Hi everyone,
Interesting thread and thanks for the mention in your clearly communicated post
To reply to Tiley and the thread in general...
I completely concur with what Tiley is saying here but to add my t'penneth: Yes, it's a long and winding road (particularly at the moment). Success doesn't come overnight. I made my first moves towards making bushcraft instruction my career 12 years ago. I was already an avid and experienced outdoors person (lots of solo hiking, backpacking, wild camping and mountain biking).
Being a good outdoors leader, with all that entails doesn't happen overnight. It can't. You need experience of 1/ your own time outdoors (which many on this forum have) and 2/ time looking after students/customers/clients. The latter is best built up as an assistant leader, working with someone else. You get at least three benefits - building your own experience without biting off more than you can chew while at the same time learning from more experienced colleagues, as well as learning the logistics of how to run courses/experiences/trips well.
And that's before you even touch the business side of things.
If you are going to strike out on your own and you want it to put food on the table, you have to run the venture as a business. Business has become a bit of a dirty word in recent years but I'm not talking about super-normal profits and fat-cats, I'm just talking about making ends meet and lasting more than 18 months. If you don't cover your costs, any venture becomes a money pit. Once you (and other people) are reliant on that business for their living, you have to make commercial decisions. You have a responsibility to do so.
Running a small business is largely an exercise in survival.
The risk of starting a business is high. Many, many small businesses fail within their first three years (figures vary but in the UK, Canada and the US, it's recorded as high as 75-80%).
Working for another outfit as an assistant instructor won't necessarily give you much insight into how the business is run, particularly from a financial, admin or advertising perspective but it will give you more than just starting from scratch.
You may wish to model what I have done with my company but bear in mind that my trajectory on this path has its origins back in the 1990s and, actually if I'm honest, goes right back to my childhood interests.
I did study hard at school (including business studies and economics). I also did a maths degree which ultimately led me into a career in business after I left university. As well as sharpening my business acumen, presentation skills and confidence in front of some seriously weighty people, this also gave me an understanding of accounts, marketing, finance, using spreadsheets, writing business communications and numerous other related skills.
So, when I was working part-time for Woodlore as a course assistant back in 2003-2005, they became aware of the fact I had other skills in addition to my enthusiasm for bushcraft skills and what I could do outdoors. This is what led me on to being offered a full-time job as Course Director. It was the combination of outdoors and commercial skills that I had.
To take that job I accepted an 80% pay cut.
Yes, you read that right.
That is the sacrifice I made just to take a job at someone else's outfit.
When I started Frontier, I didn't pay myself for over a year. I lived off savings.
Also, for many years I studied martial arts and eventually became an instructor, running my own Ju Jitsu club. This increased my confidence in teaching and presenting massively. In fact when I made presentations at work, people commented on how good I was and where I'd received my presentation skills training. The answer was in the dojo.
Martial arts also gave me a great grounding in teaching physical skills. I apply this learning directly every time I'm working with someone on their bushcraft skills, particularly skills for which they find the physical coordination hard at first, such as bow-drill.
I'm not saying that you need all - or even any - of these skills and experiences to succeed. Everyone's life experience is different.
But I've had to draw on pretty much every ounce of my varied experience to make my business work. And every day you have to get up and keep the wheels moving.
If you have the opportunity to work on some bushcraft courses - absolutely take it. It's a wonderful feeling helping others achieve and, as the old saying goes "If you want to learn something well, teach it.".
Starting your own business on the other hand is not for the faint-hearted. Or at least, starting a business that is going to succeed is not for the faint-hearted. Anyone can start a business that fails.
I would separate these two decisions - working in bushcraft/survival/outdoor education and starting a business - and be completely objective about your chances of success in each.
Oh, and one other piece of advice - however much money you think you'll need to get your business started. Triple it. At least.
Good luck!
Paul