Starting a country business

To some people, rural simply means the bit of country between two towns, you know, where the de-restricted sign starts. No actual mud, animals, tractors or anything; buses and trains within reach, motorways and airports ditto. To others, rural means in the middle of absolutely nowhere - with no amenities, public transport, people Neither of the two above is much use if you'd like to run a business; somewhere between the two extremes would be good. Forget what you've heard about being able to have a business anywhere if you have a computer, a fax and a mobile phone. Businesses, in the main, require people - and even if it's only you and your dog, you do need other people to help and support you (your bank manager, the postman, your accountant and your public), and they have to be able to get to you and/or your product relatively easily.

What does 'business' mean?

Business is the other word - do you mean you'd like to sell the things you make at the WI market once a month, or do you have in mind earning a reasonable living? If you are in the service industry, or you make something, you are always going to be limited by the number of hours in each day and by how many of what you make you can produce during that day.

Eventually, everyone needs to eat and sleep so, sensibly, you can only work for, say, 16 hours a day and how many woollen hats, rabbit hutches, widgets, or whatever can you actually make in that time? Also, and rather crucially, you need to tell the rest of the world that you are out there making, or doing, these things! So, time must be spent on market research (you don't want to be the third rabbit hutch maker in your neck of the woods), marketing, advertising in the relevant media and selling - all these reduce the number of items you can make in your 16 hour day (you can't afford to have someone else do these things because you haven't made any money yet).

To be fair, this is where computer technology does come in as you can set up your own website if you are computer literate enough (or pay someone who does know how) but it still begs the question of how do people know your website is there?

This requires further knowledge of links, search engines and the like. Many very exciting businesses have failed because no-one knows about them. Word of mouth is the best advertisement, it's true, but it's slow and, meanwhile, you have to pay rent, a mortgage, eat and so on.

Back to basics

So, back to basics, market research, a business plan and a marketing strategy are crucial. Even if you are self-financing and can survive for the first few months (this is absolutely necessary whatever the business), you should be as sure as possible that there is a market for what you want to do and that you have a good plan for letting people know about it.

Having said all the sensible things above, we fell into our last business by default - I had a good job that paid well; my partner had alimony! We wanted to find a house with some land and buildings so that we could keep one or two competition horses at home; I would continue in my job and she would compete, teach a bit, and keep the home fires burning!

The person who owned the house we wanted was having personal problems so we couldn't go and see the house when we wanted to; this was pretty frustrating so we looked in the property pages of Horse & Hound - and that's how we ended up with a full scale equestrian business, complete with indoor and outdoor schools, a horsewalker, a regular competition schedule, and more horses than we thought we would ever own! (We did have quite a bit of expertise in the equine industry, by the way, but not commercially).

The difficult bit, other than putting the whole place in some sort of order, replacing all the electrics, pulling down buildings, putting up buildings, fencing, putting in security systems, etc. etc., was finding good reliable local suppliers and tradesmen. Not that there wasn't plenty of choice - Yellow Pages abounded with such people - no, the difficulty was to find people with whom you could, and would want to, work, who would take as much interest in your business and property as you did, and make helpful (and, preferably, money savings) suggestions as they go.

We had no previous experience of such work on the scale we found ourselves with - it's one thing to have a dripping tap in the kitchen, quite another to have a horse catch it's foot in the water trough, de-plumb it by dragging it across the field, leaving a fountain of water spreading rapidly, not to mention quite a bit of blood mixed in!

This requires people who believe you when you tell them it's an emergency and arrive very rapidly equipped with the necessary tools - wrenches, and sutures, in this case.

Land management

Twenty acres of land sounds wonderful but, even with grazing animals, there is a lot of grass involved and you need someone dedicated enough to keep the whole thing under control - that immediately involves tractors, ride-on mowers, strimmers, hedge cutters and the like; and that involves having someone on tap who can mend these things when they cease to operate, which they do, all the time.

Then there's hay-making; we did it ourselves the first year - never ever again. After that, we found a wonderful local farmer who did the whole thing for us and, crucially, also stacked it in the barn (it's no use in the field going rotten). However, there is still that week or so each year when you dare it to rain, as that involves more turning of the hay (more expense) and, even when baled, you need to get it in before the weather turns. In this country, this experience can lead to loss of hair and nails, failed relationships and other associated, stress related, problems.

Ten years on, we had a fantastic set of people round us who knew us and we knew them; as much as any business works well, ours did, because we knew who to ask to do what and when. And you learn timing - from year to year, the organisation works better because you learn from the mistakes you have made (if you want to survive) and you arrange for things to be done in plenty of time. You order things in advance, you make sure someone crucial is not on holiday just at the time when you need all the man (or woman) power you can get, you get things mended when they break and not when you need them next.

Sticking with local tradesmen and suppliers pays dividends; paying bills on time is crucial - if you need a favour, it is much more likely to happen if you are a loyal, regular client who pays up; saying 'thank you' for a job well done is also very productive; and giving of your own time and energy over and above what you are paid to do, brings all sorts of rewards you didn't expect or look for.

Our rural business worked out for us - we were good at what we did; we tried very hard to be fair and to treat people fairly; we were straight in our dealings and, perhaps luckily, were treated that way back; we were tough when we needed to be and we did what it said on our particular tin.

Having sold up we miss being the bosses but we don't entirely miss the 24/7 responsibility always associated with the care of animals, whether your own or someone else's, and we definitely don't miss having to pay all the bills, all the time.

Would we do it again? The jury is out on that one. You need lots of energy and enthusiasm, determination, optimism, and being a bit crazy is an asset, whereas a sense of humour and proportion is vital. Although now of pensionable age, we are far from finished yet but perhaps something smaller scale that we can leave to take care of itself occasionally