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Coaching Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

how to start a coaching business

Coaching Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their coaching companies. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a coaching business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your coaching business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a coaching business or grow your existing coaching company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your coaching business to improve your chances of success. Your coaching business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Coaching Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a coaching business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for coaching companies.

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How to write a business plan for a coaching business.

If you want to start a coaching business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your coaching business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of coaching business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a coaching business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a multiple coaching businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.

  • Give a brief overview of the coaching industry.
  • Discuss the type of coaching business you are operating.
  • Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
  • Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
  • Offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of coaching business you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of coaching businesses:

  • Business coaching: A business coach specializes in helping business owners clarify their business’s vision and goals.
  • Career coaching: A career coach specializes in helping individuals reach their professional goals.
  • Life coaching: A life coach specializes in helping people make positive progress in their daily lives, relationships, and careers.
  • Performance coaching: A performance coach specializes in helping individuals improve their performance abilities using techniques similar to a sports coach.
  • Wellness coaching: A wellness coach specializes in helping individuals develop and maintain healthy habits.

In addition to explaining the type of coaching business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

  • When and why did you start the business?
  • What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of clients served, the number of cases with positive outcomes, reaching $X amount in revenue, etc.
  • Your legal business Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the coaching industry. While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the coaching industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your coaching business plan:

  • How big is the coaching industry (in dollars)?
  • Is the market declining or increasing?
  • Who are the key competitors in the market?
  • Who are the key suppliers in the market?
  • What trends are affecting the industry?
  • What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
  • What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your coaching business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your coaching business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, schools, families, and corporations.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of coaching business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other coaching businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes other types of self-development services, therapists, counselors, and online support groups. You need to mention such competition as well.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as

  • What types of clients do they serve?
  • What type of coaching business are they?
  • What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
  • What are they good at?
  • What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

  • Will you make it easier for clients to acquire your services?
  • Will you offer services that your competition doesn’t?
  • Will you provide better customer service?
  • Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a coaching business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of coaching company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide performance coaching, executive coaching, health and wellness coaching, or career coaching services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the site of your coaching company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your coaching business located in a busy retail district, a business district, a standalone office, or purely online? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your coaching marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

  • Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
  • Reach out to websites
  • Distribute flyers
  • Engage in email marketing
  • Advertise on social media platforms
  • Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your coaching business, including answering calls, planning and providing coaching sessions, billing clients and collecting payments, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to book your Xth session, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your coaching business to a new city.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your coaching business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing coaching businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in coaching or running a small business.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you see 5 clients per day, and/or offer group coaching sessions? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your coaching business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a coaching business:

  • Cost of utilities, internet service, and office supplies
  • Payroll or salaries paid to staff
  • Business insurance
  • Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and office furniture

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of payment forms you accept.  

Writing a business plan for your coaching business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the coaching industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful coaching business.

Coaching Business Plan Template FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my coaching business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily write your coaching business plan.

Where Can I Download a Sample Life Coach Business Plan PDF?

You can download our sample life coach business plan pdf here.

How Do You Start a Coaching Business?

Starting a coaching business is easy with these 14 steps:

  • Choose the Name for Your Coaching Business
  • Create Your Coaching Business Plan
  • Choose the Legal Structure for Your Coaching Business
  • Secure Startup Funding for Your Coaching Business (If Needed)
  • Secure a Location for Your Business
  • Register Your Coaching Business with the IRS
  • Open a Business Bank Account
  • Get a Business Credit Card
  • Get the Required Business Licenses and Permits
  • Get Business Insurance for Your Coaching Business
  • Buy or Lease the Right Coaching Business Equipment
  • Develop Your Coaching Business Marketing Materials
  • Purchase and Setup the Software Needed to Run Your Coaching Business
  • Open for Business

Learn more about how to start your own coaching business .

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Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how a Growthink business planning consultant can create your business plan for you.

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The ultimate guide to mapping out a rock-solid coaching business plan.

The 5-Step Roadmap To Create A Highly Profitable Coaching Business Plan Even If You're A New Coach

coaches planning their coaching business plan

What's the first word that comes to mind when you see the word "coach" or "coaching"?

If you're a coach - and it doesn't matter whether you're just starting out or whether you've been coaching for decades - there's a high possibility that the words coach or coaching brings to mind things like:

meaning growth purpose love

These are all amazing elements of coaching and they're a big part of what you do as a coach and why you're a coach, but there's a word that's missing from that list...

It's the one word that's the difference between a successful coach who can create a ripple effect of positive transformation for hundreds - maybe even thousands or millions - of people and a coach who remains unknown, unseen, and unheard.

So, what's this mysterious word?

The word is BUSINESS.

There's a popular viewpoint in the coaching industry that when you serve with passion, and when you serve from the heart, clients will appear and your business will magically start to grow.

It's like that famous line from the movie Field of Dreams , "Build it and they will come..."

That sounds great in a movie but when it comes to the real world, it's a total lie!

Thinking you can become a successful coach if you put enough heart and passion into your work is one of the most dangerous and flawed beliefs out there...

And it's time to bury that belief for good.

The truth is the fastest, smartest way to become a successful, profitable coach is to create a strategic path for your practice with an awesome coaching business plan.

The Ultimate Guide To Mapping Out A Rock-Solid Coaching Business Plan

This Guide will take you through the exact steps you need to map out a rock-solid plan for your coaching business.

The best part? It works no matter where you are in your journey as a coach and unlike traditional business plans that can feel super intimidating and complicated unless you have a degree in business, this one is incredibly simple and absolutely effective.

coaching business

Remember...

Coaching is a business.

The sooner you understand this fundamental truth, the faster you'll rise up along a profitable, purposeful path that allows you to serve more people and change more lives.

Ready to get started? Let's roll!

The 5-Step Coaching Business Plan

Creating your rock-solid coaching business plan , how to build a successful coaching business.

The 5-Step Coaching Business Plan

Ever heard of "Shiny Object Syndrome?" It's something a lot of smart, gifted entrepreneurs struggle with...

It's when you're distracted and sidetracked by countless creative ideas or exciting opportunities that you just can't seem to ignore.

The 5-Step Coaching Business Plan

Imagine this...

You have a great idea for an online coaching course around your niche or area of expertise as a coach and you start brainstorming and writing content for the course.

You're deep into your work and just as you're gaining momentum, a great coach you know - maybe someone you met in an online community or live networking event - reaches out to you.

Turns out, they have a great partnership or affiliation opportunity and they think it's perfect for you.

You're instantly struck by Shiny Object Syndrome. You abandon your course creation path and start chasing down this new opportunity with this coach.

A few days - or maybe even hours - later, you're hit with another idea. So you drop everything and start going at that new idea. And then, another idea pops up. And another and another... 

What if you start an online coaching membership ? Maybe you should write a book ? Maybe you should build out a year-long mastermind program? Or start organizing retreats and seminars?

And on and on it goes.

Pretty soon, you've raced down a hundred different rabbit holes, but you have zero results to show for it in your business!

So, let's get one thing straight right here, right now...

Shiny Object Syndrome is a fast-track to failure. A great business plan is the exact  opposite.

A coaching business plan gives you immunity. It protects you from having to chase one good idea after the next because  you already know what your business needs and you'll instantly reduce the uncertainty of how you're going to create revenue.

Think about it...

When you've mapped out a solid business plan and you know how you're going to make money in your coaching practice, you can actually start to predict how much money you're going to make each week, each month and each year.

man checking off a check list

You can even do this exercise in reverse and create a business plan based on your financial goals and how much income you want to make. So, you set the goal first and then reverse plan to meet that number.

With an awesome business plan in place, you'll be able to direct your energy to the tasks, projects, ideas, opportunities that will work to grow a thriving, sustainable coaching business that brings you satisfaction and a reliable income.

It will give you a clear roadmap of what you need to focus on and how to manage your time better. It will also give you a sense of security to know you will reach your financial goals if you stick to the plan.

Throughout the rest of this Guide, you'll learn the 5 steps to building an awesome coaching business plan that works for you to achieve the goals you desire.

The 5 steps or 5 Cs are:

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Conversation

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Before we get started on step 1 in the next chapter, let's kickoff with "secret step 0" in the Take Action section below to set the stage.

This is where you identify distractions and take an honest look at your mindset so you can easily create laser focus around building an awesome business plan and an extraordinary coaching business that stands the test of time.

coaching business

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

That's an old Chinese proverb.

Your  single step  right now is to do a personal mindset check in and tune up.

Answer the following questions with 100% honesty so you'll be all set to take action and start creating a kicka$$ business plan as you move through upcoming chapters in this Guide.

Question #1

What are your current ideas around growing your coaching business ? This could be things like starting a membership site, building out a group program or anything else that comes to mind.

Note: Writing down your ideas will get them out of your head and help you pick a path that feels good to you as you start to create your business plan in the following chapters.

Question #2

Write down the names of people or places (online and offline) that have the power to distract you from tasks and projects in your business. This could be a good friend who loves to spontaneously invite you out for coffee, it could be endlessly scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or any other social media platform. List as many as you need to. 

Note: This helps you identify your weak spots or triggers to "Shiny Object Syndrome" that take you away from the focus and energy you need to build your business based on a clear plan.

Question #3

What are your minimum, mid-range, and "out-of-this-world-awesome" financial goals for your coaching business each month and each year, for the next 3 years? You should also list out 1 to 3 dream gifts you will give yourself - travel around the world, purchase your fantasy home, make a generous donation to your favorite charity - when you hit each of your financial milestones.

Note: These milestone numbers will give you in depth clarity and unshakeable motivation to build a successful coaching business that lets you live the life you want while doing the work you love.

coaching business

Coach Foundation

Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2024 Edition]

Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2024 Edition] coaching business

Are you anxious to start your coaching business?

Are you still thinking about how to start?

Are you confused and wondering how to prepare a business plan for your coaching business?

If yes, then I would like to let you know that my condition was the same as yours, a few years back. I was confused about which strategy to follow. I tried hands-on social media, conferences, podcasting and various other tools. But, eventually, I didn’t get the outcomes as required. My efforts were not moving in the right direction.

Soon, I found the missing link. I realized that before starting a business, a proper plan was needed. I laid out the plans and strategies that have made my business the success it is today. There is an in-depth guide that I followed, and I am still walking on the same path.

So do you want to know what my business plan involves? How did I build a successful coaching business plan? How did I manage to use my experience?

Today, I am glad to uncover my coaching business plan .

Do you know the main difference between successful people and unsuccessful people?

Successful people do things they don’t want to do because they want the results that come from doing those things.

You can go through How to Start a Coaching Business to get tips to start your coaching business.

Speaking from experience, take a month or even a day out of your business and step back. Take it all in. Next, strategize a plan of action . For a moment it may not seem productive. But when you do it, the results are amazing. Your efficiency and productivity will show massive growth.

Let me share a small story-

A monk was climbing up a mountain and wanted to meditate at the top . While on his way up, he found a man who was busy chopping a tree. For a moment, the monk stopped. He started observing the man for a while and then moved on.

After four hours he headed back down the mountain. On the way, he found the same man again. Still, he was busy chopping. The monk was surprised. He tapped the man on his shoulder and asked:

“Excuse me, sir? Why don’t you take a moment to sharpen your Axe?”

The man replied that he didn’t have time for that. He further added that he had to chop down the tree. He didn’t want to waste time in sharpening the Axe.

So what does this story tell?

Planning involves proper time and it can fasten your growth.

I do not want to go into too much philosophy. Let me tell you what I did.

Creating a coaching business plan template is a daunting task for people who do not have a business background. But don’t worry; I’m here to guide you through this. I will help you create a coaching business plan template.

Before I start I must tell you what a business plan is and why it is so important.

