced the idea of EAP/EAL to them, and they were most interested in what it is and how it works! I'm honored to bring this concept to their door.

Anyhow, hope you all are warm and well, and best wishes to my new friends digging out from the snow in New England!

Trailblazers, look for more from me on the Emotional Alchemy workshop shortly...

Happy Trails & Holidays!

Shannon

Prepare to think differently about the year ahead.

Look to see what’s working and what’s not.

Adjust your focus as you head into the New Year.

Now is the time to create one (a plan, that is).

PLAN. Such a simple little word that creates such stress for new entrepreneurs but provides real relief and solutions when actually done. Planning is one of the very best tools that an entrepreneur has to help save time and money. Why is planning so critical for success?

1. A plan gives you a roadmap. It helps you to focus your ideas so that you know how to put one hoof, er, foot in front of the other. As Shannon says, you’ll take a rifle approach instead of a shotgun one. This is true for marketing, budgeting, client building, grant writing, physical plant, etc.
2. A plan helps you answer the questions “Should we spend money on it?” and “Should we invest the time in it?” Makes a difference when you’re working on a shoe string budget and if you’re a small operation.

This is a great time of year to create a plan for your business. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. One of my favorite plans was designed by some clients of mine 5 years ago when they decided to start their business over dinner one night– they sketched it out on a cocktail napkin!

Two favorite resources I’ll recommend for your planning pleasure:

Attracting Perfect Customers by Stacy Hall and Jan Brogniez – An attraction based approach to doing business. Create a Strategic Attraction Plan in just 2 hours and watch your focus get clear and inspired!

The One Page Business Plan by Jim Horan – an easy to use guide with interactive exercises for the creative entrepreneur – that’s you! – helps walk you through five critical stages: vision, mission, objectives, strategies and plans.

Happy Planning!
--- Coach Elizabeth
www.elizabethbarbour.com

Having just hosted a Making EAP Work onsite workshop this past weekend, I talked a fair amount about what I call the "unsexy" part of starting and running your own EAP/EAL business. The horses, the beautiful outdoors, the "aha's" for clients...all these are the most fun and exciting parts of EAP/EAL. Talking about billing and insurance, however, just ain't fun. But is it necessary and important? If you're doing mental health it is!

I know I too have struggled with the necessary tasks of running my business, and am better and worse about tending to what needs doing. As I was thinking about it, I was reminded of a quote I have hanging on my wall, by author Stephanie Burns:

"Avoiding an unpleasant task is normal. You cannot rightly be called bad or weak or a procrastinator when avoiding or delaying unpleasant activities!

Doing an unpleasant task is not normal, it is exceptional. It requires a strategy to override this innate mechanism.

NOT learning this strategy may mean that we have to forever hope that the path of least resistance leads to an interesting place to be!"

Much of what we cover in the Making EAP Work workshop is the "unsexy" part of EAP/EAL. But what I hope I have helped our weekend workshop guests to do, and hope to help you do as well, is develop a strategy to get past the blocks that keep you stuck in the same patterns, and thus with the same results. It's my goal also to give you tools to systematize and simplify those unsexy tasks, so we can all get back out to the barn and enjoy!

Interested in more from Stephanie? I recommend her two books without hesitation: Great Lies We Live By and Move Closer, Stay Longer. I also recommend her Labyrinth course, an online course. To learn more about her, visit http://stephanieburns.com/.

Happy Trails!

Shannon

When I started my business six years ago, I didn’t have a dime to do marketing or get any marketing materials done professionally. It took some ingenuity to make myself look presentable in a tough market. Sound familiar?

As the New Year looms close, the perennial problem of marketing on a tight budget comes to a head. Start-up and smaller programs rarely have the budget for professional marketing collateral, and even larger programs are loathe to having every flyer and handout professionally produced. Here’s a few pointers to create respectable marketing materials when dollars are limited:

• If you have to choose one thing over another, invest in your logo. And use a bona fide graphic designer; you will get what you pay for.
• Keep your message very basic and straightforward. Have a headline, a few key points, a closing statement, and your logo. Put contact information at the bottom of the page.
• Work with one basic font.
• Give the eye breathing room on the page by leaving plenty of empty space (called white space) around your message elements.
• Think spare. Make it easy for the eye to go where it’s supposed to go. Your headline should be large, bold, and prominent. Your logo should be second in prominence. Body copy and all other info should be standard 12- or 14-point type.
• Use the same design for all your materials. Together, your materials should all look like they came from the same place, not four different companies.

