We were lucky to catch up with Noelle Vander Brink recently and have shared our conversation below.

Noelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

We were publishing a lifestyle magazine in the area we lived in- Poconos, Lehigh Valley, suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. We had an equine section in it. A number of friends/associates/readers told us that an equine magazine was needed in our area, and to pull the section out and do it as it’s own magazine. So we started Bucks County Equestrian in March of 2008. It was quarterly and a 5 x 8″ digest size. After 3 issues, it grew so much, we were distributing it up and down the east coast and getting editorial contributions from across the country, so we renamed it Elite Equestrian to have a generic name. In January 2012 we went to a full size 8.5 x 11″ magazine and became bi-monthly. We have grown steadily from the beginning. We started visiting Florida, spending time in Wellington and Ocala to see where we were shipping copies to, venues as well as stores, etc. and meet people, writers, venue reps, etc. that we were only emailing and talking on the phone with. We ended up moving to Ocala in 2014 and Elite Equestrian just exploded after that. We have continued growing and gaining market share. We are now ranked the #5 equestrian magazine in the world, and the #1 equestrian lifestyle magazine in the U.S.A.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My husband and I have always been in sales. We met working in Real Estate. We have worked together since we met. My husband, Bill, worked for Val Pak direct mail for a number of years. He was a top producer as well as a regional marketing director. He was trained to structure ads for clients to reach their goals- branding, name recognition, increase sales, increase visits, etc. So even though we are publishers, we consider ourselves a marketing company. Our advertisers use us to promote their businesses. So producing an editorial product that helps our advertisers market their businesses is our focus. We can use our expertise to help our advertisers structure their ads. We work to have editorial selections, attractive layout, and layout to showcase our advertisers. By having a desirable media product with relevant, informational and interesting features, we help our valued advertisers who are trusting us to help grow their business and market shares.
That is always the focus on every issue we produce.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

Before publishing Elite Equestrian, we were publishing a local monthly publication that highlighted the area we lived in, events, etc. It was monthly, and it was direct mailed. In hind sight, the monthly was a lot to keep up with, although we ran it like a well oiled machine and the production flowed. We regret direct mailing it. We did that because other area publications were being direct mailed. But we would have been more profitable without that expense and we don’t feel it would have detracted from our sales. We sold it to a local business owner who wanted to diversify. We introduced him to all the advertisers and worked with him to train him on production, etc. He published it for about 18 months and then ceased. He did have health issues which contributed to that decision.
Having dealt with so many businesses for advertising with this publication and with Bill working for Val Pak, we find that people who purchase a business do not understand what it took to make it successful and rarely succeed. We knew a number of pizzerias who would have a good business, sell it to someone who worked in a pizza restaurant and knew how to make pizzas but did not know how to run a business. Their sales would go down, and the original owner would buy it back at a low price, and do it again. And again.
The best way to own a business is to start your own business. That is the only way to truly understand what it takes to make it successful. The first thing the new owner does is cut advertising. They think the business is going well and they don’t need to promote it. With Elite Equestrian, every time a business is bought by a new owner, even though the original owner tells them what benefit there is to advertising with us, the new owner never advertises and we lose them as a client. Then they go out of business. Every time, and it does not happen often, an advertiser cuts back on or eliminates advertising with us to do social media, usually because they just hired a sharp young person with no life experience to do their marketing, they lose market share, and either go out of business, or come back to our print advertising.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We have started a number of businesses over the years. We have always funded it ourselves, paying as we go. Starting small and building. We always had sales to cover the expenses. We have never lost more than $100 on a new business venture. If the sales don’t cover the cost, we shut it down. We will try a new media product sometimes, and if there is no or low interest, we don’t continue. Is that a failure? No. National fast food restaurants introduce new sandwiches all the time, and if they are not popular, they take them off the menu. That is not failure, That is not wasting resources on a product the public doesn’t want.

We also control our profit by controlling our costs. Years ago, Bill read Donald Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. In it he told a story about how he shopped and negotiated down the cost of light bulbs for a high rise building he was doing, and saved five cents per light bulb. He explained that it was not a lot per bulb, but when you have to buy a million for such a large building, it was a great savings. Bill to0k that to heart, and we apply that with our business all the time. Daily. We always look for the best ways to keep quality but save expenses. We review our shipping costs every issue. We don’t want to send copies to a place that went out of business or has need for less copies depending on the season.

We do not do a perfect bound cover. Many of our competitors do. I guarantee you they are not as profitable as we are. That perfect bound that may look nice, and uninformed people my ooh and ahh over, is $2000/issue. That is a lot of profit to lose. We tried adding a glossy cover with that local publication we did in our town. It ate into our profit greatly, and we did not get any extra advertisers with it. So we took that lesson to Elite Equestrian and do not add that unnecessary expense that does not cover itself.

We keep our page count low. Uninformed people see a thick magazine and think it’s very successful. We can flip through that magazine and know how many extra pages it has that are vanity for the publisher or a trade of some kind that did not bring in cash. Further, more pages equal more weight which increases shipping costs and also means less copies can fit in a box meaning more boxes to ship and so more shipping cost. We keep our page count to 80, and only occasionally go to 100 or more pages. We can always add extra editorial in the digital version and there is no cost.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EliteEquestrian/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horse2/

Image Credits
Paws and Rewind Elite Equestrian Magazine