A coach business plan is a comprehensive document that tells you what you plan to do as per your vision and mission. It tells you what strategies to follow to achieve your set goals . It is a plan that gives you a roadmap to be followed to achieve your coaching business goals.

Now, why is it important?

Drawing from my experience, whether you are building a coaching business as an individual or as a company it is very important to write a business coaching program outline. Initially, you can write a simple business plan without the help of a professional business plan writer.

Let’s say you are a life coach . A life coaching business plan written by you will help you focus on the main components that will make your coaching business a success.

It will bring professionalism and provide a roadmap for your coaching business goals.

The plan which I will share is a simple coaching business plan that will guide you to create your own business plan. It cannot be used to solicit funds from investors or banks. Investor funding will require detailed financial information about your business.

So, let’s get started. The key elements of a coaching business plan will include the below points:

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Drawing from my experience, whatever you envision for your venture needs to be described in this section. You need to answer a few questions here to start your coaching business plan- Why are you starting your coaching venture?

What is your vision for your coaching business? Do you want to revolutionize the coaching industry? What will set you apart from the crowd?

You have to explain all this here to show your business farsightedness. This will give you direction to achieve your goals and will keep you focused.

It gives energy and inspires to make change happen. Vision is a visual image of your dream or idea which you want to achieve through your business.

After you describe your business vision, you need to write a mission statement that describes your business. The mission is the goal of your venture and is very important for your coaching business plan.

In my experience, mission plays a vital role, as this seven letter word drives our professional and personal lives.

In this section, you need to be clear about your goals and be ready to answer the following questions-

What change do you want to bring in people?

How do you want to help others with your coaching program?

Who can benefit from your program?

Are you passionate to bring change through your venture?

Think about these questions and try to answer them so you can visualize your mission.

3. Business Description

Write about your business in this section so that people can get information about it. It is vital to mention your niche, services, and products in your coaching business plan.

Set Your Niche

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Here you have to select the niche of your coaching practice . Based on my first-hand experience, the coaching niche will give a clear picture of your business. It will help you to define your products and services too.

Starting from life coaching, health coaching, career coaching to executive coaching , the list is endless. See where your passion lies, and then get started.

If you are still confused and not able to find your niche then check this article The Ultimate Guide To Finding Your Coaching Niche and you will find your niche soon.

Set Your Services

Say, for example, that some clients want detailed plans while others are simply looking for guidance. My personal experience tells me that offering multiple tiers of service is the best way to increase foot traffic. 

Many coaches have various coaching sessions, like once a week, twice a week, or three times a week. Clients can select the coaching sessions depending on their requirements.

Set Your Billing Methods

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Will people be able to pay electronically? What about paying by checks? How many days do they have past due before services will no longer be continued? You need to define how payments can be made in your coaching business plan.

Set Up Your Website

I didn’t make a fancy website. I just highlighted how I can serve my clients. Don’t forget to include your certifications and licenses. My successful business is proof that testimonials are like adding a cherry to a cake. I believe it can influence people greatly. Consult a web designer too. Do you want people to contact you directly through the site? If yes, the proper address is a must.

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4. Target Market

The next step is to do research on the target audience. This is an essential point for any coaching business plan . You do not have to work with them all. Do a little survey to see who needs your coaching sessions.

So how can you do this?

Firstly ask questions like:

Is your business niche for college graduates who are seeking a job?

Is it for the business executives who want to grow their business?

Is it for women groups looking to work from home?

When creating my own plan, I identified my ideal coaching client through these questions. This helped me create marketing ideas in a much more effective manner. I could now direct my messages to a specific group of people. Even I had the opportunity to develop specialized programs and workshops.

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5. Marketing Strategies

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What methods are useful?

How will people notice you?

Will you do the marketing/sales all by yourself?

Do you want to appoint someone for it?

What sales strategy will you implement? How do you want to present your sales team?

How to create a marketing plan?

The following are the key points which I suggest you should follow regularly.

After you figure out your target clients, try to locate them through your sales and marketing strategies. Based on my first-hand experience, you need to plan both offline and online marketing strategies in your coaching business plan.

How do you want to reach your clients?

When I started my business, I reached my target clients through introduction letters, flyers, and brochures. Through our practical knowledge, this was mainly done to create awareness about the business.

I know that getting your first client is the toughest job. Use both personal and professional networks to help. For example, consider offering some free 15 or 30-minute coaching sessions . This is to encourage people to try your coaching services .

I learned how important it is to build connections. Thus, I organized an event. The invitation was given to all the closed ones, friends and people whom I could target. During the event, guest interaction was done. I explained my business and services.

It was essential for me to participate in various exhibitions and seminars. This way, I could bring my business into the limelight. I could even develop connections with other stakeholders.

Next, it was important to advertise the business in public places. Hence, I posted information about the business at coffee shops, libraries, and such.

For the online audience, I used various social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. The use of Google Ads is also an amazing sales tool.

For getting rankings on a search engine, I made my website search engine optimized.

Through our practical knowledge, in some time I started publishing articles in well-known magazines and newspapers. Create a blog or write articles for other blogs and media that provide tips that can help you gain exposure, as well as credibility.

Lastly, I used the tool for referrals that helped to grow fast.

I started an online community for my clients. There was a regular post. Members were given the invitation to share the group among others. This eventually helped me scale my business.

However, in this whole process, remember who you are serving:

For example, at times one on one sessions are like a burden on my shoulders. I need to put in too much time.

I often came across executives who wanted a break from technology. Hence, for them, online programs did not work. I used some storytelling tricks.

On the other hand, those in grief didn’t like long presentations. Thus, I created short and sweet online programs.

Depending upon the group, the marketing plan is prepared which can help you to attract your clients and scale up the operations.

There is one common string that can work well for both offline and online marketing and that is ‘Coaching Certification’. Firstly, this is not required, but it can help you to upgrade your business.

Hence, I added this to my online coaching business plan.

It increased both credibility and marketability. I got a chance to learn new things. Apart from that, I could charge more.

Through our practical knowledge, you should have knowledge and skills in the area you want to be a coach. This can come from personal experience, but still, you can do additional training that can hone your skills. In case you want more marketing tips then do read How do I market my coaching business to grow your business.

6. Competition

You need to know your competitors as this will give clarity on the level of competition.

You have to plan how to set your business differently from your competitors.

What is it that you could provide that others are unable to?

One of the experts I consulted advised me to look at competitors as a source of information. Further, he added, give yourself time to research what they are offering.

How much do they charge?

What are their strengths?

I checked how my competitors marketed themselves. But I didn’t want to do the same.

It was time for me to identify something which I could provide better than others.

I knew that career coaching was something which I could do best. I started brainstorming ideas to differentiate myself from competitors. Next was to implement consultation calls and sales strategy.

What did I do to make it more meaningful? How to differentiate? Hence, I had to decide my unique selling point (USP).

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7. Organization Planning

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Image from Pixabay.com

What should the management structure of your business be?

As the founder of a successful coaching business, I can assert that a crucial part of your coaching business plan involves defining the organization’s structure. This further leads to roles and functions.

I started with a few people. But eventually, it became big. Luckily, I had made the structure beforehand. Things became simpler.

I had hired assistant coaches. This was the point when my client base doubled. I used to generate passive income by hiring them. I had fixed a percentage of the fee for myself. This is how you can grow your business. In this section you need to answer questions like:

Do you need ambassadors to promote your coaching business?

Will you have partners or employees?

How many people do you want to hire? Who can support you well in managing your business?

What kind of coaching business do you want to create? I had various people who helped me grow my business. But proper plans led to bigger achievements. As per my experience, a business plan helps you hire the right kind of people at the right time.

8. Equipment And Materials Requirement

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When I planned to market my business, I listed down a few types of equipment required to start in my coaching business plan.

I was aware that video conferencing will be part of my work. Hence, I downloaded the needed software and purchased a quality headset.

I noticed many of my peers record calls and give them to their clients so they can review the session. Don’t you think that helps in gaining long term clients?

For this, I bought a recorder. It is used to record all video/audio calls and share the sessions with clients.

I found this blog, 4 Hard Truths About Building A Coaching Business which will give you an idea about the toughest part of building a coaching business, very appealing.

9. Financial Planning

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Now comes the budget plan. Without money, a business cannot grow and a coaching business plan will be incomplete without this.

I found many coaches who charged a modest fee while starting a business. This is because they felt their experience was low. Hence, they charged low. Do you think that is justified? They may get more work but remain underpaid. Will you like working for a client if you are paid less?

Such instances taught me to plan my fee structure. I could confidently ask for the fee according to my worth. I wanted to avoid clients who love bargaining.

Next, you need to outline your financial model.

You need to add the following things to the model:

Start-up cost – Do you need to lease an office space? How much would the lease be? Do you need a computer and the internet?

Financial projections – What all do you need to include in a profit and loss statement?

Funding through investors – Do you need a loan to support your business?

Ask if your audience can pay your rate? How much does the target audience earn yearly?

For instance, I initially coached a few college students. There were also young professional employees. I had made the wrong decision. Why? This is because neither of these groups could pay my current coaching fees .

I realized where I was wrong. Thus, I immediately redefined my audience. I focused on executives, and salespeople, CEOs who could pay my rates.

This is what I consider in my financial planning. I match my rates with the target audience. Check out How to Sell High-End Coaching Packages to earn high-end clients.

10. Timelines

You have to decide timelines for your business. Business planning should be done as per these timelines and should be monitored at intervals.

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I chalked out five different timelines in my coaching business plan and they are as follows:

Annual Planning

Set your yearly plan. I always devote some time and attention to yearly goals. For example, where would I see my business in a year?

My yearly plan includes both my business planning as well as life planning. This is because everything is connected at various levels.

Quarterly Planning

This involves regular checking. I schedule all the planning sessions on my calendar a year in advance.

I aim to make these appointments a top priority. I don’t let anything get in my planning and I am ready with solutions for every obstacle.

Monthly Planning

I used to sit at the starting and end of every month for an hour. This involved checking the priority projects for the upcoming days.

Weekly Planning

I used to do weekly planning on Friday afternoons, mainly because I relax on weekends. For the coming week, I noted my priorities.

There were questions which I asked like “How to allocate time to meet my weekly commitments?”

Daily Planning

This is something that later became my habit. For instance, before leaving the office each day, I checked my top priorities for the next day. I took out 10 minutes to track my daily progress.

If I had achieved something, I would celebrate it.

Think about what you can be proud of? Admire what you achieved. This motivated me to work hard the next day.

Our findings show that, sometimes after all the planning and achievements in life, you will feel you are behind many. You will get self-doubts and question your talent. Then it is time for inner development.

You have to develop the skills to grow your business. A great coach does not necessarily achieve success in business. Hence, even though I had great value my business at times was falling flat. It was disappointing. But then I worked upon questions like:

What is my weakness in the coaching business?

One of the experts asked me how I was developing my coaching skills . Whether I am engaging with the right kind of people Am I planning for the programs I want to do? If not, why? How do I implement it?

This is where I realized that to grow business I had to work upon my weakness too. It required self-discipline.

What should you do if your excitement about starting a coaching business wears off? You do not reach your desired goals. Imagine if a group of ants stopped making anthills. Will they be able to make the colony? No. Hence, I decided to work on my plans consistently. And now, as a result, I have been featured in several industry-leading publications, such as Forbes and Business Insider, discussing the nuances of setting up and running a successful coaching business.

Moral of the story:

You can have a coaching business plan with fewer complications. I avoided putting in too many products and services. There is no need to add 47 different ways of marketing about yourself.

And that’s pretty much it.

How about you? What is your business plan?

Is it focused or complicated?