Simple always translates more credibly and professionally. A sure sign of novice design is going crazy with font styles, sizes, colors, photos, and graphics. A professional designer uses white space extensively; a novice creates wall-to-wall words. If do-it-yourself design looks like a long-term proposition, invest in a class on layout and design, and read design books to educate yourself further.

Even better, if you’ve come across more creative ideas for producing marketing collateral on a do-it-yourself budget, leave a comment below. We’d love to share!

When your flyers, brochures, handouts, and folders look respectable, it goes a long way toward projecting a respectable image for your program as well.

Peace,
Brenda
www.CreativeInc.net

Grantwriting has been on my mind a lot lately, as we head into Winter. Things get a little quieter in December & January, so we turn our attention to developing a grantwriting schedule for the next year, and to clearing away the time to write the grants we've selected to apply for in 2008.

A recent telecall with myself and Lisa Wheeler, Practice Adminstrator here at Horse Sense, went line-by-line through a grant we wrote last year for a local community foundation. The call was, by all accounts, quite informative and helpful to those participating. I had a great time talking about it all, too!

If you only have time to read a few lines about grantwriting, here are three key points about developing Measurable Objectives for your grants from the recent call:

Measurable Objectives should be...

• Carefully crafted to be succinct and truly measurable
• Relevant and significant in terms of the population you wish to serve
• Something you can live with! Don't say you'll follow up with clients every day for a year, or else you'll have to!

If you have a little more time, sign up for the second telecall in the series, scheduled for December 19th from 2-3pm. In this call, we'll help you develop a grantwriting cycle for 2008, and tell you the key items you need to have already written and ready to go to be prepared for those grants, so you're not going crazy at the deadline!

If you are super-invested in getting your grantwriting ready for the new year, join us for the December 19th telecall and get the MP3 of the telecall from November. You can listen to the information-packed call over and over again to get all the important details.

Questions about Grantwriting? Email me at shannon@HorseSenseOtc.com

All the best,

Shannon

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

Wanting to bill insurance with your program? Do you know what you need to do to be compliant? This blog talks in brief about compliance surrounding insurance programs you are associated with as a provider.

First, for •profit and non •profit agencies can be on provider panels. So lets ask an obvious question: do you want to accept insurance for service? This is a very individual decision.  It may be based on your mission and whom you want to serve or it may come down to a regional or state preference. For example, we are a Medicaid provider. However, in other states it can be more difficult to be granted "preferred provider" status. In the end you need to decide what works for your business.

When you apply to be a "preferred provider" or to be on a "provider panel" with an insurance company, you will be asked, what I call "demographic questions". These questions center on the "who, what, where, and how" of your business. Some applications are set up as check boxes and are very straightforward. Others may request descriptive information of what you do.  This is the number one stumbling block I hear within the field: the description of what you do. I promise I will cover that on another blog very soon.

From a compliance standpoint, the number one "offense" falls under documentation. You must document thoroughly. To read more about this topic and about some common errors in documentation, click here.

That is it for now. Contact me with questions.

"Til next time,

Lisa
Practice Administrator

"Thanks Shannon for your input!!!!! Great ideas. I will follow your lead and and let you all know how it goes. I do have another question. How would you charge for this kind of demonstration. $$$ did not come up in the dialogue when I was presenting this to the agency head. I was not certain how to charge, if I should charge. This is my attempt to get a firm referral base going, anticipating more referrals to our program which I will get paid for. Thanks." Judy

To view the blog conversation, click here

Hey Judy,

I hear you in wanting to set up a long-term referral relationship with this organization, and we've done plenty of such demonstrations for free with those circumstances in mind. What concerns me about the demonstration you're getting ready to undertake is the length of the event. When we've done it "for free," we've only done it for 2 hrs or so, so as not to lose the whole day, or to set a bad precedent for the future. Currently, Horse Sense is charging not for "demonstrations" but for private introductions for organizations. We try to steer those interested in Demonstrations to our monthly Open House/Tour. When we charge, we usually charge our regular hourly rate of $120/hr; $110/hr for non-profits for such a private introduction. But, if the organization were a large, long-term referral base, I'd take that into consideration as well, and probably do the same thing you are doing.

