Howdy all. I am New to the forum and wanted to introduce my self and ask a question. I am from northwest GA and I've been behind the anvil a little better than ten years. I shoe mostly trail and show horses but I specialize in draft stock. My question is how far do you normally travel or how many mile away do you still consider to be your home range? Over the course of the last year I have had a large number of clients stop shoeing their horses. They still get them trimmed regularly but not shod. This is eating into my finances pretty bad so I am thinking of expanding my work area to pick up some new clients to fill in the gaps.
Around 85% of my work is within a 10 mile radius, my aim is to have all of it within that region in the next 6 months.
50 miles in 3 directions is my limit. North, South and West. I go 1 mile to the East, past that it's Canada. Regards
Must be nice my closest barn is 50 miles away. But 4 shoes cost $60 neer my house i can get 3 times that if i drive 50 miles or so Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the replies. My farthest client is 35 miles away. I was thinking of branching out to 50 or 75 miles but 100 miles gets me into some pretty nice horse country. There is a bunch of really nice barns out that way. Zach, you said your closest barn is 50 miles away, how far is your farthest and how many horses?
Hey Draftshoer I am in central Ga and I go from Laurens Co to Taylor Co and from Dooley to Jasper Co. Probably a 50 -70 mile radius. Trick is making it a round trip.
Once i go more then 70 i have a $750 min. Charge over 100 miles got make $1k farthest i go now is 175 miles but thats for a horse show nd i charge a minimum of $2k plus all expenses for the 4 days im there. Ill go where the money is i cover parts of the 4 sorounding States Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Do ya'll charge mileage for clients outside your normal area? If so is it a flat rate or so much a mile?
Gabino Not allowed, legally. To work in Canada, I'd have to have a work visa, which means I would need an employer with a Canadian employer ID number. There are I think 60 professions ( lawyer, doctor, vet, etc) that can apply for an independent visa, under the North American Free Trade act, but farrier is not one of them. I checked it out when I first started. One of the horse clubs eventually offered to apply for an ID number and hire me, but by then I was too busy. Too bad, they have a hard time finding a farrier in the area, and there are a lot of good horses and people. Regards
Its the reason I left Ireland the rising cost of diesel was killing me. I traveled approx 40 miles in three directions on alternating days 9 months of the year I had stops all along each route so no more than fifteen twenty mins between stops so that wasn't a problem but the other 3 months I had to travel the same mileage some days only to stick on a lost shoe here or there which didn't even cover the diesel. Now I move between two farrier rooms 1km apart on one farm, but at least before I was my own boss if I didn't like a customer I could tell them where to shove it I had plenty more now all my eggs are in one basket.
1 Euro both ways...... + time...... at the least $500 Euros.... example- 30 minutes south of Atlanta, pair of rim pads behind.....$125 work + $250 for the hour there and back, mileage- 87 miles x 2 += $174 + - That includes putting off appiontments at the end of the day which had to made up later; on a Saturday! FK!