See if you can get the main points of your plan properly placed. If you do it properly, you are on the right track.

In conclusion, as a recognized expert in the coaching industry , creating the ultimate coaching business plan requires careful consideration and strategic thinking. It involves understanding your target market, clarifying your coaching niche , and defining your unique value proposition. Thorough market research and competitor analysis are crucial for identifying opportunities and positioning yourself effectively. Developing a comprehensive marketing and sales strategy, as well as setting clear financial goals and operational plans, are key elements of a successful coaching business plan. 

Additionally, outlining a solid client acquisition and retention strategy, building a strong brand, and establishing a system for measuring and evaluating your business performance are essential steps. By following these ten steps and adapting them to your specific coaching business, you can create a robust and effective plan to launch and grow your coaching practice .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the steps of a business plan.

A coaching business plan includes the following steps – making a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the company, moving on to a SWOT analysis, outlining a short-term and long-term strategy, creating project benchmarks, and defining the key success factors. Another additional step is how to price the business and launch a new product.

What Must An Entrepreneur Do After Creating A Business Plan?

A list of tasks that entrepreneurs should complete after setting up their business plan includes: obtaining startup capital, researching trade laws, reviewing business licenses, and choosing a company name.

What Is One Purpose Of Writing A Business Plan Before Entering The Market?

Creating a business plan before entering the market can prove beneficial because it allows entrepreneurs to look at the big picture of the company, from the way it will be run to its goals and general purposes. It also gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to look at what they need to do in order to successfully and efficiently run their business.

What Should I Include In A Business Plan?

Every business plan needs to include the questions and answers of these three fundamental issues: what do you want your company to accomplish, why should people buy what you sell, and how will you make it happen? It is important to take this opportunity to be very thorough with your business plan.

How to Make a Business Plan?

To make a business plan, you must know what kind of business you want it to be. You will need to research your market, competition, and finances. If you don’t, then you run the risk of running out of money or building a business that is unable to make a profit.

How Do You Draft A Coaching Plan?

You can draft a coaching plan through plenty of documents and templates that can be used as a guide to help you brainstorm and organize your own thoughts. One great resource is the Coaching Business Plan Workbook and Guide by Mary Baldwin and Amy Levin-Epstein.

How To Write A Business Plan Step By Step?

The precise step-by-step guide on how to write a business starts with first outlining what your business will be and what your long-term goal is. Next, it’s important to start with developing your company’s mission statement, detailing who your customer is and what they want. This is followed by conducting market research and researching your competition.

executive coaching business plan

ABOUT SAI BLACKBYRN

I’m Sai Blackbyrn, better known as “The Coach’s Mentor.” I help Coaches like you establish their business online. My system is simple: close more clients at higher fees. You can take advantage of technology, and use it as a catalyst to grow your coaching business in a matter of weeks; not months, not years. It’s easier than you think.

executive coaching business plan

4 thoughts on “Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2024 Edition]”

This article was very simple and easy to follow. Extremely helpful. Just starting out so needed this kinda help.

Hi J Dawn, I’m glad you got great value from this piece. And since you are just starting out, the webinar would be extremely helpful to you so do register

Thank you so much, very insightful especially as I’m starting my coaching business.

Keep up the great work!

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executive coaching business plan

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Coaching Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Coaching Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Coaching business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Coaching businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Coaching business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Premier Health Coaching Services Is a startup health coaching company located in Seattle, Washington. The company is founded by Tracy Hoffman, a health coach who holds a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Washington. She is a certified health coach in the state of Washington, and has successfully counseled over 300 clients during the past six years as a health coach employed by a corporate medical health plan provider. Her expertise has brought her “celebrity” status. Her blog and podcasts have brought over 20,000 followers as she speaks about nutrition and health matters. Her client base of over 300 clients has already committed to follow her when she makes this professional move to start her own company, Premier Health Coaching Services.

Premier Health Coaching Services will provide a comprehensive array of health-related products and services, including holistic care, skeletal and muscular alignments, sports nutrition, nutrition and diet support, balanced lifestyle counseling and other health services. This will be a broad-based service, meeting the needs of individuals from all walks of life and in all health-conditional lifestyles. Premier Health Coaching Services will be the top-performing health coaching company within the Seattle, Washington regional area.

Product Offering

The following are the services that Premier Health Coaching Services will provide:

  • Individual and group health coaching services
  • Nutritional and physiological body assessments
  • Skeletal and muscular alignments
  • Holistic healing: aromatherapy, acupuncture, massage
  • Physical therapist services
  • Weight assessment and counseling
  • Work-life balance alignments
  • Balanced lifestyle counseling
  • Product sales: nutritional supplements; health-related products

Customer Focus

Premier Health Coaching Services will target everyone in the Seattle, Washington regional area, including Bellingham and other outlying areas. In particular, they will target those individuals who seek assistance with physically therapeutic and lifestyle balance services. They will also target those individuals who are sports professionals and those who are dedicated to a sports lifestyle. Adults of all ages, including seniors, will be targeted as customers and Premier Health Coaching Services will address the needs and serve each individual with the best possible service and support team.

Management Team

Premier Health Coaching Services will be owned and operated by Tracy Hoffman. She has recruited her former associates, John Blackwell and Melissa Rodriquez, to become associates in leading her team.

Tracy Hoffman holds a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Washington. She is a certified health coach in the state of Washington and has successfully counseled over 300 clients during the past six years as a health coach employed by a corporate medical health plan provider. Her expertise has brought her “celebrity” status, and her blog and podcasts have brought over 20,000 followers as she speaks about nutrition and health matters. Her client base of over 300 clients has already committed to follow her when she makes this professional move to start her own company, Premier Health Coaching Services.

John Blackwell is a well-known and much-admired health coach, overseeing 100 clients on a regular basis. He specializes in sports nutrition and already has the commitment from each client to follow him as he makes this professional move to Premier Health Coaching Services.

Melissa Rodriquez is much-beloved by her weight management and nutritional balance clients and is known for her emphasis on holistic solutions to health problems. Her client base of over 100 clients has committed to follow her as she makes this professional move to Premier Health Coaching Services.

Success Factors

Premier Health Coaching Services will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

  • Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly qualified team of professional health coaches, counselors, nutritional experts, and holistic care providers.
  • A comprehensive menu of services available during daytime and evening hours, including health coaching, lifestyle and nutritional coaching, holistic care, physical therapy and natural health and healing products.
  • Premier Health Coaching Services offers modest pricing, setting a price structure that best meets the health insurance plans of all individuals. Comparatively, the service is a lower-cost option than competitors.
  • Products offered, including nutritional supplements and natural health products, are priced lower than retail health food stores.

Financial Highlights

Premier Health Coaching Services is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its Premier Health Coaching Services. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the location space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the marketing campaigns. The breakout of the funding is below:

  • Office space build-out: $20,000
  • Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
  • Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
  • Marketing costs: $10,000
  • Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the pro forma financial projections for Premier Health Coaching Services.

Premier Health Coaching Services Financial Projections

Company Overview

Who is premier health coaching services.

Premier Health Coaching Services is a newly established full-service coaching and health management company in Seattle, Washington. Premier Health Coaching Services will be the most reliable, total health-directed, and effective choice for clients throughout Seattle and the surrounding communities. Premier Health Coaching Services will provide a comprehensive slate of coaching services, natural health treatments, and natural products for all clients to utilize. Their full-service approach includes an extensive list of health and holistic-related services and products.

  Premier Health Coaching Services will be able to manage and service up to 50 clients at any time, with the ability to increase hours of operation to add more clients. The team of professionals are highly qualified, certified, and experienced in coaching, life-balance counseling and nutritional health. Premier Health Coaching Services removes all the headaches and issues of searching for and finding the right fit for the services of various coaches in multiple locations, as all services are now offered under one roof. In addition, Premier Health Coaching Services will be known for delivering the best customer service.

Premier Health Coaching Services History

Since incorporation, Premier Health Coaching Services has achieved the following milestones:

  • Registered Premier Health Coaching Services, Inc. to transact business in the state of Washington.
  • Has over 50 client contracts already in place with Premier Health Coaching Services. Has natural health providers in acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy, and physical therapy under long-term contracts.
  • Began recruiting a staff of assistants and office personnel at Premier Health Coaching Services.

Premier Health Coaching Services

The following will be the services Premier Health Coaching Services will provide:

Industry Analysis

The health coaching and related services industry is currently at $15,653M, and is expected to grow over the next five years to over $23,587M in 2028, with a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast years. This substantial increase will be due to clients who are increasingly aware and in need of better performance in physical activity, nutrition and eating habits, weight management, diabetes prevention, and medication adherence.

These specific areas are all covered under health coaching, group coaching and lifestyle coaching, which are increasingly in step with the continued growth and concern regarding these health-condition specific issues.

The growth will be driven by key players in the industry, such as major health insurance companies, governmental oversight and other agencies, who will adopt effective strategies to combat continuing health conditions. As they do; the industry sector is expected to expand further, presenting numerous opportunities for advancement.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Premier Health Coaching Services will target those individuals requiring health coaching, nutritional counseling, holistic care and other natural services in Seattle, Washington. They will target former clients who may choose to contract for services with this new all-inclusive slate of services, those who are personal contacts through years of professional experience, corporations with employee health services under expiring contracts, and individuals who are referred by professionals throughout the region.

The precise demographics for Premier Health Coaching Services are:

Customer Segmentation

Premier Health Coaching Services will primarily target the following customer profiles:

  • Individuals seeking contracted health coaching and life counseling services
  • Insurance companies seeking expanded services for insured clients
  • Corporations seeking health service contracts on behalf of employees
  • Individuals seeking natural health and healing products

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Premier Health Coaching Services will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Pacific Health & Physical Therapy Group

Pacific Health and Physical Therapy Group provides muscular, skeletal and physical therapy for individuals who are referred to the service by employers under contract with the group. Contracts are yearly, endorsed by the corporate human resources managers. The group provides a variety of services for clients, including a therapy spa, physical therapy services, muscular and skeletal exercise routines, and other kinesiology-related services.

The promise by Pacific Health & Physical Therapy Group is to provide accurate, detailed plans to better the lives of their clients through muscular and physically therapeutic services. The emphasis is on corrective treatments, including exercise. The Pacific Health & Physical Therapy Group provides a 4-Step Treatment Plan that covers diagnosis; analysis of treatment; care routine; extended therapy. This is a plan that is personally designed for each client and care providers follow the plan during each client visit.

Seattle Physical Therapy Associates

Seattle Physical Therapy Associates is composed of ten physical therapists, each with a roster of clients who routinely book a minimum of twenty therapy visits each. This solidifies the basis for revenue for Seattle Physical Therapy Associates and creates an on-going program of increased health properties for clients as visits continue.

Seattle Physical Therapy Associates is focused on providing physical therapy; as such, the pricing for services is higher than other full-service centers. The motto is: Creating the Best Environment for Our Clients’ Best Results. Clients are treated at least twice a week, as physical therapy continues. As the favorite physical therapy group in Seattle, the company can demand higher pricing levels, and those levels are paid by primarily corporate clients, as a result.

Ballard Holistic Health Company

Ballard Holistic Health Company is headquartered in Ballard, located in northwest Seattle. The region is a mixed-population of older university students, young couples with children, and senior residents with longevity in the region. Housing is a mixture of condos converted to apartments, older single home dwellings and multi-use leased homes. The clientele for the Ballard Holistic Health Company is generally seeking holistic treatments as curative or preventative alternatives to western medicine. The company is housed in a former home, large enough to showcase natural health and healing products. Weekly classes directed to nutrition, healthy living styles, and vegan/vegetarian living topics are discussed in group sessions. Merchandise for sale includes books, tapes, vegan foods and protein alternatives, such as plant-based foods. Also offered are a wide array of natural health products and nutritional supplements.

