Business Building Intensive Workshop  

September 18-20, 2008

With Special Guest Strides to Success

Registration now available!

Conference Details and Full Agenda Available Below!

Put your program in overdrive with the Horse Sense Business Building Intensive! Spend a weekend in beautiful Western North Carolina and come away inspired, empowered, and prepared for success. The Business Building Intensive will be an interactive, "roll up your sleeves" weekend designed to harness your power and plug you directly into the knowledge, information, and tools to make your business rock!

The Horse Sense Business Building Intensive is a multi-day event to help you get a solid foundation for your EAP/EAL business. Whether you are just beginning or have been in the field for a while, it's never too late to get a good start!

•    Clarify your vision & unique strengths to create the program of your dreams.

•    Attend hands-on workshops on marketing, planning, funding, & finance.

•    Draw up a solid marketing plan for your business

•    Build a community of fellow professionals

Registration now available!

• 1 day: $200

• 2 days: $350

• 3 days: $450                  

Trailblazers, use your Discount Code to get your 15% discount on workshop prices!

Thursday, September 18th: Pre-Intensive Special Event

9:00 – 12:00
Strides to Success presents: Schools + Horses = Success! 

Join Debbie Anderson and Linda Zimmerman to learn how to engage schools in an Equine Experiential Education program.

Our nation's schools have identified at-risk and disadvantaged youth as disengaged from the educational process, largely due to behavior issues. Negative behaviors stem from a variety of difficult neighborhood, community, family and school situations that have caused some students to fail in the traditional school setting and shut down emotionally. When the students are in the shut-down mode, they are not teachable and therefore fall behind in school and eventually many leave the education process. The number of expulsions and suspensions is on the rise in schools all across the nation. Many schools are not equipped to instruct basic life skills that could teach students how to handle their personal situations in a positive manner and prevent them from leaving the school environment.  

Strides to Success was created to work in partnership with the schools to provide innovative programming for these students and the school's teaching staff. Since 2004, Strides has introduced hundreds of other equine professionals to the process of incorporating programs into the school culture.

12:00 – 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 – 4:30

Horse Sense presents: Running with Mustangs: Working with Adjudicated Youth

Join the Horse Sense of the Carolinas team of Shannon Knapp, Richard Knapp, Lisa Wheeler and Liza Sapir to learn how to work with Juvenile Justice and Adjudicated Youth. Working with adjudicated youth has been the cornerstone of our EAP/EAL program since 2003. The adjudicated youth population is one of the most rewarding populations Horse Sense has worked with. Non-traditional techniques are the order of the day when serving this population, and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is at the top of the list in effectiveness. In this intensive workshop, we'll share

• How to write successful grants for serving DJJDP youth
• Answer the common concerns raised by these funding sources
• Creating appropriate and meaningful measurable objectives
• Incorporating EAL into your EAP sessions with Adjudicated Youth
• Vocational programming possibilities
• Special consideration for incarcerated youth

Since 2003, Horse Sense of the Carolinas has served adjudicated youth from over eight counties in Western North Carolina. In that time, we’ve learned how to work productively with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and we’ve been sharing that wisdom with other EAP/EAL practitioners in the field.

 
5:00 – 6:00
Hors d’oeuvres & Networking with Shannon Knapp

Friday, September 19

9:00 – 10:00
5 Keys to Success in Business
In this down to earth welcome keynote, Shannon Knapp will share humorous stories and practical tips from her personal journey as an entrepreneur. She’ll address the 5 Keys to building a successful equine-assisted business: Building a Business System; Building a Facility; Building a Team; Building Awareness and Building Clientele. These all form the foundation of her must-read book, Horse Sense, Business Sense. You’ll be inspired by her experience and glean helpful tips to assist you on your own path to entrepreneurship!
 
