This is a good time of the year to think about ways you can save money in your hoof-care business, like sending used rasps out to be resharpened.

Many farriers find their business slows down during certain times of the year, especially wintertime. For the self-employed farrier who relies upon a steady cash flow, this can be disconcerting. 

Should you just take some time off until things naturally pick up again? Should you try and do other jobs to offset the income difference? The biggest mistake is to decide to do nothing.

This year, vow to do something different. Stop languishing and complaining about the slowdown use the time to do something to build the foundation of your business so that the natural business cycles don’t affect you as deeply. Take advantage of any slowdown to improve yourself and your own hoof-care bottom line. Here is a list of 10 items to check off that will help you and your farrier business thrive in 2013.

1 Get More From Your Rasps. Save money on rasps by saving your used hoof-only rasps. When you get a dozen or more saved, send them into a tool sharpening company such as Save-Edge in Ohio (www.saveedge.com) or Boggs Tool and File Sharpening Co. in California (www.boggstool.com). Re-sharpened rasps generally run around $7 each.

2 Recycle And Earn. Make money recycling your copper rivets. In an old plastic bottle, save all your new copper rivet pieces and old rivets pulled out of shoes until the…