Chatting with Emily Bertrand

Keeping a business alive during this COVID craziness has been nothing but challenging to say the least.
For many companies this has been a time of a big shift, and unfortunately in some cases has led to being shut down.
However, there are people on the other side of the table who have taken this as an opportunity to stretch their creativity, and quickly adapt to the new challenges. 

One of those amazing people is Emily Bertrand. Emily owns a equine business in Ontario, Canada where they teach riding lessons, run summer camps and also EAL programs. To say the least she is definitely one busy lady!
Which makes her an ideal person to talk to about how to adjust during a time like this…

When we asked her what her secret ingredients were to maintaining her business she gave us some amazing tips and insights.

The first and foremost thing was taking the time to truly realize that whatever was the normal procedure, does not work anymore. This is a time to be flexible and look at ways to still produce income. 

One of those ways was to create an online horse sponsorship program that allowed their clients to pay a monthly fee that allowed them to receive regular updates about their horse. This was done through cute videos, photos, and messages that helped keep the spark alive for the client while they were still at home! 

What a genius idea! 

Her creativity didn’t stop there, when we asked her some tips on how to find inspiration she had a really unique idea…
In order to get her head out of the usual techniques of the horse industry she listens to podcasts from other industries just to see how they were coping and what ideas that they were coming up with.

Add that to research from other companies and people from around the world and she was able to create a new normal for her staff and her clientele that made it possible to keep the business alive!

Emily also understands the importance of staying in touch with her staff and clients, she knows that her own personal agenda should never get in the way of what her people need. Which is why she also has ongoing surveys with everyone that her business is involved with to make sure that they are always on the same page.

Not only does this maintain rapport, but it also encourages new ideas that we might not have thought of before.
Overall it isn’t been an easy year for anyone!

However the best thing we can do is keep our chins up and our minds open so we can all make it through this thing safely and positively!