"Success is a Staircase not an Elevator" with Andy Ide
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Photo credit: Kim Ide
Andy is a Software Engineer by training and married into a horse family. Andy was asked to help with the recording of horse information and notebooks and whiteboards were not cutting it. He turned his programming skills to the task and HorseRecords, the comprehensive horse husbandry software was born.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I started my career in Call Center Reporting and Management Information for one of Australia's big banks. From there I set up my own business building websites.
In 2011, I went back to the corporate world to work for a national franchise company as their Senior Software Engineer.
While working for them I was encouraged to develop a piece of software to help my wife manage her horses. After we had run that for a few years I rebuilt the software to handle many users.
My expertise is in Website Applications - which are generally any website you need to login to.
What inspired you to start your business?
My wife was dissatisfied with current methods for recording horse information. Notebooks degrade over time and filing them can be difficult. Whiteboards are only good for a snapshot in time and are easily cleaned. And unfortunately - none of us has as good a memory as we would like!
I was asked to write the software that would sit ‘in the cloud’ so it could be accessed at home or on a phone in the stables.
And that is how HorseRecords was born! I launched May 1st, 2021.
Where is your business based?
We are based 60km east of Adelaide near a little town called Strathalbyn in South Australia. As HorseRecords is software it has customers all over the world. Our main customers are in Australia of course, but we also have customers in the USA, Europe, UK and New Zealand.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
The first steps I took was to look at how the records were recorded manually. So I looked over the notebooks. I was lucky that generally almost every thing is a date and then what happened on that date.
I spoke to my wife about what features she would like, and the main one she said was to be able to add multiple events all at once for multiple horses.
For example, if you have the farrier coming for your horses, you might also give them all a tetanus at the same time as their feet are done. My wife wanted to record both events for all horses in one fell swoop rather than adding a single event each time.
I also was well aware that what we do for our 30 horse stud, is not what different disciplines or breeds do. For example a riding school has a different set of requirements to a lady with several dressage horses, or a girl at pony club or an endurance rider.
So I ensured that I set up HorseRecords from the start to be customisable. It’s a little harder to program but it means the software works for all breeds and all disciplines.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
I contacted various Racing Bodies within Australia and offered HorseRecords for free for their retired racehorses.
Racing Bodies in Australia (and the world) have an ethical obligation to ensure that racehorses that finish racing go to good homes and are prepared well for their next career such as dressage, eventing, jumping or trail riding.
HorseRecords is part of the package these new owners get to help them manage their horses.
This has allowed me access to horse people that are not necessarily found via traditional advertising methods.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge has been the length of time it can take for Horse associations to return my phone calls.
I overcame it by realizing it is never anything personal. These bodies have their own priorities and sometimes the timing just isn't right.
I’ve often got a call back after months of contacts to be finally full steam ahead with using HorseRecords as part of their processes.
How do you stay focused?
This is something I have never really had trouble with. I love coding HorseRecords - something I have full control over and direction of. I love fulfilling the requests of my customers and coding something to help them out.
There are times when I have a task I need to code that doesn't get me out of bed. These are few and far between but what I do is simply do one small thing. Then the next small thing, then the next one. Slowly grinding away at the problem till I get to the end. I like to think success is a staircase not an elevator.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
A few things I think make me different:
HorseRecords is very customisable. Most other software TELLS you the event types you should use - while I give you a few obvious ones - the rest you can add in a custom way based on how you do things.
I cover almost every aspect of Horse husbandry (breeding, riding schools, rehab, general horse ownership etc) while most of the competition is only very niche.
HorseRecords is coded in a modern way on the web. Most of my competition are old application based softwares that stops it being used on phones. Some of them are actually software used for cattle that have been ported to horses!
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Most definitely offering HorseRecords to Racing associations as part of their Off the Track / Retired Racehorse programs. The new owners get a great piece of software to help them manage their horse, and the Racing Association knows that they are doing the best they can by the retired horse.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Success is a Staircase not an Elevator.
You can control the steps you take, you can't control big wins. So grind away each day and the big wins will come!
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
App - is Google Keep. I have all sorts of lists in there from Shopping, to Feature Ideas for HorseRecords to Dad Jokes that I can pull out as needed!
My favorite blog is Simon Willison’s https://simonwillison.net/ He is very much across AI and Programming. A very skilled person.
I don’t get a chance to read many books these days but my favorite novel of all time is Dragon’s Egg. It is a story of entities living on the surface of a neutron star.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
Definitely ChatGPT. The time savings I get from this software are amazing. It has helped me be a better and a faster programmer. I would realistically save 2 hours a day in just typing code by using ChatGPT to write it for me. Of course I check everything it writes.
It is the best $20 USD I spend each month!
Who is your business role model? Why?
I follow a lot of what Marc Randolph has to say. He was one of the founders of Netflix. I like how he talks about having to constantly be flexible and change with the times. I also like how now that he has sold Netflix he is more involved with mentoring and coaching.
How do you balance work and life?
I find HorseRecords to be inspiring to code so I can do that a lot. I usually set myself a goal of 6 hours productive time a day. Usually 4 hours programming is my limit and the 2 hours of admin or talking to customers etc. If I do more than that I know I’ll get tired.
I like to spend time in the garden, I’m currently learning how to grow vegetables - oh and there are always farm chores to do!
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
For me it's watering my garden. I can take the time to do it and just let my mind wander while I’m watering the plants.
I also enjoy mowing the lawn on our ride on mower. It's easy work and it just lets my mind wander with what it needs to think about.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
I am currently talking to AusTrade in the UK to begin a more formal expansion there, and expanding to the USA via Texas is also on the radar.
I will be implementing gift cards as my next major feature so I hope that brings even more folks to HorseRecords!
How can our readers connect with you?
HorseRecords is found at https://horserecords.info
I have a blog where I discuss tech relating topics including ChatGPT: https://djangoandy.com/
I can be emailed at andy@horserecords.info.