Competitive Advantage

Premier Health Coaching Services will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

  • A comprehensive, all-inclusive menu of services available during daytime and evening hours, including health coaching, lifestyle and nutritional coaching, holistic care, physical therapy and natural health and healing products.
  • Products offered, including nutritional supplements and natural health products, are priced lower than direct competitors.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Premier Health Coaching Services will offer the following unique value proposition to its clientele:

  • Highly-qualified team of certified professionals who are able to provide a comprehensive slate of services and products to meet consumer demand for solutions for medical conditions, lifestyle choices, and other physical or mind-body needs.
  • Substantial number of long-term contracted clients, as well as corporate clients who utilize services for employees.
  • Reliable natural health and healing products sold below retail costs at competitive natural product stores.
  • Pricing structure for corporate and individual clients is modest and reasonable.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Premier Health Coaching Services is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

Premier Health Coaching Services has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and skilled expertise for clients. They have communicated to Premier Health Coaching Services that they will continue renewing their contracts because they are highly-satisfied with the services provided at the former place of business. Once advised by the professionals that they were leaving the former company, the clients were eager to sign new contracts to continue coaching services with Premier Health Coaching Services. Former and current clients were also willing to offer referrals and spread the word of the new company starting comprehensive services just ahead.

Professional Associations and Networking

Tracy Hoffman, John Blackwell and Melissa Rodriquez are each well-established within their chosen fields and will spread the word of the new startup within their professional associations. Networking among corporations within the region will also begin, as corporate clients can offer large, long-term contracts for employees who require multiple visits or treatments.

Social Media Marketing

With the high number of followers who track Tracy Hoffman, the use of social media marketing will be pivotal to the startup. Multiple social media marketing campaigns will be launched, identifying the professionals who are starting the company and inviting new followers to engage with each via posts and comments. Former and current clients will also be included in short video reels, offering testimonials regarding the service received by these professionals. A social media marketing manager will be hired for three months to cover the costs of startup campaigns.

Website/SEO Marketing

Premier Health Coaching Services will utilize the services of the social media marketing manager to create website content and images to announce the opening of the company. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all services that Premier Health Coaching Services is able to provide. The website will also list their contact information and link to an easy reservation site for clients to book appointments online. The social media marketing manager will also oversee SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “Seattle health coaching” or “natural health or holistic services”, Premier Health Coaching Services will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Premier Health Coaching Services will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Premier Health Coaching Services. Operation Functions:

  • Tracy Hoffman will be the Owner and President of the company. She will oversee all staff and manage client relations. She has spent several months recruiting the executive staff: members:
  • John Blackwell, a well-known, certified, and much-admired health coach, will be the Vice President, overseeing 100 clients on a regular basis. He specializes in sports nutrition.
  • Melissa Rodriquez, a professional counselor in weight management and nutritional balance, will be the Strategic Manager. Her client base of over 100 clients has committed to follow her as she makes this professional move to Premier Health Coaching Services.
  • Gary Ragan, an accountant with ten years of experience, will become the Staff Accountant, providing all client accounting, tax payments, and monthly financial reporting.

Milestones:

Premier Health Coaching Services will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

  • 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease company staff, client and workroom space
  • 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the Premier Health Coaching Services
  • 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for Premier Health Coaching Services corporate clients
  • 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
  • 6/22/202X – Begin moving into the Premier Health Coaching Services building location
  • 7/1/202X – Premier Health Coaching Services opens its office for business

Tracy Hoffman holds a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Washington. She is a certified health coach in the state of Washington, who has successfully counseled over 300 clients during the past six years as a health coach employed by a corporate medical health plan provider. Her expertise has brought her “celebrity” status, as her blog and podcasts have brought over 20,000 followers. She is dedicated to nutrition and health-balance matters. Her client base of over 300 clients has already committed to follow her when she makes this professional move to start her own company, Premier Health Coaching Services.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Premier Health Coaching Services are the fees they will charge to the clients for their services. Secondary revenue drivers will include the natural health and nutritional supplement products sold at the company location.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to properly staff Premier Health Coaching Services. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Premier Health Coaching Services is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its health coaching and natural health service company. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the location space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the social media marketing and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

  • Number of Contracted Clients Per Month: 1,200
  • Average Fees per Month: $50,000
  • Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, coaching business plan faqs, what is a coaching business plan.

A coaching business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your coaching   business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your Coaching  business plan using our Coaching Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Coaching Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of coaching businesses , some examples include: Business coaching, Career coaching, Life coaching, Performance coaching, and Wellness coaching.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Coaching Business Plan?

Coaching businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Coaching Business?

Starting a coaching business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Coaching Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed coaching business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your coaching business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your coaching business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Coaching   Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your coaching business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your coaching business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Coaching   Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your coaching business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your coaching business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Learn more about how to start a successful coaching business:

  • How to Start a Coaching Business

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How to Write a Coaching Business Plan That Helps You Thrive + Template

May 17, 2023

The Coach Factory Team

a coach envisions his future business

New coaches often overlook the importance of having a business plan from the beginning , but this critical document will guide your business through its growth stages. It’s a strategic tool that helps you visualize your goals, track your progress, and provide a clear picture of your business’ vision, financial health, and operational needs.

Without a business plan, you’ll face the risk of wandering aimlessly in your coaching practice and struggling to achieve your goals. The absence of a well-defined plan may leave you vulnerable to various challenges and setbacks. 

You may find it difficult to attract and retain clients without a clear value proposition and targeted marketing strategies. You may also struggle with financial management, pricing your services appropriately, and tracking your progress towards revenue goals. 

Plus, the absence of a business plan can lead to a lack of focus, scattered efforts, and a sense of uncertainty about the direction of your coaching practice. Ultimately, without a business plan, you may miss out on valuable opportunities for growth and struggle to thrive in the competitive coaching landscape.

Whether you’re transforming your coaching side gig into a full-time venture or scaling up your existing coaching business, this article will walk you step-by-step through creating a detailed coaching business plan that will propel you toward success.

  • Why Your Coaching Practice Needs a Business Plan

A business plan guides your coaching business, directing you through your initial startup phase to growth and beyond. It helps you chart your course, establish milestones, and provide clear directions to your desired destination, similar to how a roadmap directs a traveler.

One of the most significant benefits of a business plan is its role in decision-making. When faced with decisions like introducing a new service or investing in advertising, your business plan provides the context and data to make informed choices. It helps align your decisions with your overall business objectives and strategies, ensuring that every step leads you closer to your goals.

How do I turn my coaching into a business?

If you’re already coaching and are ready to turn your hobby into a full fledged business, one of your first steps is to craft a business plan. As you work through the parts of the plan, you’ll be forced to make decisions about what to name your business , who is your desired clientele , what services you’ll offer , what kinds of expenses and revenue you expect, and how you’ll market the business.

Whether you run your coaching business as a side hustle or as a full time venture, as long as you are making money from coaching, you can officially call it a business. 

Can I write a business plan myself?

Yes, even a novice can write a simple business plan by working through the seven key elements: an executive summary, a company description, market analysis, organizational structure, sales and marketing, financial goals, and an appendix. Use the free 12-page workbook linked at the bottom of this post for a plug-and-play business plan template. 

How much does it cost to start a coaching business?

The costs for launching your coaching business can vary widely from a minimal few hundred dollars to a substantial investment of multiple thousands of dollars. When you dig into the financial parts of your business plan, you’ll be able to start listing the potential expenses you expect: certifications, website hosting and design, online video conferencing tools, hiring an accountant, etc. 

The good news is that you can start simply by offering online coaching to people in your current sphere of influence and as you generate income, branch out with additional features such as a coaching website or a client management system . There’s no need to put everything in place at once. You can build your business as you go, but the coaching business plan provides the blueprint to help you identify next steps. 

Can I make a living as a coach?

Yes, you can! If you have the primary traits that all coaches need and are willing to invest in your professional development and learn the basics of online marketing, you will likely attract enough ideal clients to earn a living wage. It’s not an easy path; it will take dedication to start your own coaching business, of course.  But over time, many coaches are able to generate six-figure annual salaries by doing what they love — helping others achieve their aspirations. These highest paid coaches tend to have the most expertise and work as business coaches. But there’s plenty of room for coaches of all niches and experience levels to find their ideal clients and serve them. As you continue coaching, you’ll refine your practice, find better clients, and be able to charge higher rates .

making a business plan for a new coaching business

  • Tips for Writing the 7 Key Elements of a Coaching Business Plan — With Workbook

Launching a coaching business requires more than just expertise in a specific niche. It demands a strategic approach and a clear vision for your business’s future. 

A well-crafted business plan has seven key elements, each of which serves a distinct purpose that aids in decision-making. These seven steps are included in a convenient PDF workbook format so you can record your thoughts and get started on your own business plan right away. Download yours and fill it out as you read the rest of this article that fleshes out the directions in the template.

1. Write an executive summary

The executive summary is the doorway to your business plan, providing a concise and enticing overview of your coaching business. It gives potential investors, partners, and other stakeholders a snapshot of your business, its goals, and how it intends to achieve them.

Here are five tips for writing an impactful executive summary.

Begin with the basics

No matter the setting, introductions are essential for making a great first impression. An introduction sets the stage and provides context for the following information. Start by providing basic information about your coaching business, like your business name , location, and specific coaching services.

Clearly state your business objectives

Are you looking to become a leading life coach in your region, or are you aiming to carve out a niche as a specialized career coach for professionals in the tech industry?

You must convey your business goals and give a time frame for achieving them. Although shooting for the stars is always important, your business plan goals should be simple enough to understand. So stick to setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP)

What makes your coaching business unique? Do you have a distinctive coaching methodology, special qualification, or experience that sets you apart?

Your USP is the core reason clients choose you over other coaches. It should be a central part of your branding and messaging to help attract and retain clients. When including it in your executive summary, dig deep to highlight aspects of your coaching business that help potential stakeholders see your value to the industry.

Outline your growth plan

Outlining your growth plan in your executive summary shows your ambition and forward-thinking approach to potential investors, partners, and stakeholders.

Briefly describe your plan for achieving your business objectives and expanding your coaching practice. Include any steps you plan to take in setting your business up for future success, like targeting new market segments, introducing new services, scaling your operations, and setting a flexible timeline for hitting certain milestones.

Write your executive summary last 

Even though the executive summary appears first in your business plan, you should write it last after completing the other sections. This way, you’ll accurately summarize the key points.

Remember, the executive summary is your chance to capture the reader’s attention and entice them to read the rest of your business plan. Make it compelling, informative, and engaging.

2. Create a company description

The company description is a comprehensive introduction to your coaching business. This section is where you set the stage, providing readers with an understanding of your services, target audience, business structure, and mission and vision. 

The more specific you are, the better.

Coaching Services

Start by defining the coaching services you provide. Describe your services in detail, whether you’re a life coach , career coach, or fitness coach. Explain the process, duration, and client expectations from each session. If you offer unique methodologies or techniques, highlight them.

Business Structure

Here, you’ll discuss the legal setup of your coaching business. Always include information about any staff you employ, like administrative help or other coaches, and their roles within your company. Are you a sole proprietor operating independently or set up as an LLC with partners or team members?

Target Audience

The people you want to help are central to your coaching business, so you must dedicate time and space to highlight them. Identify their demographics, such as age, gender, location, and income bracket. Additionally, it would help if you detailed things like their values, interests, and challenges.

Are they professionals seeking career advancement, individuals pursuing personal growth, or athletes aiming to improve performance?

The more detailed you are about your ideal client, the better you’ll tailor your services and marketing strategy.

