BUSINESS COACH COURSE BBS304

Learn to be a Business Coach

Enhance Prior studies and experience
Open up new employment Opportunities
Learn to help others with developing and maintaining their businesses

Business Coaching is expanding. More and more businesses today are using consultants or coaches to help identify problems, plan responses and guide businesses to improved success.

Successful businesses do not remain stagnant

A good business manager recognises this fact, and is aware that a business only has two realistic options – to get better, or worse. Remaining the same is never an option.

It is important to recognise problems as early as possible. Delays in recognising problems often makes them worse and can cause delays to finding possible solutions.

A business will fail for a number of reasons. It may fail because your idea is not a good one in the first place. It might fail because there are too many similar products on the market, or because you have not marketed your product well enough.

A Business Coach will understand the problems that can confront a business; and have the ability to help the business owners detect and understand issues which they need to address.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS

There are 8 lessons in this course:

Nature and Scope of Business Coaching
The Initial Consultation
Considering Alternative Actions
Improving Productivity
Marketing
Building Better Staff
Improving Resource Management
Putting it all into Practice

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

Describe services that a business coach can offer clients; identify opportunities to work as a business coach; and develop an understanding of a business coach’s role.
Understand how to gather relevant data and conduct an initial consultation with a client.
Explain the options for action to optimise the operation of a new or existing business.
Understand methods of providing business coaching to improve productivity.
Develop awareness of ways in which business coaching can improve marketing.
Discuss ways to provide business coaching to improve the recruitment, skills, performance and motivation of staff.
Understand how business coaching can be used to improve resource management.
Deliver a comprehensive business coaching service to a client.

Recognising Problems in a Business

Problems can either be external or internal.

External problems

They are problems created by the world outside of the business. They may have social, economic, or political origins. They may be caused by other changes like a recession, amendments to government regulations, a new competitor entering the market place, or demographic changes in your customers (e.g. relocation of a major customer to a different city).

Internal problems

These are issues that are created by the business itself. They might be related to insufficient or inadequate choices made - such as a poor marketing strategy, overspending which has resulted in unmanageable debt, or not updating soon enough. Internal problems can also occur when leadership is poor, time and resources are under utilised, or the business offers goods and services which it does not have the capacity to deliver.

These are only some of the problems that can arise. Surprisingly, most business managers will have some degree of awareness about what is going wrong but more often than not, fail to take the time to properly reflect upon and understand the problem.

When things are bad, frequently the natural reaction is to work harder and longer hours in order to try and correct the problem. When a manager works more hours though, they tend to become more tired and less capable of reflecting on the problems at hand. This, in turn, can cause them to very readily lose perspective.

Ironically, the solution to a declining business may well be to work less hours rather than more - to refresh the body and brain, stand back and take a look at the business from a different perspective.

If this is impossible for the manager; it may be necessary to find someone who can look at the business with clearer eyes and a sharper mind. In some instances, this may be someone who is close to, and trusted by, the manager (e.g. a spouse, friend or colleague), or perhaps an external consultant.

Someone close to the manager will already have (to some degree) an understanding of the business, but they may also carry some level of prejudice. On the other hand, a consultant will lack familiarity with the business, and that means there is potential for them to not consider some important facts, but they will also lack prejudice. In larger businesses it may be helpful to redeploy a manger or other employee from another part of the business who can offer a new insight into failing business strategies or influences.

What Do Most People Do?

The reason that so many businesses fail, is that most people react to business problems in an unplanned and largely unmanaged way. They do what comes naturally to them and are more likely to take decisions that are easier in the short term, without fully considering the long term implications.

There Are Choices

When things get worse in a business, there are always choices:

Some people increase activity hoping to stimulate growth
Some decrease activity hoping to minimise losses
Some change activity hoping to find a more profitable mode of operation
Some close down the business
Some do nothing
The worst option is usually to do nothing!

Opportunities

Business coaching has become a boom industry in recent times. Opportunities are strong in many developed countries in particular; and a business coach who can facilitate improvement in any business, is always going to be in very high demand.
Success as a business coach will depend on what you can contribute to the business you are trying to help.

Any past experience you have in the world of business will be a huge asset; but it is also important that you understand the mechanics of being a business coach, have good networking and understand how to interact appropriately with a client. No course can give you the years of experience that underpin being a business coach; but this course can help you with the rest of what is needed.

If you have a past in the world of business; and are looking for a change where you can make use of your past experience -this course is ideal for you.