Product Description

Focusing on basic business principles and strategies.

The initial hype about coaching has deflated, and the profession is coming down to earth. This book explains the current state of the coaching profession and offers basic advice and strategies so that you can plan your practice to operate well on the contemporary business terrain. Whether you are an established coach or just starting out, this book is for you.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163384 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
Any who desire to coach professionally must have The Business & Practice of Coaching at hand. -- Bookwatch

About the Author
Lynn Grodzki lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. Wendy Allen lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Customer Reviews

One of only a few books that talks about the "business of" coaching; Could have been better, but it wasn't bad.

I liked this book. I'm glad I purchased it. There really are not that many books available at present on "the business" of coaching. The other one I have, that I'm about to review, is Four Steps to Building a Profitable Coaching Practice (ISBN: 0595296602) which was written in 2003.

I'd say the instant book does a good job of describing the coaching field outside of the sports realm. It talks about whether many of its participants make a reasonable living (they don't), and it talks about the various fields or backgrounds coaches come from (therapy practitioners and consultants). It tries to be helpful in explaining how to be a successful coach from both a coaching perspective and from a business perspective. There are 17 chapters included:

1. Coaching: Trend or Fad?
2. The Differences Among Coaching, Therapy, and Consulting
3. Becoming a Great Coach
4. Four Questions to Your Perfect Fit
5. From Specialty to Niche
6. Attracting Ideal Clients
7. The Coach as Entrepreneur
8. Business and Your Emotional Intelligence
9. Why Good Coaches Go Broke
10. Staying Safe and Legal
11. Executive and Leadership Coaching
12. Business Coaching
13. Skills Coaching
14. Career Coaching
15. Life Coaching
16. Wellness Coaching
17. Creativity, Relationship, and Spiritual Coaching

My favorite chapters were 2, 5, 12, and 13. I am in the process of putting together a business plan for an online coaching business that will compete directly with many law firms, accounting firms, and fiduciary departments in banks. As a result, Chapter 2 was of particular interest to me because it compared coaching to counseling (legal counseling). Coaching that crosses the line into legal counseling can be construed as the unauthorized practice of law which is regulated on a state by state basis. I can't say that I thought the book did a particularly good job of explaining the difference, but it was better than most articles on the subject I have read.

The book explains that only about 10% of professional coaches gross six figures in a given year. That is not a very good statistic. But I suspect the success rate is so low because most coaches are not very knowledgeable about starting and running a business so it is profitable. The authors in this book attempt to explain how the 90% could make more money by including chapters 5, 6, 7, and 9. And I thought these four chapters had some good content. But I think the reader would have benefited more if the book had instead covered in detail the importance of having a sound written business plan, and how to go about writing a sound business plan. The book did not do this. At least I didn't see it.

If you are looking for a book to tell you how to be successful as a professional coach, then I don't think this book is for you. However, if you are looking for a book that will cover many of the issues you need to consider if you want to have your own coaching business, then you'll get a lot from this book. 4 stars!

A wonderful guide
This is really an excellent book for those coaches who are serious about building their business. If you are a coach or new to coaching you soon find out that being a great coach is irrelevant if you don't have people to coach and you won't have people to coach if you don't know how to marketing your business and retain clients. This book is really a step by step guide to setting up a coaching business and it is presented logically. If you are looking for coaching theory or new ways to really help clients this book isn't for you. If you think coaching is an effortless way to make a living, this book is a reality check. If you are committed to taking the required actions to make you a financially successful coach, this is a must read.

Saved Many Research Hours
This book is a great find. The authors have a pragmatic business perspective that is rare in coahing "how to" books. The book saved me many hours of research and taught me how to focus and strategize my coaching business.