dressagemarket.com

I am a self proclaimed tack-a-holic. I love to buy and sell used tack, but sometimes find that the overhead of listing the tack on some websites just is not worth the prices that I can purchase the tack for. Some consignment fees are outrageous, 30% fees... and some listing fees can go upwards of $60 for one saddle, and that's not ebay, which can run more than that depending on the eventual sale price of the actual item. Thank HORSE that a friend of a friend, Anne, has come to the rescue and helped with her great website, dressagemarket.com!

Not only does this website with the fresh, easy to navigate layout offer affordable prices to help you list your used tack ($10 for a whole 90 day listing WITH a photo!), but you can also list your dressage horses for sale as well! The prices there are even more fair, ranging from a mere $30-$55 depending on the option you choose. The website allows for high resolution ads and even areas where you can include video links, all without any additional hidden costs. Its easy, fair and really a class act. There is even an entire directory for artists, judges, breeders, vendors, trainers and the lot! All in all this website has the ability to over come other similar websites by leaps and bounds, all created by a fellow ex-young rider.

I interviewed Anne to get some answers to a few questions I had about her drive and about the website:
1.- How did you come up with the idea of dressagemarket.com? (did you find there was a lack in the WWW? or was it something that you found yourself doing as a hobby on the side that grew?)

While going to graduate school full time, I decided to teach and train dressage since I had over 20 years experience and am an FEI rider. During this time, I had several students wanting me to market and sell their dressage horses for them. There was only one popular dressage horse sales website at the time. This site costs several hundred dollars to list your horse and even more for trainer or vendor listings. My students and I thought that dressage people were being taken advantage of and many of them did not want to pay to advertise on this site. This led me to the idea of creating Dressage Market. I felt that if I could offer people a more affordable service with more advertising options that dressage enthusiasts would appreciate it and advertise with the website.
2.- Dressagemarket.com seems to have a steady stream of horses and tack posted, did you ever think it would be such an instant success? Or was it not as instant as it looks to the rest of us?

The website has been up since January 2010. To attract initial visitors we offered free horse and tack listings during a short introductory period. Since that promotion has ended, we have continued to get several listings per week and that has led to over 210 dressage horses listed on the site.

I definitely think Dressage Market has been a success especially since it hasn't even been on the web for 6 months. We definitely want to continue to grow and create awareness. Currently, we have been trying to spread the word through advertising, newsletters, facebook, etc and have had amazing results. Site traffic is up 94% compared to last month and horse inquiry emails are also at a record high.

3.- For all of the other entrepreneurs out there, what advice do you have about the amount of time that you spend keeping the site running and how much work you thought you were going to have to put into it?

I started designing the website in August and it was lunched in January. During those months I put in hundreds of hours. Since the site has been up and running, I have been spending anywhere between 20-25 hours a week. This includes helping customers, advertising, and working on and testing new projects that haven't been launched on the site yet.

My plan is that I will no longer have to continue working my current job and be able to focus fully on the website. This was my intention all along and I hope this becomes a reality sooner rather than later.

For entrepreneurs, I would recommend that when you create your business whether it is a website or brick and mortar, try to make it something you enjoy doing because you will spend a great deal of time and energy towards creating a successful business.

4.- Do you have any future ideas to further expand dressagemarket.com?

Yes, we have several new features for Dressage Market that should be coming out in the next month or two that out competitors do not offer. For that reason, I can't tell you the details but it will be exciting!
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I know I'm excited to see what happens in the upcoming few months with dressagemarket.com, and know that I'll be listing more tack with them in the near future.

If anyone has any questions for Anne, or would like to list a horse, some equipment, or would like to create a directory listing, she can be contacted at: info@dressagemarket.com.