Mission Statement

Your mission statement articulates your coaching business’s core purpose. It answers the question, “Why does your coaching business exist?” 

The mission statement should capture the essence of your coaching practice, the services you provide, and the value you deliver to your clients. It needs to be clear, concise, and compelling to your ideal client .

This mission guides every present decision and strategy in your business. It’s a constant reminder of your business’s purpose and the impact you aim to have on your clients’ lives. It helps to align your team’s efforts and fosters a sense of shared purpose.

Vision Statement

Unlike the mission statement, which focuses on the present and your business’s purpose, the vision statement is future-oriented. It embodies your aspirations and describes what ultimate success looks like for your coaching practice.

Your vision statement should inspire and motivate—it’s the big dream you’re working towards. It aligns you and your team (if you have one) around a common goal, creating a sense of unity and purpose.

Remember, keep your vision statement ambitious yet grounded in reality. Allow it to reflect the growth and impact you genuinely believe your coaching business can achieve in the future. A compelling vision statement will help you maintain focus and momentum as you build your coaching business.

life coaches work on crafting business plans by discussing the market

3. Conduct market analysis and research

Navigating the coaching industry without a clear understanding of the market is like wandering in a forest without a map. You may stumble upon some great discoveries, but you’ll probably spend much time circling back to familiar ground. The goal is to continue to move forward with as little friction as possible. 

The market analysis section of your coaching business plan serves as your compass and map to help you quickly learn and navigate the coaching industry.

Industry Overview

Begin with a broad overview of the coaching industry— this might include the industry’s current size, growth rates, and key trends or shifts in the industry. You can find much of this information through industry reports, market research firms, and business publications.

Competitor Analysis

Identify your main competitors and analyze their services, pricing, marketing strategies, and strengths and weaknesses. Gather this information through their websites, client reviews, and social media channels. Understanding your competition will help you find ways to differentiate your coaching business.

Market Trends

Being aware of and responsive to emerging market trends will allow you to tweak your services and marketing efforts to satisfy evolving client preferences. This foresight ensures your business stays relevant and remains a competitive player in the changing landscape of the coaching industry.

Shine a spotlight on key market trends that could steer the course of your coaching business. For example, if you notice the tide shifting towards remote work, this could signal a surge in demand for virtual coaching services.

Opportunities and Threats

Based on your industry overview, target market analysis, competitor analysis, and market trends, identify potential opportunities for your coaching business and any threats that could impact its success.

For example, an opportunity might be a growing demand for a specific type of coaching in your area, while a threat could be a high level of competition from other coaches in your niche. Detailing both will show you new ways to approach and solve potential issues while allowing you to explore new things.

4. Outline your organizational and managerial overview

The organization and management overview of your business plan outlines the structure of your business and the team running it. This section should clearly define who is involved in your coaching business, their roles, and why they are fit for these roles.

It’s an opportunity to showcase the expertise and capabilities within your coaching business, which can build confidence among potential clients, partners, and investors.

Are you a sole proprietor, or have you formed an LLC, a partnership, or a corporation?

Start by defining the legal structure of your business. This information is crucial as it impacts your taxes, liability, and other legal aspects.

Organizational Chart

If your business has more team members other than you, create an organizational chart that shows the hierarchy and relationships between different roles. This provides a visual representation of your business’s structure. Include snapshots of who’s in management and what your role entails.

Advisors and Support

If you have any advisors or support services involved in your business, such as an accountant, a lawyer, or a business coach, mention them here. They add credibility to your business and show that you have expert support in managing your coaching business.

7 elements of a coaching business plan - diagram

5. Craft a sales and marketing plan

Your business plan’s sales and marketing section outlines how you will attract and retain clients. It should detail your strategies for raising awareness of your coaching services, engaging prospects, and ultimately converting them into clients.

This section should be dynamic, adapting to your market’s changing needs and your business’s growth.

Marketing Objectives

Align your marketing goals with your overall business objectives.

For instance, if one of your business goals is to increase your client base by 25% over the next year, one of your marketing objectives might be to grow your email list by 50% in the same period. This would give you a larger pool of potential clients to engage with, supporting your overall goal of expanding your client base.

Also, detail how you plan to scale your marketing efforts as your business grows. Consider investing in more sophisticated marketing technology, hiring a marketing professional, or expanding into new marketing channels.

Target Market

Everything in your marketing plan has to appeal to your ideal client . Understanding their demographics, needs, and preferences will allow you to tailor your marketing messages effectively to gain their attention.

Marketing Strategies

Describe the marketing channels and strategies you plan to use. Mention everything from content marketing (blogging, webinars, ebooks), social media marketing (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), email marketing, networking (industry events, local business groups), public speaking, or offering introductory coaching sessions. 

Explain why you believe these strategies will be effective for reaching your target market.

Marketing Funnel 

A marketing funnel is a pipeline that shows how potential clients will move from an initial encounter with your brand to purchasing your services and beyond. This section details your steps for converting a prospect into a client. Include aspects like initial consultations, proposals , a follow-up process, and the sale of a coaching package.

The systems or technology you use to facilitate this process, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, is information that would validate the efficiency of your funnel, so remember to include it. 

Brand Development

Discuss how you will build your brand and information on developing your coaching website and creating a consistent brand identity across any directory listings and all your marketing materials and channels.

It would be best if you also detailed how you will position yourself as an expert in your field, such as publishing articles or speaking at events. This will give your coaching practice more credibility and make it easier for potential stakeholders to trust your vision. 

a life coach holds a stack of fifty dollar bills, symbolic of financial considerations of creating a business plan for a coaching practice

6. Financial goals and projections

Your coaching business plan’s financial goals section clearly shows your current financial status and future projections. It provides insight into the profitability and sustainability of your business, which is especially important if you are seeking investors or loans.

Remember, this section will likely require more research and preparation than other sections of your business plan. Be as accurate and realistic as possible in your projections. Consider seeking the assistance of a financial advisor or accountant to ensure that your financial plan is sound and realistic.

Financial Goals

Begin by outlining your financial goals. Remember to keep your goals within reasonable limits based on your current resources.

Do you plan to achieve a certain revenue target within a specified period by attaining a specific number of paying clients?

Startup Costs

Startup costs will not apply to every coaching business, but if you’re starting, itemize your startup costs. This could include costs for setting up your office, purchasing equipment, marketing expenses, professional fees (like licensing or certification), and other initial expenses.

Revenue Projections

Provide a detailed breakdown of your projected income. For a coaching business, this will usually involve estimating the number of clients you will serve, the price of your coaching packages, and any other income streams (like workshops, ebooks, etc. ).

Expense Projections

Similarly, outline your projected expenses. This could include rent (if you have a physical office), utilities, marketing costs, salaries (if you have employees), and other operational costs. Also, remember to account for less recurring costs like equipment upgrades or professional development.

Cash Flow Analysis

A cash flow statement shows how changes in balance sheet accounts and income affect cash and cash equivalents. It breaks the analysis down into operating, investing, and financing activities.

Break-even Analysis

This analysis shows when your business will be able to cover all its expenses and begin to make a profit. It’s essential to investors as it shows the viability of your business.

Funding Request

If you’re seeking funding, present your needs for the next 3-5 years. Explain why you need the funds and how they will help grow your business.

Financial Statement

If your business has been running for a while, include your current financial statement. It should provide a snapshot of your business’s financial health and include a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.

7. Beef up your coaching business plan with an appendix 

The appendices section of your business plan serves as a repository for any additional information or documents that support your business plan but don’t necessarily fit within the body of the plan.

These materials can provide extra depth and credibility to your business plan, allowing readers, such as potential investors, lenders, or partners, to dive deeper into certain aspects of your business if they wish.

Remember these three tips when organizing your appendix.

  • Only include relevant documents like certifications, awards, customer testimonials, letters of recommendation, detailed market research, patents, product pictures, legal documents, contracts, etc.
  • Create a table of contents to give readers a quick view of what’s in the appendix. Readers can then quickly locate the documents they’re interested in.
  • Include references to the appendix throughout your business plan to provide context and quick referencing.
  • Free Life Coaching Business Plan Template

A well-structured business plan is a vital first step for new coaches serious about building a thriving coaching business. By investing time and effort in developing your business plan, you create a strategic roadmap for your business and set the foundation for success. Your business plan will guide your decision-making, help you stay focused on your goals, and enable you to measure progress and make necessary adjustments.

Download our free 12-page Coaching Business Plan Template, designed specifically to help you navigate crafting an effective business plan. This template provides a clear framework and guidance on the essential elements to consider as you plan your coaching business.

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Written by The Coach Factory Team

We're a team of coaching enthusiasts who hire and work with coaches. Members of our team run businesses in the coaching industry or provide services that support coaches, and several of us are coaches ourselves.

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How to start an executive coaching business

executive coaching business plan

Table of contents

If you’re interested in starting a new career and are looking for an exciting, unconventional, and fulfilling role - executive coaching might be the right fit for you.

Knowing how to start an executive coaching business is not as hard as you might think. In fact, anyone can do it. An executive coaching business can be a great way to make money while helping people reach their potential. It’s a challenging but fun and rewarding career, and if you’re up for the challenge, here’s how to get started.

What is the difference between business and executive coaching

First things first. You need to be clear on the type of service you're offering your clients and how it might differ from regular business coaching. After all, there are many similarities between the two, right? Well, yes and no. Here are the key differences between business coaching and executive coaching:

Business Coaching :

  • Focuses on achieving short-term goals
  • Helps small businesses or individual entrepreneurs develop their ideas into actionable plans
  • Suitable for individuals who need help structuring a business plan and setting achievable goals

Executive Coaching :

  • Focuses on long-term personal development
  • Works with high-level executives to enhance performance in leadership roles, communication skills, decision-making ability, etc.
  • Suitable for experienced professionals that have achieved a certain level of success and want to take their career to the next level.

Now that you’re clear on what executive coaching entails, it's time to get the ball rolling.

What Are the Steps To Take To Start Executive Coaching

Getting started with executive coaching is not as complicated as you might think. As long as you’re willing to put in a bit of planning, have a dedication for growth, and have the desire to help - you can become a successful executive coach.

There are a few basic steps to follow in order to know how to start an executive coaching business:

  • Learn About Executive Coaching: The first step to starting an executive coaching business is to understand what executive coaching entails. It’s important to understand the different types of executive coaching and how it works. It’s also important to learn about the different methods and approaches to executive coaching.
  • Get Certified: The next step to starting an executive coaching business is to become certified. You’ll need to find an accredited program and complete the required courses and exams. This will demonstrate to potential clients that you have the knowledge and skills necessary to be a successful executive coach.
  • Develop a Niche: Once you’re certified, the next step is to develop a niche. This is important because it will help you differentiate yourself from other executive coaches and make you more attractive to potential clients. www.hellobonsai.com/blog/how-to-write-a-coach-bio

Consider what type of executive coaching you want to offer, who your target clients are, and what types of problems you want to help them solve.

  • Create a Business Plan: Creating a business plan is an essential step to starting any business, and it’s especially important for executive coaching. Your business plan should include a description of your services, objectives, marketing strategy, pricing, and expenses.

It should also include a financial plan that outlines how you plan to make money and how you plan to manage cash flow.

  • Build Your Network: Once you’ve got your business plan in place, the next step is to build your network. This can include attending conferences, networking events, and connecting with other professionals in the industry. It’s also important to create a website and use social media to get your name out there.
  • Start Your Business: The final step is to start your business. This includes setting up your office, getting the necessary licenses and permits, creating a coach bio and logo, and getting your first clients.

With a good plan and the right strategies, you can start your executive coaching business and be on your way to success.

