Aiding the Equestrian Community with Entrepreneurship
Senior Project Proposal and Presentation by Stella Propp
I have been an avid equestrian for twelve years now. I have dedicated the majority of my time to practicing and improving my horseback riding technique. I compete almost every weekend and practice every day of the week. Over the years, I have realized just how lucky I am to be able to do what I love almost every day and be able to compete at the level I am at with such wonderful horses. Not everyone has this opportunity.
With all my time in the equestrian community, came my deepest desire to do something for the riding community. Four years ago, AJCS Treats was founded. AJCS Treats is a horse and dog treat business that I started with my sisters. We decided to do something with the money we earn. Each year, we donate our profits to a new charity of our choosing. In the past, we have donated our profits to animal welfare charities. But, with COVID-19 and all the hardships that it has caused for young riders, we wanted to dedicate our year (and potentially even more time) to helping equestrians who are struggling to continue the sport at all.
For my senior project, I want to help support young equestrians who can no longer afford the sport with the help of my treat business earnings. I also want to learn more about my business that I started several years ago in order to make as much as possible to help the cause at hand.
I have three essential questions that I am interested in further exploring:
- What are strategies that can help my business grow in the time of COVID-19 and further down the road?
- How can I use my business to make a lasting and memorable impact in our ever-changing world?
- How can my newfound business knowledge further help me support these young equestrians and the movement in which I choose to take part?
In order to dive into answering these questions, I need to continue the growth of my business and talk to other entrepreneurs to get their input on how and what I can improve on in order to learn and advance more. With that wisdom can come more profits and with those profits, I can help as many young equestrians in need as possible. I will not just donate to my chosen charity, but actually, help out and be active within throughout my project and beyond.
My ideas above are 100% feasible for me as I have already made contact with several people to lock this project and my ideas in.
I have all my business supplies in check; I have materials to bake, sell, and ship/deliver treats. When the third trimester comes along, I will have so much time to bake treats so that hopefully, our earnings increase due to the surplus of product. e
I have already spoken with my father, who is an entrepreneur himself. He is willing to help me with the business aspect of this project and he has already connected me with two of his entrepreneur friends to help as well. With these people, I can learn from their different experiences as entrepreneurs. Furthermore, I am sure we can all relate to COVID-19 in some way and the way that it has possibly impacted our business. I am hoping to learn a lot from them and I am very hopeful!
Lastly and most importantly, everything I want to do/explore for this project can be done fully online. I have my treat baking at home, my treat website is up and running, I can speak to entrepreneurs via Zoom and my involvement in my chosen movement can be done over the phone and social media, etc.
The best news of all though, is that I have already chosen my movement in which to donate my profits this year! It is called the Hunter Circuit Foundation. The Hunter Circuit Foundation’s mission statement is as follows: to support talented, driven, and underfunded young equestrians. I am already in contact with the founder, Rielle Hunter, and have filled her in on this project in particular. She is so excited about my ideas and that my small business will be supporting her foundation. There is even a documentary coming out on ABC about this foundation that I will be involved in, but unfortunately, it will be coming out next year, so it will not directly be apart of the outcomes of my senior project!
I am very excited about my senior project and am happy with my contacts, as the planning stages will be a lot easier because I know what I am doing and who I am doing it with. In the coming days, I will produce my pitch presentation and attach it below!
Link to Final Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/151OkHrrbDiFHE6D4Jjg_LkVRtP9uQ6fKzi99M7YBIc0/edit?usp=sharing