Demonstrations, Tours & Open Houses are so very important, and such a critical part of success for EAP/EAL organizations. With that in mind, January & Febuary's Topic telecalls with me will spotlight best practices for these events, with lots of tips and hints about what to/not to do. Look also for DVD's from Horse Sense to come out in early 2008 to help you visualize your successful event!

Thanks for your questions, Judy, and I hope the response you get is great!

Best,

Shannon

Dear Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving! By now we're all post-holiday and getting out to exercise off the turkey and dressing!

It's so important for me to remember all the many blessings that brought me to this point of being able to do this amazing work, with amazing animals and people. Today, my gratitude list includes

• my husband, Richard

• all the horses I've known, Dreamer and Sue in particular
• my virtual right hand, Lauri
• my conspirator in writing, marketing, planning and offsite eventing, Brenda
• he who keeps me aware and afloat, Mike
• the inspired and inspiring Elizabeth
• everyone who is interested in this field, and who has a dream to help people and horses

Please have a safe and happy holiday weekend....

Shannon

Question: I am having 25 social workers coming out to our program for a day with the intention of introducing EAP. We are thinking of having the social workers  (2)present a vignette and then design activities/interventions to move treatment in a positive direction.

Any ideas for activities would be appreciated. The majority of the social workers are in the child protective services division.

thanks, Judy

To see the blog and Judy's original question click here

Answer: Hey Judy!

Thanks for your question. When we do a demonstration such as the one you describe, we'll plan about 5-6 activities (a full day is a LONG demonstration, especially if you aren't getting paid. Just my 2 cents!).

First off, I LOVE your idea of having them design vignettes. That's a great way to make it tangible and immediately applicable to them. But I would start first off with some basic psychoed about what EAP is and how it works. When we do this in our CEU training introducing EAP, we spend a little time talking about the roles of the horses, the facilitation team, the client and the referring agency (when applicable), so they can see how it all works together. So I think some time spent there is well-advised.

Two activities that jump out at me are 1) have them design an obstacle course of, say, 4-5 obstacles their clients, on the whole, generally present with. Label the obstacles as such, and then have them get the "client/horse" through the obstacle course without lead ropes, bribery, etc... That tends to be a really rich one we've used in the past!

The second activity that springs to mind is one in which you create
4-5 tasks for the group to complete with a horse/horses. You create 4 tasks such as "get horse over the jump" or "get horse to circle the barrel once to the right" and write them on separate slips of paper.
Then, break the group up into subgroups, giving each subgroup a slip of paper. No talking. This tends to bring up the many differing goals/divisions/groups that a client must "pass through" to complete a treatment program, and how sometimes one group overrides another, or whatever. It's been a great one for us!

Best of luck, Judy. Let us know how it goes!

Shannon

Yep, folks, it’s that time of year again. ‘Tis the season for family gatherings, office parties and friendly festivities. The holidays are a great time to connect with friends and family, colleagues and clients in a fun and joyful way! Planning ahead can make the difference between having a jolly holiday season or feeling like Ebenezer Scrooge.

If you’re someone who really enjoys the holidays like I do, I invite you to consider how you can leverage this festive time of year to help your business. Here are some quick tips and ideas…

1. Send holiday greetings to your current clients, past clients and prospective clients. Tip: Send “A Note of Gratitude” in November and beat the December flurry of cards and notes that inevitably float around. You’ll stand out in the crowd.
2. Attend parties where your ideal clients and/or potential referral sources might be hanging out. Tip: ALWAYS carry your business card. Even though you may attend a holiday gathering for primarily social reasons, you never know when you might meet someone who could support your business.
3. Give meaningful and practical gifts. Tip: Make a list of who you’d like to send gifts to (Clients? Colleagues? Referral sources?) then set a budget. Find an item that suits you and order it or buy it now. Avoid the last minute scramble which creates stress and leads to unoriginal greetings.

