Hello!

Welcome to Issue 4! And despite this issue coming out slightly later than we’d hoped, it still contains an absolute treasure trove of business inspiration and advice.

We’ve headed up the magazine with some great marketing tips and tricks, including our feature article The Best Way to Market Your Business in 2023 (by us!), alongside Blogging for Business and Using Instagram In Your Business.

Next, we dive into some Real Business Lessons. The insights you gain from these personal stories and experiences could just change the entire direction of your regional business.

A big feature this issue is our Business Management section – something no small business can afford to ignore. With fantastic articles on financial management, farm management planning, outsourcing and grants, you’ll be able to run your business much more smoothly and successfully than ever before.

New to this issue is our ‘Tech Corner’ and ‘Horse Corner’. We hope these sections will be a regular feature.

Technology can be a massive hurdle for many of us in small business.

And being out in the country means that many of us have a horse or two (or 20!) in our lives. Horses are clearly a huge passion of ours as a family.

A few weeks ago, our two kids competed in their very first Gymkhana (or pony show).

Despite limited time for preparation (mostly due to our time constraints, rather than their enthusiasm!), they both very bravely spruced up and turned out their ponies and themselves, and gave it a red hot go.

They took ‘Snowball’ – a super tiny Miniature/ Shetland gelding (all of around 8HH), who at the ripe old age of 26 was their ridden mount. And ‘Puzzle’ is a slightly bigger Welsh/Shetland, and as he’s just a baby at 5 years old, his job was to get used to being out and about and keep Snowball company.

So, Miss Sophie at 7, is quite a keen and well-balanced little rider. She was initially nervous, but tackled the classes with great professionalism. You literally could not wipe the smile off her face for the entire 2.5 hours. To say she loved every minute she was out competing is an understatement indeed.

Oliver, at 10, is not the most confident pony rider out there. He loves his horses, and the horses love him, but after a fright on a young pony a couple of years ago, has been reluctant to ride. But when Sophie was practicing and Mr Snowball needed some extra muscle to remind him who was boss – Oliver bravely lept to the challenge. With each practice ride, his confidence slowly grew – but still, competing was very much out of his comfort zone. Riding in front of a crowd was a very big deal to him. His intention was to ride in just one or two classes – but he ended up doing four. He surprised himself by loving it too.

Both kids ended up with about 12 ribbons between them. Mr Snowball proved that even stately old gentlemen ponies could turn into enthusiastic, speedy Thoroughbreds (he came second in the final trotting race against some much bigger horses!). And Mr Puzzle soon decided that the big wide world wasn’t as scary as he first thought.

Sophie even ended up winning the big ‘Rider of the Day’ award at the end for smiling so enthusiastically and having so much fun throughout the day.

But, why on earth am I telling you this story? Sure, it’s kind of cute – but what’s the relevance to the magazine and to running a regional business?

Both kids learnt that they could achieve far more than they believed possible for themselves.

Sophie’s aim was two ribbons for the day, Oliver didn’t even think he could ride at all. Both of them bravely gave it a go – and found enormous success and a lot more confidence.

Did you know that you can’t expect to feel confident when you tackle something new? Like ever?

The only way that horrible, nervous, churning feeling in your stomach goes away, is by pushing through it and doing the things that scare you anyway.

Not even the most confident-looking or skillful people you see in the world, started off that way. They all started as nervous, bumbling beginners. But they were brave enough to push through, to try, to practice and to improve.

Through dedicated practice, and continually pushing yourself – even if it’s a teeny, tiny bit each time – the more confident and skillful you become.

But you have to start somewhere. Face your challenges and blocks head on. Take tiny steps towards your goals. Try the things that scare you.

It’s the only way towards greater success.

And if Oliver & Sophie can do it, so can you.

Sarah (& Toby)

Rural Entrepreneur Australia

P.S The kids are now pretty keen to enter in some more pony shows, to keep progressing their skills. But it was their bravery in tackling something new and daunting that impressed us the most. #proudparents