Note: Try Bonsai's software to get access to invoice, contract and proposal templates for life coaching . Our library of pre-made templates allows you to easily customize and send these documents to new potential clients. Try a 7-day free trial here .

executive coaching business plan

How long should it take to become an executive coach

You're probably wondering how much time you should allow yourself to get the necessary training and credentials and complete all the steps we will outline in this article. After all, we know time is of the essence, and you're anxious to get out there and begin this new chapter in your coaching career.

The good news is that becoming an executive coach doesn't take long. It's essential to keep in mind, however, that the amount of time needed for training and getting certified as a coach depends on your experience level and desired specialty.

If you’re new to coaching, or if this is your first venture into executive coaching, you should plan on investing at least six months to a year into gaining appropriate education and certification.

This may include completing relevant coursework such as business leadership classes or participating in an accredited Executive Coaching program from a recognized institute like the International Coach Federation (ICF ).

On the other hand, if you’re already an experienced coach or have a management or business development background, you may be able to start your executive coaching business as soon as you become certified.

Depending on the program and certification requirements, this could take as little as three months. In addition to completing coursework and gaining certification, it’s wise to set aside at least two more months to prepare your business plan, marketing materials and setting up operations.

This should allow plenty of time to get everything in order before launching your executive coaching business.

Define Your Executive Coaching Strengths

One of the most important and often overlooked aspects of understanding how to start an executive coaching business is defining your strengths. You need to have a clear understanding of what it is that you bring to the table and what makes you stand out from the competition.

In order to do this, you need to have a good knowledge of yourself and your own strengths and weaknesses, so you can effectively coach your clients. Focusing on your strengths and finding clients that these strengths will benefit the most will help you to become a successful executive coach.

You should also be clear on what areas you specialize in. For example, do you specialize in helping executives develop leadership skills, or do you focus on helping individuals with career development? Knowing what you’re best at will help you better focus your efforts and market your services more effectively.

Once you’ve identified your strengths, the next step is to develop your executive coaching skills. There are several different ways to do this, such as attending workshops, reading books, and taking online courses.

It’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques in executive coaching. This will help ensure that you’re offering your clients the best advice and services possible.

Use Your Strengths To Develop an Ideal Customer Profile

The next step is to use all of this information to develop an ideal customer profile. This will help you to identify the types of clients you want to target and the types of people that you think would be most likely to benefit from your services.

Think about what the ideal customer looks like, and consider their industry, their job role, their challenges, and their goals. Having a clear understanding of your ideal customer will help you to better tailor your services and target the right people.

Network To Increase Your Reach

Building relationships and networking is key to finding clients and building your business. Attend conferences, mastermind groups, and events related to executive coaching, and make sure to connect with everyone that you can.

This could include other coaches, business contacts, and influencers who could refer potential clients to you. You should also consider joining online forums and groups to increase your visibility and network with other professionals.

Once you have everything running, you should still implement these practices out of habit to keep up your professional development. By keeping up with the latest techniques and trends, you’ll reap success for years to come.

Be Clear With Your Branding

Having a clear and consistent brand is important for any business, and it’s especially important if you’re starting an executive coaching business. Your coaching brand should convey the type of coaching services that you offer, and it should be consistent across all of your marketing materials.

You need to create a brand that conveys your unique value proposition and sets you apart from your competitors. This includes creating a coaching business name , website, designing a logo, and creating content that reflects your expertise and your approach to executive coaching.

Your branding should be specific to your ideal customer profile, and it should highlight your strengths as an executive coach. This could be anything from working with CEOs of large corporations to helping first-time entrepreneurs develop their businesses.

Define Your Coaching Package Pricing and Path To Profitability

In order to make money in executive coaching, you need to have a clear understanding of how you’ll charge for your services.

Will you charge by the hour, by the session, or by the package? Will you offer a free consultation to attract new clients? Will you incorporate extras that you can up-sell to interested clients?

It’s always tricky to determine what rate to set when starting out. If you charge too little, you won’t make a profit; if you set your prices too high, you might drive away business.

The best way to find the right service rate is to research what other executive coaches charge. This will give you a good starting point and allow you to adjust as needed.

You mustn’t undervalue yourself or your expertise. People tend to assign a higher value to things that cost more, so pricing yourself too low could hurt business in the long run.

Here are some average prices that executive coaches typically charge:

  • Group coaching rates: $200-300/hour
  • 1-on-1 coaching sessions: $300-400/session
  • Membership fees: $200-300/month
  • Coaching courses: $1500+

Of course, these prices will vary depending if you’re just starting out or if you have years of experience behind you. Once you’ve picked your price, your next step is determining

You should have a very good understanding of what the path to profitability looks like for your business.

It’s important to sit down and calculate your goals for your business and then calculate the number of clients that you need to achieve your goals, as well as the number of hours that you’ll need to work to reach those goals.

You should have an understanding of the costs associated with your business, such as marketing and advertising, technology, and office space. Also, it’s important to have a plan in place for how you will manage your business, such as setting up systems, processes, and team members.

Start a Website and Get Testimonials

Having an online presence is key for any business, and it’s even more important for executive coaching. Make sure to create a website that showcases your services and your experience.

You can also use your website to collect testimonials from past clients, which will be a great way to show potential clients that you’re a credible and reliable coach. Be sure to ask every client if they are willing to give you a testimonial, as these will go a long way to marketing your business.

Get Referrals From Your Most Successful Clients

Another great way to get more clients for your executive coaching business is to leverage referrals from your most successful clients. Ask your clients for referrals to their network or colleagues, and you may be surprised by the results. You can also use referral programs to reward clients for referring new business to you.

Now that you know how to start an executive coaching business, you can get started right away pursuing your new career. Be sure to follow the steps, build your ideal customer profile based on your strengths, and be clear with your branding. Once that is done, focus your efforts on networking, marketing, and gathering referrals.

After that, the only thing left to do is to find tools that will take your executive coaching business to the next level.

The tool that we recommend is Bonsai.

Bonsai is a must-have for executive coaches. From easy scheduling to intake forms to client CRM, there’s a reason it’s trusted by over 500,000 business owners!

Bonsai is the best full-stack suite of business tools for coaches, consultants, and more. You can start your free trial here today!

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executive coaching business plan

Executive Business Coaching, Explained

  • Carolyn Manion Kinnie
  • January 24, 2022

Table of Contents

Hiring an executive business coach is a great tool that too few leaders take advantage of.

For those on the fence about investing in executive business coaching, we’ve broken it down: what it is, why you need it, and how to choose a coach.

  • Did you get a promotion recently?
  • Start your own business and hire your first employee?
  • Are you tasked with guiding a company or department and feel like your leadership is constantly tested?
  • Do your big dreams feel out of reach lately?
  • Are you stretched thin, stressed, or struggling with being the best that you can be in the workplace?

OK, so you are a unicorn, and your professional journey is totally perfect. But did you know that many of the most successful CEOs recommend coaching for all executives?

That’s right–Steve Jobs worked with multiple coaches over the course of his career. Eric Schmidt’s best advice to any new CEO is to hire a coach. Bill Gates happens to concur.

With recommendations like that, what are you waiting for?

Whether you are an eager entrepreneur or an experienced CEO, executive business coaching will be an incredible asset to your professional career. It will unlock your potential, increase your impact, and help you achieve more than you ever dreamed.

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What is executive business coaching?

I admit it. There are a lot of different coaches out there, many of them competing for the same clients. Getting beyond the fancy words and understanding the real meat and potatoes of what coaches do can be difficult. Unfortunately, executive business coaching is no exception– but we’re here to clear some things up!

Here’s a short, one-sentence explanation. Executive business coaching helps business leaders optimize their impact in the workplace with strategic, tailored guidance in both the personal and professional spheres with long term results.

One common source of confusion is the distinction between a coach and a consultant. In short: a consultant will solve problems for your business. A coach will give you the tools to be a better leader and executive, equipping you to solve problems effectively.

Similarly, while you might confide some of the same things to a coach that you would to a therapist, a coach will focus on empowering you to unleash your potential, rather than giving advice.

How do executive coaches distinguish themselves from plain old business coaches? By focusing on the personal development of an executive in addition to the direction in which they are taking the business. (Of course, many business coaches might also offer more personal mentorship if their client wants it, regardless of their executive specialty!)

When the person in charge gains a new personal, professional, and mental toolkit for success, everyone in the office benefits. As will your business’s bottom line.

What do you gain from executive business coaching?

Now that we’ve established the role of an executive business coach, how does this help you? You’re not Bill Gates (if you are, thank you for reading our blog, we hope you like it!) You don’t necessarily have the networks and funds available to work with a famous coach who churns out multi-millionaire CEOs by the dozen.

However, I encourage you to think about the stressful situations you have doubtless faced in your executive work. Was there one person you could rely on to provide an unbiased perspective to guide you through those difficult moments?

One whose advice you could rely on to help you make the best decision possible for you and your team? Did you feel supported, encouraged, and listened to throughout your professional journey? Do you have a clear idea of where you want to be ten years down the line, and how to achieve that?

A coach will address all of these and more. Ok, so your business prospects aren’t anything close to failure, but why risk falling behind? A good executive business coach will unlock your potential early on and set you light years ahead of the competition.

Statistics show that the vast majority of executives who work with a coach will benefit from the experience. Shockingly, the same stats reveal that very few executives take advantage of this opportunity.

To help you out, we’ve summarized a few of the most obvious benefits below so you can feel confident about your choice to seek executive business coaching.

These are all assets that you might occasionally find in a supervisor or mentor, but that you can trust a coach to provide.

OBJECTIVITY:

Being an executive is tough! You’re caught up in the day-to-day, overwhelmed by demands on your time, and trying to zoom out and look for the long-term success of your business. A coach is a third party who can look at the big picture from a new perspective. Let your coach lift you from the swamp of minutiae that burden your mind, and help you evaluate things with fresh eyes. Decisions will become easier as you recognize strategies or necessary changes you failed to see before!

CONFIDENTIALITY:

If you’d feel embarrassed saying it in front of your boss, say it to your coach! Whether brainstorming, addressing concerns in the workplace, or working through your struggles with coworkers and employees, your executive business coach will keep your sessions confidential. This will you both to be more honest and open–no more wasting time beating around the bush!

PRODUCTIVITY:

By helping you capitalize on your strengths and develop new skill sets, a coach will give you the tools to tackle projects that may have dragged on otherwise. This might involve moderating your inclination to constantly hustle. As a result, you will spend fewer late nights at the office and have more time to focus on you and your goals.

SATISFACTION:

Remember, executive business coaching is about the executive (you!) not just the business. As your coach unlocks the great future you have in store, you will be more satisfied and even joyful at your executive role. The impact on your business and those around you will be immeasurably positive!

GOAL SETTING AND MEETING:

A good coach, unlike many well-intentioned coworkers or supervisors, has your personal welfare in mind above all. Your coach will not default to the plan that best benefits the business, but the plan that best benefits you. If you haven’t had time to focus on dream-building and goal-setting, your coach will integrate that into your routine. Think about the legacy you want to leave–your coach can help make that reality.

How do you find an executive business coach?

Some executives are lucky enough to work for a corporation that hires an executive coach for you. If you have any input in the process (and you should), read on for insight into helping them give you the greatest coaching experience possible. If you’re not in that position, or the in-house coach does not speak to your needs at this time, consider this your guide to hiring a coach on your own.

Spoiler: it’s not easy! Everyone and their mother is becoming a coach these days–and with virtual appointments the norm, it’s easier than ever.

How do you find that needle in the haystack – a coach who will offer you personalized executive business coaching that will help form you into a better leader, decision-maker, and strategic thinker?

There are three absolutely necessary standards to look for during your search for a coach. These will assure you make the best decision for you and the employees you supervise.