Remember, the idea of the holidays is to express thanks and joy for the wonderful people in your life. It’s not about how much you spend or how outrageously cute and creative you can be… it’s more about letting people know you care about them and you appreciate their contributions to your business and life. Be genuine and real. Be yourself and let your passion for your work and what you do shine through!

 
--- Coach Elizabeth
www.elizabethbarbour.com

Greetings!

In this “episode” of compliance I am going to address other compliance issues.  Do you know what you have in your filing cabinets?  If you get a visit from someone saying they are an investigator are you prepared to have that person (or persons) start at one corner of your office and not stop until they are at the far corner of your barn?

HIPAA was fun, but let’s get into what you need to have “on deck” for the other “players” in the compliance game.  Before I generate the list, I want to remind you that your are open to inspections from the federal government, state government, granting agencies and private sector parties that have an investment in your business (ex: insurance companies).

Okay, so get ready to hit the print button on this and start hunting to see if you are compliant.  Here’s the list of what you are responsible for:

• Certificates of Insurance(s)
• Records on all financial transactions
• W-2’s, I-9’s, and 1099 forms
• Payroll records for anyone and everyone
• Tax returns and records on what you have paid (SS, unemployment, sales tax, Etc.)
• Worker’s Comp records
• Policies and Procedures
• Personnel Files: resumes, evaluations, rate of pay, start date, criminal background checks, copies of driver’s licenses and SS numbers.  This list goes on, and feel free to contact me.

• Conflict of Interest policy and statement
• Health Insurance Records
• Subcontract Agreements
• Grant Agreements
• Articles of Incorporation
• Fiscal accounting policies

 Okay, I’ll stop...and yes there is more.  Don’t panic, take a breath and pause.  This list is doable. If you think you don’t have it together, I bet you have 75% of it.  But do you know where it is?  Is it readily accessible and is it efficiently compiled?

Some of you may be wondering,  “What happens if I don’t have this stuff together and I get audited?”  Depends on what agency is auditing you and what mood the auditor is in.  Consequences can range from slap on the wrist and a warning all the way up to hefty fines, jail time, loss of license(s) or certificates, and closure of your business.

The area of compliance, I think, is one of the easiest things for you to keep up with and probably the number one thing blown off or overlooked by programs.  It may prove costly to you if you don’t take the time to make sure all your ducks are in a row.

I have one more entry on compliance and then we’ll move on to less scary and more fun administrative stuff.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us here at Horse Sense if you want or need help with any of this.

‘Til Next Time!

Lisa
Practice Administrator

As a timely reminder I wanted to throw down some general company tips to get your barn in order for the annual tax man.

• Purchase business assets before year end and take advantage of the (up to) $108,000 section 179 deduction.  See details at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p946/ch02.html#d0e2333.  I bought a computer at 11pm on December 31 once.  Good stuff.

• Defer income to next year.  If you are on the accrual basis, delay your billings.

• Prepay expenses this year.  Expenses on a credit card are deductible in the year charged (not paid), and if you are on the cash basis, paying your bills with cash early will get you a better deduction.

• Write off your client accounts that are uncollectible.  You get no tax benefit from waiting.

• If you are on the cash basis, pay out employee bonuses before year end.  If you are on the accrual basis, you will get the deduction even if you don’t actually pay them until next year

• Issue 1099 forms to your contractors.  If you paid anyone more than $600 for services, you will need to follow the instructions for issuing those forms.

• Have the company contribute to your 401k plan if you have one.

• If your company is going to have a loss as an S-Corp, LLC or Partnership, review your basis in the company with your CPA so that you can take advantage of the loss personally.

• Clean up your books for year end.  Hire a bookkeeper to clean it up, they are much less expensive than the tax accountant/CPA.

Feel free to contact me with questions, complaints go to the IRS!

Mike Sowinski, CPA

www.cfoconsultants.net

If you've been to any of my presentations or read the Horse Sense, Business Sense book, you've heard me talk about one of Horse Sense's guiding principles: "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong ." I'd like to spend just a minute talking about why I say that, and what it means to me.

When people get involved in this field, it is my hope that they become aware of how much they can impact a session. They can impact it by how much or how little they share about horses, about their roles, about safety, about any number of things. The EAGALA Part 1 goes a long way to helping people The 'S of the SPUD'S also helps highlight recognize & avoid leading questions.when facilitators' own biases and agendas show up, and the EAGALA training addresses how to deal with that.

