We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Georgia Stone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Georgia below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Georgia with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Growing up, I have always been involved in horses. I grew up on my mother’s hunter jumper lesson farm, and being the kid of the trainer meant I was a part of all the chores. She closed her barn when I was about 10, and I stopped riding seriously for a few years after that. She sold off most of her horses, except for my younger brother and my ponies. They stayed at the farm under the care of my grandparents. At the end of middle school, I found a lesson barn to join and started riding more seriously again.
My trainer invited me to half-lease a horse there who could get me competing again. I jumped on the opportunity, and I started doing chores for the barn to work off the lease. Around the same time, I learned that caring for the ponies was becoming challenging for my grandparents. We certainly did not have the money for board, but my pony had been with us since I was four so I was not in a hurry to say goodbye. I talked with my trainer, and we came up with a plan for me to continue showing and be able to keep my pony. I started working for her more, and my pony was used in the lesson program.
It was certainly a generous offer, but I worked very hard for what I had. That sense of “I can figure this out, I can work this hard!” has stayed with me. I moved out at eighteen, and only moved back for a few months during COVID. I have worked pretty standard office jobs, but frankly the monotony and lack of purpose is challenging. I have always cared a lot about horses and the professionals in that industry. So, now that I have developed my professional skills, I am working my normal job while I bring those skills to equine professionals as well!
My hope is to eventually be self-sustaining in the Equine Virtual Assistant work, but I am no stranger to working long hours in order to engage in my passion.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I launched my business, Equine Virtual Assistant, in mid-2023. I have witnessed equine professionals first hand who have great ideas and amazing passion for their work, but who just lack the business skills and time to manage the administrative side of things. I started doing this work for the barn where my horse is currently boarded, and it immediately made an impact. We were able to develop some processes and achieve more clarity when the work was shared. It was that barn owner who encouraged me to launch my business and bring this help to a larger audience.
At the end of the day, horse people don’t want to be sitting behind a computer. It is simply not what you want to be signing up for when you start an outdoor business. It’s boring, it’s frustrating, and a lot of it is really hard! Running a business has a lot of moving pieces, which is why other types of businesses have full office staff for all of the various admin responsibilities. Most equine professionals do not have that kind of support behind them, which ultimately just handicaps them. Even if it is only five hours a week behind the screen, that is five hours that could be dedicated to billable client time. If I can take that five hours off someone’s plate, that is a win to me.
The ability to help contribute to this community I have grown up in keeps me inspired and keeps me working at it. A lot of equine professionals have a hard time asking for help, which is understandable. When it is not only your business, but also your passion, your animals, and sometimes your house on the line, trusting a stranger is a huge ask. For people who are not ready to ask for the help, I am coming out with some educational tools soon! A couple of ways to streamline processes, short-term project assistance, and some basic templates for things like bookkeeping and time tracking.
I have a couple of other projects in the works, but I’ll save those as a surprise for down the road!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The first thing for me is persistence. Launching a business is hard, and my ability to just keep at it has been one of my biggest boons. Showing up and doing something is always better than doing nothing. If you have a good idea, and you have the passion for it, then just be persistent. The work will pay off in time.
The second is to know your strengths. I am a huge fan of the Clifton Strengths Assessment, and I think it is a great tool for people to understand themselves. It’s a long series of questions that ultimately tells your what your top 34 strengths are. My top 5 are Communication, Strategic, Includer, Woo, and Futuristic. Ultimately, these mean I’m good at making a plan and getting everyone on the same page. This is a huge boon for administrative work! I am able to listen to half an hour of ideas and boil it down into tangible action steps and deliverables. I think everyone who is running a business should understand their strengths and the strengths of people around them. If you have this information, then you can put themselves in positions to utilize them.
The last piece of my puzzle is being adaptable. One farm’s needs are not going to be identical to the next, ever. One day on social media is not going to be the same as the next, ever. Every day brings in new challenges and new circumstances, and being able to adapt to that in order to keep going is imperative.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
My ideal client is simply someone who is willing to accept help. Equine professionals are some of the most self-sufficient people I have ever met, which is a blessing a curse. They are strong, determined, and incredibly capable. So, when there is something they are not knowledgeable about, the answer tends to be “I’ll make it work.” In the short term, this can be great! There are few groups I would trust more in an emergency. But when it comes to financial planning and vision development, that starts to fall apart.
I am here and ready to work with any of those folks who see the need and are ready to ask for help.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://equinevirtualassistant.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equinevirtualassistant/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550899286447
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/equine-virtual-assistant
Image Credits
Abi Sutcliffe of Tangled Trails Media
