From the Evening Standard Newspaper 14 December 209

Bushcraft your way into business

Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor
14.12.09

You must have seen those absurd “bushcraft” programmes in which the likes of Ray Mears or Bear Grylls are dropped – armed only with a camera crew – into the deepest wilderness to survive on berries, a whittled stick and their own urine.

The point being made is that you can live off the land without the 21st-century crutches of mobile phone, iPod, and, of course, money.

It does not seem immediately obvious that the same rugged principles of living for free can be applied to the world of business. After all, business is about money. Borrowing it, investing it, making it.

But according to successful entrepreneur Jonathan Yates, it is possible to bushcraft your way through the enterprise jungle with almost no money if you know where to look – and you don’t even have to drink your own wee.

In fact the only upfront investment needed is buying his £9.99 book, called Freesourcing: How to Start a Business with No Money.

With many of the banks showing as much willingness to lend as Ebenezer Scrooge, the seed capital needed to get a business off the ground is harder than ever to come by.

According to Yates, who founded his own vitamin and minerals supplements business, Santeau, in his back bedroom, all the resources you need to convert your brilliant Eureka moment into a global business empire rivalling Microsoft are out there and available for free.

As Yates points out, there are actually more people willing to help you for nothing than you might imagine.

“There’s an entire industry dedicated to helping you take your idea and do something with it. The Government pulls out all the stops to help people with ideas translate them into start-ups and then into profitable businesses.”

His philosophy is beautifully summed up by the mantra: “Freesourcers not only think outside the box, they wonder where they can get the box for free.”

The book serves as a road-map to all the free, or almost free, resources out there. For instance, did you know that there are free “alternative” computer operating systems developed by the so-called “Open Source” movement?

The Ubuntu brand, for example, is updated every six months and for most tasks works just as well as the latest version of Windows. There’s also common sense advice about how to get your first set of business cards printed for free (Vistaprint will do a batch for nothing in the hope of getting follow-up business.)

I was also taken with the “freemium” concept, again something I’d never heard of. In essence these are pared-down technologies or services offered gratis over the internet in the hope that as the business grows you will shell out for the upgraded, paid-for version.

So who might the ideal freesourcer be? I can imagine that the young Alan Sugar probably worked out his own successful strategies for survival when he started out selling car aerials from the back of a van as a teenager.

But you’ve only got to watch one episode of Dragon’s Den to see how naive and poorly informed many hapless would-be tycoons really are. For them, a guide to the genuine cost-saving freebies that are waiting to be accessed could make all the difference.

FREESOURCERS AND OTHER ANIMALS

Altrepreneur: Looking for a change of lifestyle, not just increased wealth.
Mompreneur: Parents who stay at home and use the spare time between looking after their children to start a business.
Wantrapeneur: Would like to start a business but has not yet got there.
Solopreneur: Works alone and
is motivated just by money and success.
Ultrapreneur: Starts a successful business, then reinvests the money into new ventures.
Freesourcer: Has started and grown a business with no money apart from what the company has generated.

Freesourcing by Jonathan Yates is published by Capstone, £9.99.

Popularity: 2% [?]