Managing your professional Business Coaching Practice

Starting, managing and sustaining a business can be fun and challenging at the same time. It is precisely these fun and challenging times which makes this career so enjoyable.

There are also many factors which make running a business coaching practice so fulfilling. Many businesses succeed and many businesses fail; how will you approach your business career in business coaching? This is where the business coaching setup process becomes so interesting, and complicated.

This module serves to delve into the elements of setting up a professionally managed and sustainable Business Coaching practice with various types of clients.

In order for a Professional Business Coach to be competent and proficient they need to have a deep and flexible understanding of business, business startup and business sustainability. It is understood that business will unfold as you manage it, and with this in mind, by:

• Considering all aspects of a startup business
• Considering your niche, positioning, differentiation strategy, services and products
• Considering the processes that will sustain your business
• Maintaining the client’s level of status, and not threatening the client’s status in any way
• Presenting the client with certainty in terms of what to expect in the coaching session and how things are run
• Ensuring that the client has a sense of autonomy and feels in control of their coaching environment
• Feeling a sense of relatedness, mattering to the coach, and having a sense of self-worth in the coaching sessions
• Perceiving that the coaching environment is fair and that nothing unfair will transpire during the time with their coach
• Managing the day to day affairs of your business coaching practice
• Prospecting and closing potential coaching interventions

Diagram of the Value Stream Map of a new Business Coaching Practice

One author speaks of 10 aspects which call for business success:

1. 1. The Idea Starting a Business: The Idea Phase
   2. The Leader
   3. The Team
   4. The Capital
   5. The Plan
   6. The Execution
   7. The Timing
   8. The Crisis Response
   9. The Marketing, and
   10. The Growth

Please take a minute to read this article: The 10 Most Critical Factors That Dictate Startup Success

Please take a 6 minutes to view this view:

Bill Gross has founded a lot of startups, and incubated many others — and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other people’s, and ranked each company on five key factors. He found one factor that stands out from the others — and surprised even him.

The Single Biggest Reason Why Startups Succeed

This author speaks just of 7 reasons many startup companies fail:

1. They are started for the wrong reasons
2. Poor management
3. Insufficient capital
4. Location, location, location
5. Lack of Planning
6. Over expansion, and
7. No website

Please take a moment to read this article: Why Small Businesses Fail: Top 7 Reasons for Startup Failure

The latest data from the Small Business Administration (SBA) states that nearly 66 percent of small businesses will survive their first two years. That means only about one third of total businesses will actually fail in these first two crucial years, the main cause being a lack of experience. When the data is extrapolated four years out, the number of surviving businesses has been consistently near the 55 to 60 percent mark. This same data shows a five year survival rate that has historically hovered around the 50 percent mark, a far cry from the 80 to 90 percent failure rate so commonly claimed.

Source: What are the real small business survival rates?

An underlying principle in this module is that due to the increasing amount of complexity and continual business pressures in our current environments, there is a serious need for the business coach to startup, manage and sustain their business; in a manner that will add value to themselves, their stakeholders, their coaching interventions, assignments and sessions, and enhance the client’s experience.

This module follows the following path:

• Vision. Mission and Objectives of your business
• Positioning
• Differentiating
• Marketing to various coaching niches
• Your product range and services
• How you control your finances
• How you manage your administration load
• How you remain in contact with your clients
• How you Wow your clients
• How you report on your business’ health
• Coach in the Corner
• Summary

The module has been designed to take you through an explorative path in understanding how to start, manage and sustain a business coaching practice.

• Explain the parameters of business coaching
• List the competencies and strengths important to successful business coaching
• Define and self-assess the knowledge areas important to successful Business coaching
• Describe the key components of business roles
• Explain the linkage between self-determination and business decision-making
• Identify elements of a strong business strategy
• Learn methods to approach goals and strategies
• Co-create a best plan of action to formally engage in a coaching relationship
• Define methods to position the coaching engagement with the client throughout the relationship
• Co-explore and navigate with the client through a variety of prioritization processes and solutions
• Understand self-management techniques to create long-term awareness and accountability with the client
• Develop the client’s ability to identify long term concerns and create strategies to sustain skills learned throughout the coaching process
• Create a plan for staying current as a business coach

The purpose of this module is to increase your levels of competency in starting, managing and sustaining a professional business coaching practice with a clear and professional understanding of yourself, your business, your potential and existing clients.

Download this eBook : Startup 101 How Experts Drive Success