CERTIFICATIONS:

Look for a coach who has completed or is in the process of completing a certification program accredited by the ICF. Unless you have a very limited budget, the extra education and credibility provided by a coaching certification is worth the extra money. Certification programs usually have a directory or request form you can fill out that connects you with coaches that fit your needs.

Here are our favorites:

  • The Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership
  • The College of Executive Coaching
  • John Mattone’s Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching Certification (John Mattone coached Steve Jobs!)
  • The Academies Certified Executive & Leadership Development Coach Program (CELDC) (this program is introductory, so if you have a limited budget for a coach, an early- career coach from their network may do the trick!)

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:

There are two kinds of industry experience you might want in an executive business coach. The most obvious: experience in your industry.

What does that look like?

  • A coach who spent years in an executive position similar to you.
  • A coach who started out in a different spot but achieved the same goals you have on your 10-year plan.
  • Someone who has been coaching for years, but all their most successful clients are in your industry.

An executive business coach that fits one or more of these descriptions will likely empathize with your situation and understand the unique challenges you face from a business perspective.

On the other hand, you might want to look for psychology experience and education. Coaching is a popular career choice for trained psychologists, which is great for you! Bad coaches who fail to recognize the roots of behavioral patterns only cause havoc for executives.

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What about testimonials?

A well-established coach will have easily accessible testimonials from previous clients on their website or marketing materials. These are an invaluable source for figuring out if a coach will be a good fit. Put on the sleuth gloves and do some LinkedIn digging for endorsements and recommendations.

Look up the names on their website testimonials to make sure they’re real people–ideally successful people. The best-case scenario? Find a coach who coached someone you know (and respect). If you can see how executive business coaching made them a better leader, achiever, and decision-maker, hire that coach!

With those three standards you are well on your way to finding a great coach. I’ll live you with one final piece of advice as you start the search.

A coach who pushes a specific coaching methodology or framework for success might not be a good fit if that framework doesn’t have flexibility for your specific situation. Tread carefully if your coach only works with one particular method, especially if it doesn’t have an established reputation!

We can’t let you go without talking about the cost.

If your company is not providing your coach, executive business coaching might threaten to take a huge chunk out of your paycheck.

By now you know it’s worth it, but what if you end up with the wrong coach? Most good coaches will offer free introductory sessions to get to know potential clients. Once you have narrowed down your list, take advantage of those sessions to discern if this coach is really the right fit for you.

If there are any red flags–they dismiss your concerns, they try to force you into a box you don’t fit, or you just don’t click– move on.

Some coaches might offer a package price if you commit to a long-term client relationship, which could bring the weekly or monthly cost down! Only commit once you are sure this is the coach you need.

If you’re still on the fence (or if you skipped to the end) here is a summary of the most common FAQs about executive business coaching:

Executive business coaching helps business leaders optimize their impact in the workplace with strategic, tailored guidance in both the personal and professional spheres with long term results.

What is the difference between business coaching and executive coaching ?

Executive coaches focus on the personal development of an executive in addition to strategies to optimize the direction they are taking the business.

How much does executive coaching cost?

Even an early-career executive coach will cost at least $150.00 per hour. If they don’t already, consider asking your boss or board to consider hiring executive coaches for the benefit of the entire company!

How do you become an executive business coach?

To become an executive business coach, do your research to make sure it’s the right field for you, create a coaching business plan , and seek a reputable coaching certification program.

  • Last Updated: February 29, 2024

Carolyn Manion Kinnie

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  • Coaching Solutions

How To Develop A Coaching Plan: 12 Examples and Templates

Coaching Plan

Successful coaching doesn’t happen by accident, and even the best coaching tools can fail to deliver results without a proper game plan.

Creating a coaching plan is a foolproof way to ensure you deliver the right solutions in the most strategic way for your clients, so you can supercharge their chances of success like a pro.

Before you begin, we recommend working along with Quenza’s tools, for just $1 for the first month . Our 1-month trial of Quenza’s toolkit will give you all you need to plan out your coaching strategy easily and efficiently, so that you can help your clients achieve their goals even more effectively.

What To Include In Your Coaching Plan

Coaching plans are strategies for the work that you’ll do with a client throughout the course of your collaboration. They help you ‘blueprint’ your coaching program or package from start to finish, essentially solidifying the ‘how’ and ‘with what’ of your sessions together.

Having a plan allows you to develop a logical path forward for your client. While it may follow an established coaching framework such as GROW or CLEAR, it will inevitably be a customized roadmap that includes your professional tools and which is aligned with your client’s goals.

Coaching plans help you ‘blueprint’ your coaching program or package from start to finish, essentially solidifying the ‘how’ and ‘with what’ of your sessions with clients.

Coaching plans typically cover the logistics of your coaching relationship, such as: [1]

  • Your processes for onboarding or orienting your client, e.g. your initial conversations and coaching agreement
  • How you will help your client set goals or identify their growth/development opportunities
  • The resources and tools you’ll provide them with, e.g. lessons, coaching exercises, and activities
  • Your approaches for measuring progress, e.g. with assessments, surveys, or milestones
  • How you’ll support them along the way, such as with feedback or discussions, and
  • Your plan for keeping them engaged, motivated, and on track.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Coaching Plans For Employees

As a leader or executive, planning helps you ensure your employees get the most from their team coaching or motivational program .

To illustrate, the career experts at Indeed.com suggest that a step-wise coaching plan for employees should include: [2]

  • Establishing their strengths
  • Identifying potential development areas
  • Giving them a chance to self-assess their performance
  • Identifying obstacles that prevent them from improving their performance
  • Offering possible solutions to help them overcome their challenges
  • Helping them set goals
  • Collaborating on an action plan, and
  • Organizing regular follow-up sessions.

Coaching Plans For Teachers

Organizing an online course ? Here are some good examples of coaching plans for teachers that you might find helpful:

  • This example reading coaching plan starts with an identification of areas for improvement and considers some example strategies and evaluation tools
  • The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership discusses four stages of Planning, Contracting, Coaching, and Evaluating in this sample coaching plan for teachers , and
  • More practical examples can be found in this Coaching Manual for Schools by TeacherToolkit.

3 Examples and Samples

Given the growth in popularity of online coaching, it’s now easier than ever to find sample activities for your coaching plans. Quenza’s free Expansion Library includes more than a few examples that are easy to customize for personal sessions or group workshops and programs.

Life Domain Satisfaction

Life coaching clients often begin coaching without a clear idea of their obstacles, and life satisfaction assessments are one of the best ways to help them as a coach.

Coaching Plan Sample Exercise Life Domain Satisfaction

Quenza’s Life Domain Satisfaction exercise invites coachees to explore how they feel about their family relationships, financial circumstances, career, and more so that they can identify focus areas and set coaching goals.

Strength Interview

With the Strength Interview Expansion, coaching clients can explore what brings them energy, and what helps them feel and perform at their best.

There are ten questions they can work through as part of goal-setting, intake, or any stage of your coaching plan, and this versatile tool works wonderfully in career, health, life, business coaching , and more contexts.

Sample questions include:

  • What activities did you like most when you were a child?
  • What are you looking forward to in the future? and
  • What brings positive energy into your life?

Brief Needs Check-In

Quenza’s Brief Needs Check-In is a practical way to help clients create a habit of tuning into their emotional needs.

Brief Needs Check-In Coaching Plan Example

This activity guides clients to develop a habit of exploring their thoughts, feelings, and sensations to identify ways that they can feel fulfilled, satisfied, or happier.

Also available as a guided meditation , the Check-In can easily be adapted for group or individual coaching plans.

How To Develop A Coaching Plan

Every coach’s working style will be unique, meaning that only you know what steps are essential to delivering your very best results for clients.

Once you’ve laid your plan out as key stages, you can then start curating and assembling all the tools, forms, and content you’ll use to bring it to life.

Essentially, developing a coaching plan is about:

  • Establishing your timeline – how many sessions will your work together involve? Over how long?
  • Planning out your approach – Where on this timeline should your key stages take place, ideally? and
  • Putting it all together.

At the end of this, you should have a coaching action plan that takes you from the start to the end of your client journey.

Building Your Action Plan: 5 Tips

Quenza’s tools not only help you build your coaching strategy, but they’re also specially designed to help you put it into practice.

Whether you’d like to develop your very first action plan as an e-coach or digitalize your signature approach, Quenza makes it easy for you to:

  • Map out a Pathway of steps, with your choice of activities, forms, or tools for each
  • Establish a timeline by setting intervals between each step, and
  • Deliver your content to clients securely, so that everything goes according to (the) plan!

If you know what your key steps are and are keen to follow along with your $1 trial, the following tips can help you put it all together:

  • Browse your Expansion library for adaptable coach tools that might suit your client and plan.
  • Digitalize hard-copy exercises and forms from your arsenal using Quenza’s Activity builder
  • Take some inspiration from Quenza’s ready-made Expansion Pathways to decide on intervals, timing, and stages for your plan
  • Feature your logo on your activities using Quenza White Label
  • Design your own assessments and worksheets from scratch using the Wheel of Life tool .

wheel of life Coaching Action Plan

The Best Way To Create A Coaching Plan

There are a plethora of ways to go about planning your coaching approach, from pen and paper outlines to spreadsheets and calendars.

For the best possible results, however, an all-in-one software solution is generally best – one that’s designed not just to help you plan, but which will also augment the impact of your professional skills.

With Quenza, you have a purpose-built toolkit that helps you do precisely that.

9 Templates and Tools Included in Quenza

As you organize your plan using Quenza’s Pathways, we recommend checking out the following tools and templates:

  • Self Contract – You can’t always be around to motivate your clients, but with this clever activity, you can empower them to drive themselves. This tool includes a framework for a self-contract that encourages them to implement a positive change by a certain date, sparking greater accountability in those you coach.
  • A Strengths Versus Weaknesses Approach – Another great exercise for clients who are lacking motivation, this Expansion walks them through what it feels like to take a strengths focus rather than operating from their weaknesses.
  • Implementation Intentions – This ‘If-Then’ planning exercise encourages coachees to overcome obstacles with a contingency plan so that they can bridge the ‘gap’ between intention and action in pursuit of their goals.
  • Consulting the Future Self When Making Choices – Many coachees struggle with decision-making when a conflict arises between their short- and long-term goals. This exercise helps them reduce decision-related regret by shifting their focus to the future, so they can consider all the potential outcomes of a decision they’re currently facing.
  • Urge Surfing – In a similar way to the previous Expansion, Urge Surfing helps clients overcome the temptation to give in to cravings in the present moment. This exercise can acquaint coachees with their urges and teach them to ride them out until they diminish naturally.

If it’s coaching forms you’re looking for, Quenza’s Expansion library is also where you’ll find a helpful:

  • Pre-Coaching Questionnaire
  • Effectiveness of Session Evaluation
  • Coach Evaluation Form , and
  • Session Notes for Clients , among others.

Creating a Coaching Plan with Quenza: An Example

Ready to try creating your coaching plan?

Quenza’s Creating a Positive Body Image Expansion Pathway is a great example of how a completed coaching plan might look and feel, complete with Activities for each step and daily intervals between them:

Quenza Coaching Plan Example Body Image

Use this Expansion Pathway as a guide for how to organize your content and space it out, or adapt it to create a custom plan of your own.

Once you’re ready to curate your own plan, why not try:

  • Starting with intake or informed consent forms
  • Introducing your coaching process with a personalized video in your first Activity
  • Using assessments like the Wheel of Life to get to know your client
  • Creating a journal or planner by replicating steps
  • Collecting feedback from your clients with a Session Rating Scale , or
  • Building motivational incentives into your plan?

