Part 1: Cost of Training
Thulani felt that becoming a business coach was a natural profession for him to follow.
He had often been approached by others to guide them through challenges, and his breadth of business experience and working in a corporate, provided him, he thought, with a solid foundation to coach others.
But when he googled ‘Business Coach Training’ he suddenly felt surprised and somewhat overwhelmed. There was a vast array of providers and a wide range of costing. Although he was on a budget, Thulani did not want to be ‘penny wise and pound foolish’. He didn’t want to sign up for the cheapest and shortest course and then find himself left inadequately trained and lacking professionalism and credibility.
What is a Business Coach?
The first thing that Thulani learnt about coaching is that it sits in its own category. It isn’t about giving advice and solving other people’s problems. Coaching integrates consulting, therapy, and mentoring, and a good coach must always be there as a sounding board.
The duties of a coach are placed as follows on the guidance continuum:[i]
Seeing this, Thulani was very excited. Business coaching would be his next career. Through his research he had come to realise that the costing of each course could not be directly correlated to the value received, quite simply because the curricula varied, and so did the duration of any given course. Each course had to be evaluated on its own merit.
Thulani soon learnt that learning to be a business coach would be a serious investment of his time, and that in some instances, he would be earning the equivalent of an undergraduate degree – but in about a quarter of the time. He found this exciting but also somewhat terrifying, but he was determined to become a professional and this was the commitment that was required.
What are the Differences in Courses?
Some of the costing was almost R 300,000 while others were R 10,000. He wanted to gain an insight into both coaching and business, therefore he analysed the outcomes of each course intensely.
Experience levels of the business coach training company, prolific presence in the market, and the success rates of their qualified coaches became his main criteria.
If you identify with Thulani and are considering becoming a business coach yet are unsure if this is the right career path for you, read SA business Coaches’ blog: Should you Become a Business Coach? Ask these 6 Questions first: Click here
To learn more about becoming a qualified business coach, read SA Business Coaches’ August 2021 blog on this topic: Click here