10:15 – 11:45 
Conjunction Junction: Your Guide to Successful Presentations, Demonstrations
and Evaluations
The cornerstone of Client Development and Building Clientele, the presentation, the ensuing demonstration, and the resulting evaluation are critical to your program success. In this session, Shannon Knapp will help you determine the key elements you should have in place for each step of the way. You’ll get sample presentations, sample demonstration agendas and evaluation forms for you to use as is or tweak to suit your needs. You’ll also learn the art of the “follow-up,” or how to convert presentations and demonstrations into the single most important business element: clients!

12:00 – 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 – 3:00
Stabilize Your Income
Debbie Anderson and Linda Zimmerman will help you learn how your center could develop innovative funding streams that can diversify your budget and provide consistent yearly income. The speakers in this presentation will discuss cultivating yearly contracts with schools, businesses and institutions, customizing your services to meet the market’s demands, developing programs to serve as key resources for other industries. Achieving these goals can lead your center to financial stability!

3:15 – 4:45
Creating Your Ideal Herd: Evaluation and Selection of the EAP/EAL Horse
What kind of horse is best for EAP/EAL? Arabs because of their sensitivity? Mustangs because of their spirit? Quarter Horses because of their steadiness? With Shannon Knapp as your guide, you’ll examine the key elements of a great EAP/EAL horse and break down the specifics about the optimum number in a herd, best gender breakdown, and favored breeds, while also reviewing how to work with donated, rescued & rehabbed horses. An enlightening discussion about the most important part of our team: the horses!

4:45 – 5:00
Wrap up the day with Shannon Knapp

Saturday, September 20

9:00 – 10:15
Top 5 Networking Secrets and the One That Will Change How You Do Business
In this interactive session with Shannon Knapp, you will learn why networking is absolutely critical to the success of your business and to your satisfaction and enjoyment as a business owner! You’ll learn easy tips and practical strategies for how to network in a way that’s fun and profitable. By practicing these tools with fellow BBI participants, it will increase your confidence to return to your community and network like crazy.

10:30 – 12:00
Where’s the Money? Company Financial Planning and Budget Preparation 
Following the lead of Mike Sowinski and Shannon Knapp, you’ll take a trip with the experts through your balance sheet! This informative presentation will provide the attendee with the latest in business planning and financial management techniques including how to set up a company, monitor important financial areas, raise capital, prevent fraud, and plan for the future with budgeting and forecasting.

12:00 – 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 – 4:00 
Marketing Plan Essentials and an Interactive Marketing Think Tank
You’ll spend the final afternoon of this information-packed weekend with Brenda Dammann and Shannon Knapp learning all about how to market your equine-assisted business. What must be included in a Marketing Plan to help your business develop and thrive? Although we’re all unique in a variety of ways, there are key elements all good marketing plans include. We’ll review these together and, by the end of our time, you’ll have a basic marketing plan to take home, refine and apply to your needs in your community. We’ll discuss important concepts & key considerations that drive the Marketing Plan, such as the Message Development document and Budgeting. But we’ll also cover nuts and bolts topics, like Calling & Referral Strategies and Collateral Needs.

Then, we’ll change gears, because one of the best ways we learn is by tapping into the collective wisdom of our colleagues. Everyone has done marketing in some form or fashion. What works? What doesn’t? What would you like to try? What are you afraid of trying? This interactive session will get you brainstorming, problem solving and generating new ideas for marketing success with your colleagues.

4:15 – 5:00 
Well... So Now What? Closing Thoughts with Shannon
This wrap up session will help you to distill down the essence of what you learned during this conference. You’ll be inspired to take action and declare commitments – to yourself and to the group.

Horse Sense Farm Party Saturday Night at 7pm

The Intensive will end at the Horse Sense farm Saturday night with a party at the barn. So, bring both your city boots and your farm boots, and join us near beautiful Asheville, the site of the 2009 EAGALA conference!

 

Registration now available!

• 1 day: $200

• 2 days: $350

• 3 days: $450