Rating:

In this book, the authors talk about positioning, differentiation in the market, and enterpreneurship. The authors also describe different types of coaching — executive, small business, career, life, skills, relationships, creativity — and outline marketing strategies tailored to each type. Finally, the authors provide plenty of helpful information for would-be coaches in several appendices.

Overall, this is an eye-opening book for anyone thinking about embarking on a consulting or coaching practice. It is a great complement to the many other books out there that focus on the how-tos of coaching.

Rating:

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!