Certificate in Business and Life Coaching

This certificate combines life coaching with business coaching, giving you the skills to support clients through both personal and professional challenges. Electives let you add business grounding through subjects such as business studies, financial management or business planning, or build further coaching depth through careers counselling, ethics or job profiling. Suitable for those wanting to become a life or business coach, or add coaching skills to an existing role.

Train to be a Business and Life Coach Covers lots more than standard life coaching courses. Learning more, you can do more; offer a wider range of services and have greater potential to develop a successful life coach or business coach practice. Start anytime, study from anywhere, building your business as you study, if you wish. Duration: 600 hours of self paced study. ACS Distance Education is an organisational member of the Association For Coaching. Students on the course are eligible to join the association as student members. The course requires the completion of 2 Core Modules plus a further 4 Elective Modules. You will therefore complete a total of 6 modules. CORE MODULES Students are required to complete the following Core Modules; further details on these are shown by clicking on the module titles and also lower down this page: Business Coaching BBS304 Life Coaching BPS305 ELECTIVE MODULES Students select 4 electives from the list given below. Please click on the module titles for further details of the lesson structures. Business Planning BBS302 Introduction to Psychology BPS101 Marketing Psychology BPS107 Careers Counselling BPS202 Business Studies BBS101 Business Operations VBS006 Ethics BPS217 Financial (Money) Management BBS104 Start Date Start the course at any time and work at a pace to suit you. Assignments Required At the end of each lesson, there is an assignment that you submit to your tutor for marking. For example, the Life Coaching module has ten lesson, so you would complete ten assignments. If you do not pass an assignment for any reason, your tutor will provide feedback and you will be given the opportunity to redo the assignment. Exams Required To pass the course, you are also required to complete six exams, one for each module. Exams can be taken at a time and location to suit you. You can find more information on how the exams work by clicking here. CORE MODULES The structure and content of the core modules is as follows, click on the module title for further information: Business Coaching BBS304 This module comprises 8 lessons, as follows: Lesson 1. Nature and Scope of Business Coaching Nature of Business Coaching, Life Coaching and Sports Coaching Terminology Why People Use Business Coaches Case Studies Business Failure or Success Lesson 2. The Initial Consultation Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Goal Centred Approach Reality based approach Motivational Approach First Contact SWOT Analysis Replace Negative with Positive Habits Monitor and Evaluate Progress Closing Case Studies Lesson 3. Considering Alternative Actions Developing a Business Plan Feasibility Studies Formal Documentation Operational Management Strategic Planning Operational Planning Components of a Business Plan Implementing Ideas Changing Behaviour Looking after long term Viability Partial Sell Offs Restructuring R & D Changing Products and Services Buying a New Business Staff Selling or Winding Down Case Studies Lesson 4. Improving Productivity Quality Circles Cause and Effect Diagrams Pareto Analysis Brainstorming Motivation Internal and Intrinsic Incentives Incentives External to Working Environment Social Reinforcers as Incentives Tangible Rewards Case Studies Lesson 5. Marketing Introduction to Marketing Marketing Strategy Starting out in Business Making Contact Controlling Growth Improving Results Lesson 6. Building Better Staff Staff recruitment Team building and Team Management Staff development and Training Lesson 7. Improving Resource Management BRM (Business Resource Management) Stress Management Case Studies Lesson 8. Putting it all into Practice PBL (Problem Based Learning) Project Significance of knowledge of interviewing and assessment Incentives and motivational strategies Productivity and marketing strategies Theoretical information to derive sensible solutions Initial business coaching assessment for a specified business Actions for improving and sustaining the level of performance 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. WHAT YOU WILL DO This course is designed to help people identify opportunities to work as a business coach and develop an understanding of a business coach’s role. You will learn how to gather relevant data and conduct an initial consultation with a client. Throughout the course you will learn about optimisation of business models for new or existing businesses, whilst focusing on improving productivity within a business. Understand how business coaching can be used to improve resource management. You will develop awareness of ways in which business coaching can improve marketing, and also improve the recruitment, skills, performance and motivation of staff. You will have an opportunity to develop and practice the delivery of a comprehensive business coaching service to a client. Life Coaching BPS305 The course comprises 10 lessons, as follows:- Lesson 1. Introduction: Nature & scope of Life Coaching Nature of life coaching. Cognitive behaviour therapy. Different approaches. The scope of life coaching. Lesson 2. Individual Perception Psychology of self-perception. Perceptual barriers. Motivating clients to challenge their perceptions. Lesson 3. A Well Balanced Life The inter-relationship between psychology and physiology. Stress. The psychology of balance. Lesson 4. Coaching Processes Key coaching