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on developing an entirely new busi-
ness that she could proudly call her
own without any help from outside.
At first, she simple leased a property
so that she could plan ahead for the
next few years and make sure that her
own equestrian centre would actually
be viable. A few years down the line,
however, she understood that loca-
tion was an extremely important part
of the business that she could not ne-
glect. Thankfully, she did find a great
location reasonably close to the Mel-
bourne CBD as well as freely acces-
sible to everyone in the eastern sub-
urbs. “If you go too far out from the
city, you are limiting your clientele”,
says Dannielle.
Teaching horse-riding
skills to people with
disabilities
Aside from having years of experi-
ence as a horse-riding instructor with-
in many different businesses, Dan-
nielle also has an extensive skillset
which has allowed her to diversify and
place Warranwood Equestrian Centre
apart from the competition.
“Starting any business is a challenge.
It’s very different to start a business
than it is to take over an existing one.
Building the clientele is a challenge. I
teach people with disabilities as well
so I found that there’s a lot of demand
for that sort of service. I found that
this was one of my strengths. I was
able to pick up a lot of clients from
that niche market as that clientele
was not available to many people who
just didn’t have the skillset to do the
same. So rather than walking in and
taking over an existing business, it’s
a lot more challenging to create your
own”, says Dannielle.
Aside from working directly with peo-
ple with disabilities, Dannielle is also
involved with various organisations
that operate on a similar basis. For in-
stance, there are a number of adult
learning centres that access programs
through Warranwood Equestrian Cen-
tre as well as a school. The centre
maintains a strong relationship with
the RDA Warrandyte Centre, a not-for-
profit organisation that allows people
with a variety of disabilities and from
many different backgrounds to fulfill
their equestrian goals.
Facing the challenges of
business ownership
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs
is to plan everything out very careful-
ly, particularly in regards to financing
and budgeting. In addition to that, she
is adamant that setting very realis-
tic timeframes is crucial to running a
successful business. This philosophy
applies to both important events, like
opening up the business, and less-
er but continuous ones such as po-
sitioning new events and sales. The
pressure created by not having a re-
alistic timeframe and planning poorly
results in a lot of unnecessary stress
that can be avoided quite easily. Set-
ting realistic targets and being organ-