Homestead Herds offers cattle breeding via artificial insemination for homesteads & small cattle farms near Waco, TX.
As we dove into raising cattle and everything involved, my husband Jeff realized his passion for livestock, specifically, cattle. He enjoyed their complexities and learning everything there was to know. We also learned how annoying bulls are. So, Jeff decided to take a professional artificial insemination course to breed cattle so we wouldn't have to keep a bull. He began considering how he could grow a business around this service offering.
We had a two-hour conversation about his market opportunities and target customers. Commercial operations usually have AI services covered; either the farmer knows how or someone on staff does. We weren't ruling out offering a day rate to support a local commercial farm, but he decided that serving small operations or family milk cows was more his style. This meant pricing his services to ensure he was profitable, sometimes serving only one or two cows per appointment. Locality played a significant part in the conversation, too, since driving from one end of Waco to the other could mean hours when offering a 60-mile service radius. We also had to consider the timing of his services, usually requiring 3 to 4 appointments to breed a cow for clients who don't know how to determine whether their cow is in standing heat.
With all these considerations, we landed on a business plan to ensure a pricing margin that supports the local community while also providing profitability. His schedule was key. He must take appointments based on areas to avoid wasting time and money driving everywhere daily. Once we defined his business plan, including his target audience, we could begin strategizing how he would find clients and market his business. We found channels (places your customers spend time) where cattle people would be—Facebook groups, Instagram, local clubs and organizations, feed stores, veterinarians, etc. Each channel provided a different opportunity, with social media and our SEO-rich website attracting customers (I'll write an entire post on how to get your website ranked #1). We would forge relationships with local stores and service providers, like veterinarians, to receive referrals from others.
When Jeff launched his business, he was booked solid the first week. He even commented that I needed to "turn the marketing off."
The thing is, we couldn't just turn the marketing off. Everything was in place and serving him all on its own. I built a beautiful website that ranked #1 on Google when you search "Cattle AI Waco TX" or "Cattle AI" [if your location is turned on]. To ensure he could handle the consistent flow of clients as he was easing out of full-time dad mode, I automated almost all of his operations, even creating a calculator to help him and his clients understand the timing of his services. We've since written several blog posts and set up automated email nurtures to ensure that his clients understand the process ahead of time. Clients can now book appointments independently and sign the necessary waivers and paperwork. I had to build a semi-complex solution to ensure that Jeff had enough time to drive to the next appointment when a client booked an appointment independently. Balancing calendars is no easy task, and it can all be automated.
He's now running his business full-time, and each week, we make tiny tweaks and improvements to his systems to ensure each mistake or tiny inconvenience is addressed and resolved. Points of friction require business owners to spend way too much time on their business operations and not enough time providing their actual offerings, decreasing profitability and increasing frustrations.
If you could benefit from operational excellence and marketing that works without effort, book a free strategy consult. I'd love to understand your business and see if I can help.