But there is still one more area that relates to "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong" that I've noticed in facilitators that concerns me, and it's not just confined to one organization or methodology (like EFMHA, EAGALA, Epona and others). It's what I call the "Look at me" facilitation, when the facilitator becomes impressed with their insight, their questions, and their ability to "show" the client what he/she needs to do or know. Instead of "Look at the horse," it's "Look at me," a clear sign that the session is off-track in some way.

I love the Alcoholics Anonymous statement, "Principles Before Personalities", which reminds us that it's not us that makes this intervention work, it's the horses. While we all strive to be the best we can be in our field, it's an important point to remember!

All the best,

Shannon

There’s a TV ad where a hapless mother confronts her pre-teen daughter over the alarming use of her cell phone text messaging, only to become entangled in a barrage of text messaging shorthand. “OMG it’s NBD! TISNF!” protests the girl.

I found myself in a similar situation when my teenage niece started Instant Messaging me every afternoon a few years ago. It wasn’t long before I was lost in the maze of IM lingo: “Hi AB! Your last email made me LOL. BTW, gotta go, but I’ll BRB...I have to go to VB! TTFN!” (Translation: Hi, Aunt Brenda! Your last email made me laugh out loud. By the way, gotta go, but I’ll be right back...I have to go to volleyball! Ta-ta for now.”)

Anna and her brothers obviously found my IM ineptitude hilarious as I struggled to keep up. I loved connecting to my faraway family every day, but I definitely needed a translator!

It may be part of a teenager’s DNA to create barriers between themselves and everyone else, in business that same tactic is a very bad idea...yet we do it nearly every day. We may attract a client, only to lose them in a badly executed phone call or poorly written yellow page ad. In our “conversation” with the outside world, we regularly omit important information, drop lingo people don’t understand, or – worse yet – forget obvious things like our phone number or how to find our website.

So take a few minutes to think about this: What kind of barriers are you creating for your potential customers? Look at your flyers, your newspaper ad, your website. Do you make it easy for clients to find you? Do you make it easy for them to say “Yes”? Marketing doesn’t do much good if the message is flawed. If you make them jump through hoops, I guarantee they’re gone!

TTFN,
Brenda
CreativeInc.net

In our ongoing efforts to help people better understand who we are and what we do, Horse Sense just produced a new 10 minute video. One of the main things that came out of last year's Strategic Planning session was a need to translate what we do to folks to excite them and bring them to the farm. This video was designed to be the step in-between the phone call or conversation and the onsite demonstration.

We had it shot largely in one day using a "stunt family," while also integrating video from our Girls for Girls offsite event. Our cameraman was from the local ABC affiliate, who knew how to get a story and get it quick. He also already had the contacts among editors, voice-over folks, and music people. I recommend this route as this sort of person can streamline your efforts and maximize your dollar!

The end result is something we bring with us and show at all offsite presentations, and can send out to potential new clients, such as local treatment facilities and schools. We send the video to select offices along with a cover letter and a brochure, then follow-up with a call in a week or so with an offer of an onsite demonstration. We're excited to bring this new way of understanding out into our community, and will keep you posted on the results!

All the best,
Shannon

Are you living in a maze of file stacks in your office or in your car? Do you wake in the middle of the night with your thoughts racing about all the goals and tasks you need to accomplish and feel overwhelmed?  Do you find yourself forgetting appointments?  Do you tell your colleagues and friends that you need more than 24 hours in a day? If any of these describes you, read on.  You are a candidate to form the perfect alliance with a virtual assistant just like Shannon because:

1. Cloning isn’t an option.  While you may believe that you are the only one who can best serve the needs of your business and clients, cloning a human being has not met with scientific success.  It is a misnomer to believe that if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.  Rather the smart, savvy business person believes in the team and thinking outside the box to be successful.  A virtual assistant provides just that – a professional relationship with the same drive to have your business and client’s best interest at the heart of their business without the traditional setting of the workplace.
   

2. Two heads are better than one.  It takes a team to build a business properly.  A virtual assistant will support your needs while bringing a fresh perspective on problem solving and offering a diverse network of resources.
   