processes. Assessment of the client's situation. Dealing with emotions. Setting goals. Replacing negative habits with positive ones. Leadership qualities in a life coach. Imagination and enthusiasm, clarifying goals, recognition of limitations. Lesson 5. Coaching Skills Understanding the communication process Body language. Communication barriers Listening skills. Assessing learning styles. Lesson 6. Coaching and Physical Well-Being Human nutrition Important factors in nutrition. Physical well-being. Lesson 7. Coaching and Psychological Well-Being The psychology of self-esteem. Stress management programme. Identifying stressors. Lesson 8. Coaching Success High achievement. Coaching success. Career guidance. Managing your money. Beginning a business. Lesson 9. Goal Setting Values. Aims and goals. Types of goals. Planning. Future goals. Steps for successful goal achievement. Effort and attribution. Lesson 10. Review and Adjustment Indications that a programme needs to be reassessed. Client's lack of confidence. Personality clash. Over-achievers. Health and safety issues. WHAT YOU WILL DO Interview a life-coach (or someone who offers life-coaching service as part of their professional counselling repertoire) for information on the nature of life-coaching. Identify principles that differentiate life coaching from other helping professions. Consider pros and cons of different approaches to life coaching. Do case studies to reflect on and/or observe the effects of different life-coaching approaches on improving a person’s quality of life. Design and administer a questionnaire to research some effects of negative aspects of self-perception. Discuss the importance of balancing a client’s limitations and encouraging them to step outside their comfort zones. Identify means of monitoring an individual’s self-perceptions. Examine the relationship and interaction between a person's mental/psychological and physical health and well being. Consider how to deal with clients with special needs such as disabilities. Identify the processes involved in life coaching and describe what each can contribute to a client's personal growth and development. Discuss ways individuals might resist life changes and ways to facilitate change. Discuss the pros and cons of assertiveness training. Identify reasons that individuals are unable to make decisions. Identify different life coaching skills and when they are required. Explain the importance of listening to the client and how to do it. Consider factors that might make a life coach’s personal skill repertoire ineffectual. Discuss the role and risks of physical life coaching in the life-coaching process. Research factors that must be considered when setting out a life coaching plan to promote physical health, and psychological health. Identify crucial information to be included in the development of a client’s plan. Discuss ways to nurture a client's goal setting, planning and self-monitoring skills. Research how much life-coaches use/do not use individualised client plans. How can the life-coach monitor the effectiveness of his/her program for a client? Create and evaluate an action plan for a real person/client, including monitoring. What Should a Business or Life Coach Charge? There is no set amount of money you will earn as a Coach. It will ultimately depend on the type of service you offer, your experience, your qualifications, the country you are in, your confidence and marketing ability, and the way you have chosen to structure your fees. To get an idea, have a look at what other similar services in your area charge. You may decide to “undercut” the market price to try and get clients, or you may choose to offer an elite service that is much higher than the going rate. The way you price your service may affect the impression people have about your service (i.e. how good it is), the higher the price the higher the perceived value – however be careful not to price yourself too high and price yourself out of the market. Generally speaking, as a new coach it is likely that you will start with lower fees and increase them over time. Another way to increase your potential salary is to offer group life coaching sessions where you may charge a lower fee, but have many more clients at one time. You may also build into your fees a programme structure, so people may pay a certain rate for a one-off consultation, or a fixed rate for a certain number of sessions. To get the most out of life coaching a client will really need to come and see you more than once, so offering a fixed price for a certain number of sessions is probably the best way to go. You may arrange for your clients to pay upfront, or pay it off over time. As well as offering a flexible course of sessions, where the coaching continues indefinitely, you may also consider preparing a programme of a fixed length with a set structure and purpose. For example you may put together a 12 week health or business development programme that has weekly one hour sessions in the first month with set topics (for example, a life coach may deal with nutrition in week one, exercise in week two, psychological aspects in week three, and healthy lifestyle tips in week four), followed by a fortnightly one hour maintenance sessions for the following 9 weeks. WHAT NEXT? If you are interested in offering flexible services to your clients in business and life coaching, this course provides you with an insight into both areas. Create a niche for yourself in the field of business and life coaching or offer a wide variety of coaching services for different client groups. The world is your oyster. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, why delay? Enrol today. Register to Study -Go to panel toward top of this page (right column) or Get Advice -Use our FREE COUNSELLING SERVICE to contact a tutor CLICK TO CONTACT US