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SIDELINESDIGITAL | May 2026
SP RHODES is a Wellington-based agency focused on
bringing innovation to the equestrian world. Founded
by Elizabeth Rhodes, SP RHODES offers three divisions:
professional creative services, with a full-service
design studio; retail, offering hundreds of products that
can be customized with brand logos; and consulting,
assisting equestrian brands in developing their own
strategies. With her husband, Victor, also helping run
the business, Elizabeth is embracing the AI advantage
to give clients a leg up.
You have built SP RHODES from the ground
up. What did those early days really look like?
Very real, and very hands-on from the beginning.
I started the business out of a townhouse garage
while working in the stock market. My hours
were 5:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., which gave me the
afternoons to ride. At a certain point, I decided
to use that time more intentionally and began
building a small business to help offset the cost
of owning a horse.
As the business grew, I moved from the
garage into the basement, then into rented
commercial space, and eventually purchased
commercial property. At each stage, the focus
was not just growth; it was about becoming
more organized and building better systems.
I have also been fortunate to have a wonderful
husband, now the COO of SP RHODES.
With a background in professional sports, he
brings a disciplined, high-performance approach
to the business. Together, we have grown
what started as a small side project into an
international company.
One of the most important lessons early
on was that hard work alone does not scale.
Strategy does.
That mindset came from my time in banking,
where everything runs on systems and decisions
are based on data, not guesswork. That carried
directly into how we built the company.
Even before AI, my focus was on building
simple, repeatable processes for handling leads,
managing orders and staying organized. As
technology evolved, I integrated AI into those
processes. I did not approach it as something to
promote; it was simply a way to improve how I
worked. The fact that it has become a valuable
skillset in our consulting is a natural extension of
that work.
Today, AI assistants support lead intake,
communication and organization. The business
continues to move forward without requiring
constant manual oversight.
From the beginning, this was never about
growth alone. It was about building a business
that could scale.
ELIZABETH
RHODES
Rebuilding Equestrian Business
Through Strategy, Systems and Speed
WOMEN IN BUSINESS