3. Time is money.  Experience the freedom to concentrate on your business rather than the routine, mundane tasks associated with running your business.  If your billable hours are $150 per hour then contract an assistant who can do the $35 to $50 per hour of work so that you can land the next new contract that reinforces why you operate a business.
   

VIRTUAL TASKS:  Shannon discovered in the growth of her business that she needed help with scheduling, communication, website maintenance, shopping cart assistance, database management, travel & speaking assistance, and a host of other administrative tasks.

VIRTUAL ACTION:  Like Shannon you can’t be more than one individual and you need the expertise of the team.  What tasks are stealing your time from productively moving forward?

• Make a list of tasks
• Talk the list over with a confidant
• Take action

Hey Everybody!

Well, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after having been gone for two weeks, and am heading right back out to the Virginia Equine Extravaganza this weekend (If you're going, come see me! We'll have a booth across from the Parelli™ booth!). In the meantime, I've been pondering a bit what it means to be a small business owner, and wanted to share some thoughts with you, as you consider your options in Equine Assisted Practices.

Prior to Horse Sense, I was an English professor, teaching 3-4 courses a semester. I often also worked a side job while teaching, what with teacher salaries not being the best! Amongst the more meaningful side jobs I've had, I've worked as a Vet Tech/Assistant at my vet's office (to offset the 6 dogs and 4 cats we had while living in Dallas), at photo shops, and at various bookstores throughout my life. I enjoyed them all and learned a great deal.

Now to Horse Sense. I know when I first got the idea to "go into business for myself," I thought about simple things such as having lunch when I wanted to, and being able to take time off for things that are very important to me, but may not have been seen that way by my boss, such as taking a week off to attend the Parelli™ Savvy Conference in Colorado. Now, I knew that working for myself would be no "bed of roses," as I'd heard all the horror stories you've also probably heard about long hours and hard work. But among the things I thought I understood but didn't is the following: that I would work harder and longer at this job than I would at any other job in my life.

Are there amazing perks and benefits? No doubt. But is there a trade-off? You bet. In yesterday's Asheville Citizen-Times Business section, a small business owner was quoted as saying: "I work harder now than I have in my whole entire life now that I own my own business." And I get what he means now in a way I didn't when I didn't have my own business. And I hope my writing this will help you understand it in a way that I didn't back then.

So. Do I love what I do? Again, you bet. But, as in the case of today, when I'm starting to get a cold, and just spent 2.5 hrs in a dentist chair, and want to go home and sleep all day, can I, just because I'm the business owner? The answer is yes and no. Yes, of course I can. But if not me, and if not today, then when and by whom?

But even at the end of my worst day, I'm still honored and delighted to work with the people I do, doing what we do, for the people we do it for. And, the best reason of all for me, we get to do it all with horses. That's being truly blessed.

Happy Trails!

Shannon

Hello fellow equine enthusiasts, and welcome to Mike’s CFO Corner.  The bucks stop here.

In my first installment, I will describe the kinds of challenges many businesses face, and hopefully give you some inside scoop on how well run businesses operate.

Some of the challenges facing Horse Sense and most other small businesses include slow and sometimes outdated financial information, an outdated financial plan, a lack of internal data that can be used to manage the business and make sound decisions, and holes in internal controls and policies and procedures.  Interestingly enough, all of these issues are generally not addressed by CPA firms!

The first step is to assess the current financial condition of your company.  This includes taking a look at how you are doing compared to the industry and other standard benchmarks.

Once you have identified any trouble areas, integrate into your business a way to address those problems in the future so that the company is always improving.  There are many techniques to gather and use financial data, make sure you use some!

The next step is to look into the future using a budget.  A more detailed description of the budget process will be posted on the trailblazer’s website soon.

Update your plan every month and compare to the actual results.  This step takes very little time, but you will see what is going wrong and you can fix it.

Remember, if you fail to plan, plan to fail.  I’ve never met a wealthy business owner that didn’t have a plan.

Mike Sowinski, CPA
Contact Mike

Hey Everyone!

Wow! What a wonderful trip to Europe, and what a great conference in Vienna!

I was excited and honored to be a representative from the United States at the European Association of Horse Assisted Educators (EAHAE) during the annual conference, which this year was held in Vienna, Austria October 6-7. Along with almost 100 others from all over Europe, my husband Richard and I learned and shared a lot about our passion and vision for the field of Equine Assisted Activities!

The conference this year was organized by Robert Koenes and his lovely wife, Edith, of HorseCoach Institute. They were able to arrange for a private tour of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna for the conference attendees, which took place Friday afternoon. What a wonderful behind-the-scenes tour it was! Richard and I had already been that morning to a public practice session of the Riding School (which is held most days from 10am-12noon), and had also already been to the Lipizzan museum earlier in the week. But on this special tour we went into the stables where the horses are kept and met a 30+ year old Lipizzan Stallion, not to mention all the other beauties. We then went to the tack room, where they keep all the gold-plated breastplates and cruppers the horses wear during the evening performances, along with the gold-plated bridles. It was quite a site!

After the special tour, EAHAE hosted a social dinner event for all attendees. We made new friends from Sweden, Australia, Germany, Austria and many other places that evening alone! It was a lovely way to ease into the new event, and Richard and I both got to practice some languages we haven't used in quite some time. Richard knew a little German and French and, although I studied French in school, every time I went to open my mouth, nothing but Spanish would come out!

I'm writing a short paper this week on the conference proceedings for all Trailblazer members, so I won't go into too much detail now about all the wonderful presentations and what we can learn from this event. I'm quite excited about some things going on in this organization, and can't wait to share more with you! If you aren't already familiar with the EAHAE, you can learn more about it at their website (link to www.eahae.org/index.htm).

After the conference, Richard and I spent time in Zurich, Interlocken & Lausanne (all in Switzerland), and Bayeux in Normandy. We're both WWII fans, and we got to see some humbling and impressive historical sites such as Omaha Beach, the American Cemetary, and the gunnery at Longues Sur Mer. We also got to see, in our trips through Switzerland, why Western North Carolina is often referred to as "Little Switzerland". It was like looking out our window, except it was all cows and not horses!

It's great to be back, and I look forward to hearing from you now that we're home!

Happy Trails!

Shannon

PS: stay tuned to learn about a conference we're planning at Horse Sense in Fall of 2008 that will bring all of you to our Little Switzerland! It's guaranteed to jumpstart your EAP/EAL business, and get you on the way to a great program! More will be revealed soon!

I recently had the privilege of participating in and facilitating some of three days of team building and strategic planning for the Horse Sense Team. We celebrated successes, generated new ideas and got fired up for the coming year and all the exciting changes ahead at Horse Sense. Yes, there were a few chickens in the room (literally, there was a chicken launcher present which provided entertainment and distraction when the conversation got too heavy! – ask Brenda where she got it!) but overall, we had an extremely productive and positive three days together.

Why Team Building?

1. People understand themselves better –their strengths and natural preferences – and it increases self awareness and responsibility.
2. Staff understand their teammates better – what are their strengths and gifts, how do they uniquely view the world?
3. It improves communication between staff members and ultimately efficiency and effectiveness in the office.
4. Have fun! Work can get heavy sometimes if you’re doing a lot of therapy and managing a lot of paperwork. Coming together as a team to laugh and play is a critical element for long term success and satisfaction.

Inspired Action: What have you done lately to build a sense of team with your staff? Schedule a team building day soon! You can find someone in your local area or consider working with me, Shannon’s coach, to facilitate a day long communications styles workshop using a powerful personality assessment. I love to travel!

Why Strategic Planning?

1. Having a vision is critical for long-term success. It allows you to think BIG and consider possibilities for your business instead of just focusing on “what do we have to do today?”
2. The process itself is powerful for celebrating successes, generating new ideas and setting clear goals to support the viability of your business.
3. A strategic plan gives you a “flexible container” to work within. As you make decisions for your business, you can always refer to your strategic plan and ask “will this take us toward our goals or away from our goals?”

Inspired Action: Do you have goals? A clear plan for your business? Consider whether doing a strategic planning session with your team would be beneficial. You could find someone locally or contact Brenda Dammann who spearheaded Horse Sense’s strategic planning process.

--- Coach Elizabeth
www.elizabethbarbour.com