Final Thoughts

There are myriad reasons to plan out your approach before diving straight in, and Quenza’s tools make your strategizing easy, efficient, and stress-free.

Using this resource to help you, you can craft truly engaging, personalized solutions in a step-by-step way to deliver the best possible results for your clients. If you’ve got your own tips or suggestions for creating a coaching plan, do join in the conversation below with a comment.

We hope this guide helped you create your coaching plan. Don’t forget to begin your 30-day trial of Quenza to start designing your own coaching solutions for just $1.

Quenza’s tools are professionally developed to help you deliver unique solutions your way, and will help you enhance your positive impact for even better client results.

  • ^ UNT Health Science Center. (2021). Laying the Groundwork for Successful Coaching Efforts. Retrieved from https://www.unthsc.edu/values/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/Your_Guide_for_Developing_Effective_Coaching_Plans_Version_1_0_July_21_2014.pdf
  • ^ Indeed.com. (2021). How To Develop a Coaching Plan for Your Team. Retrieved from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/coaching-plan

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How To Write a Business Plan for a Life Coaching Business + Free Example

Owner of a life coaching business works on writing their business plan.

John Procopio

6 min. read

Updated February 7, 2024

Free Download:  Sample Coaching Business Plan Template

  • Turn your passion for helping others into a thriving life coaching business.

As a life coach, you have the opportunity to empower others and help them achieve their goals. And with an estimated industry value of over $2 billion, the demand for life coaches has never been higher. 

Yes, the dynamic world of coaching presents an array of opportunities to guide clients through personal and professional growth. But just as you are developing plans for your clients you need to do the same for your business.

Crafting a solid business plan for your coaching practice will help you clarify your vision and objectives, account for certifications and training, and explore how you need to perform financially in order to thrive in an increasingly competitive market. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to create a business plan for a life, performance, or executive coaching business. You can even download a free one-page coaching plan template to fill out as you go.

  • What is a life coaching business?

A life coaching business provides professional coaching services to help clients achieve their personal and professional goals. Life coaches work with individuals or groups to provide guidance, support, and accountability. There are many types of life coaching, including:

  • Performance coaching: Enhancing specific skills or talents, such as athletes or musicians.
  • Executive coaching: Developing effective leadership skills for executives and business leaders.
  • Relationship coaching: Improving communication, conflict resolution, and relationship dynamics with partners, family, friends, and colleagues.
  • Career coaching: Advancing careers through skills assessment, resume building, networking, and career planning.
  • Life coaching: Taking a holistic approach to improving various areas of life like health, work-life balance, productivity, and personal fulfillment.
  • Why you should write a business plan for a life or executive coaching business

A solid business plan is crucial for success in your life or executive coaching business. It helps organize your strategies, identify potential obstacles, and invest in certifications and marketing for growth and credibility. By writing a detailed business plan, you can more effectively allocate resources, set achievable goals, and create a roadmap for success.

What’s your biggest business challenge right now?

  • How to write a life coach business plan

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key components of a life coaching business plan to help you lay the foundation for a thriving coaching practice. For a walkthrough of how to write the specific sections of a business plan , check out our full guide and supporting articles.

1. Clearly define your offering

To build a successful life coaching business, you must have a precise understanding of your services and how they stand out from the competition. Determine your areas of expertise—whether career, executive, relationship, life, or wellness coaching—and the specific challenges you can help clients navigate. Becoming properly certified and accredited demonstrates your professional competence to clients.

The two top certifying organizations are the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). The ICF offers ACC, PCC, and MCC credential levels based on your experience. CTI offers a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach credential. Achieving the right credential for your coaching specialty—such as becoming a Certified Career Coach, Certified Professional Career Coach, or earning a Life Coaching Certification—can maximize your credibility.

With a clear service offering tailored to your target market’s needs and the proper certifications, you will gain the credibility and expertise to help many clients achieve meaningful life changes and reach their full potential. Promote your services boldly by focusing on your areas of specialization, ideal clients, and the specific outcomes you provide.

2. Have specific clients in mind

Speaking of your target market , successful businesses have a clear understanding of their ideal customer and cater to their unique needs.

For example, a life coaching business may target mid-career professionals seeking personal growth or corporate executives looking to enhance their leadership skills. Their needs include developing management skills, thinking strategically, and improving communication. However, you can break this down even further and have market segments such as: 

  • Mid-career professionals looking to change jobs or careers. Their needs include identifying strengths and interests, building a strong resume, developing networking skills, and gaining confidence in interviews.
  • Young adults transitioning from college into the working world. Their needs include determining a career path, gaining skills and experience, finding mentors, and learning professionalism.  
  • Entrepreneurs looking to start a new business. Their needs include business planning, productivity, accountability, motivation, and work-life balance.

3. Create a marketing plan

Developing a strategic marketing plan is vital to building brand awareness and attracting clients to your life coaching business. You’ll need a detailed marketing strategy to maintain a consistent brand identity reflecting your unique coaching style and expertise. 

Strategically choose a few marketing channels, like your website, a targeted social media strategy, and possibly speaking engagements to reach your ideal clients. Run a blog, Substack, or podcast providing actionable advice in your areas of coaching. Submit articles to media outlets your target audience follows and build credibility through these expert placements. 

It’s also important to consider paid media as part of your marketing strategy, such as social media advertising and Google Ads. Monitor your return on ad spend (ROAS) and calculate the lifetime value of a lead to accurately measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. 

With a customized brand and strategic marketing focused on your niche audience’s needs, you will hope to gain visibility, credibility, and quality leads to develop a thriving coaching practice. These are just some of the marketing avenues you may consider exploring.

4. Know your numbers

To build a profitable coaching business you need to understand your financials by monitoring both revenue and expenses closely. Charge what you’re worth based on your experience, certifications, and client outcomes. While gaining momentum, generate extra income through related services. Consider charging for initial consultations to add another revenue stream to your business. 

Here are a few other key things to consider when exploring your numbers:

Track key metrics

Review key metrics monthly, like client retention and profitability. Make adjustments to optimize satisfaction and revenue. Budget for short-term loss but aim for profitability within 6-12 months. Think long-term, progress will take time.

Test your pricing strategy

Explore different pricing models to attract clients with varying budgets. Consider offering packages, retainers, group programs, and online courses, as they provide stability for both you and your clients. 

Keep a close eye on expenses

Assess expenses regularly to minimize waste. Expect costs like marketing, office space (if needed), insurance, and certifications. Budget adequately , reducing expenses will boost profit, and review and refine over time.

  • Download your free life coaching business plan template

Now, you’re reading to start creating your business plan. To get started, download our free one-page business plan example for a life-coaching business . For more inspiration, check out our free library of sample plans and templates for service businesses. You can download any of these documents in Word form and get some structure and industry-specific insight for your own plan.

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How to Create a Simple Business Plan for Your Coaching Business

So… you’ve decided to start a coaching business? Or maybe to get more clarity within your current coaching business? Either way… congrats! The brainstorming phase is now over and it’s time to develop a plan of action. That’s right, it’s time to create your business plan!

Now before you freak out, take a deep breath. We are going to make this process as simple as possible for you. Unless you are applying for a loan, you do not need a traditional business plan. Do you know those crazy 300 page documents with all those charts? Yeah… those. We’re not going to make you do that! Together, we are going to create a short, sweet, but powerful mini-coaching business plan.

Inside this blog post you’ll learn:

✔️ Why you need a coaching business plan.

✔️ What to do before you start writing your plan.

✔️ What to include in your coaching business plan.

Why you need a coaching business plan.

A coaching business plan is really about clarity and focus for you, your partners, your investors, and your executive team. This plan will help you build a business that will support you financially, have an impact on those around you, and leave a lasting legacy you can be proud of.

The research you have to conduct to finalize a coaching business plan will help you peer into the future and predict different outcomes. Though it’s certainly not perfect, it helps you map out where you currently are and where you’re headed.

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Specifically, a business plan helps you…

  • Estimate total startup costs
  • Understand your target audience
  • Compete from the start
  • Anticipate challenges

Bottom line? A business plan helps keep you on track. It ensures that you focus your attention on the right things and helps you avoid mistakes that could sink you.

Ready? We’re going to walk you step-by-step through the process of creating a solid business plan.

What you need to know before you start writing a business plan.

At Lovely Impact, we are all about dreaming big. Have you seen our tagline? “Launch your coaching website. IMPACT THE WORLD.”

We truly believe truly in that mission. However, every coaching business has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, many business plans are wildly unrealistic. The initial excitement of starting the business often causes coaches to massively overestimate how successful they’ll be and underestimate the challenges they’ll encounter.

In order to be effective, a coaching business plan needs to be realistic. Before you launch, you want to be relatively confident that you have a good chance of succeeding.

In many ways, a business plan should help you decide whether your coaching niche and business idea will pan out. It’s possible that you may put together your business plan and then realize that the potential outcome isn’t as bright as you initially thought. That’s okay. It forces you to go back to the drawing board.

This is why taking the necessary time to do the market research, analyze your financial needs, and map out your strategy for the future is super important. Don’t look at being realistic as the thing that’s preventing you from dreaming big. View it as building a foundation for a successful, long-lasting business.

What to include in your coaching business plan

We want you to put a lot of thought into each section of your coaching business plan. To help, we’ve not only included a free download in our Free Resource Library , but we’ve also broken each part down for you:

Section 1: Mission Statement: Keep your mission statement concise and specific but make sure anyone reading it will have a full understanding of your business. Your mission statement should include what you do, how you do it, who you do it for, and what value or need you are serving.

Section 2: Executive Summary: In this section, you should describe your business in more detail. What type of business is it? Why did you start this business? What does it mean to you and your customers? What industries do you service?

Section 3: Products and Services: Here you’ll want to list out and describe all of the products and services your business will offer. But we want you to dig a little deeper by including pricing and materials needed to provide them to your customers.

Section 4: Targeted Audience: Now it’s time to describe your ideal customer. Include demographics, influencers, trends, where they are online, and more. Don’t get too obsessed with this. In chapter 3 we’ll be doing a deeper dive on marketing research.

Section 5: Customer Needs: What need is your business fulfilling? Here you’ll need to discuss the pain points and frustrations of your potential customers, and how your business will solve those problems.

Section 6: Customer Acquisition: In this part of the plan, you’ll discuss where your customers are and how you will reach them. Include social media platforms, forums, magazines they read, activities they frequent, etc. Explain how you will use these mediums to promote your business and reach your customers.

Section 7: Competitive Advantage: What makes your business so unique? This is where you explain why you are better than your competition, how your products and services stand out, and what make you different.

Section 8: Owner Passion: Here’s a section that many don’t add to their business plans, but that’s the point of this course right? Describing why you are personally passionate about this business is important to keep you motivated. Be sure also to include your three top qualities that you will put into your business.

Section 9: Finances: Here we go! Don’t panic. For this part, we will keep it very simple. What are your financial goals? How will you fund this business? Finally, what is the cost to start this business?

Section 10: Business Goals: For this part, list what goals you plan to accomplish in 6 months, one year, and five years from now.

Download our free the coaching business plan worksheet

Ready to get started writing your coaching business plan? Head on over to our free resource library and look for the “MINI COACHING BUSINESS PLAN”. This guided workbook goes along with this blog post and was developed to help you create a short, sweet, but powerful mini-coaching business plan.

Sign up here: https://lovelyimpact.com/free-resource-library-for-coaches >>

About The Author

Hey! I’m Tee, a brand and marketing coach and the Co-Founder & CMO at Lovely Impact, a website template shop for coaches. I help coaches grow their coaching businesses digitally. Here on our blog, my content focuses on web design, marketing, business, and social media strategy.

Tee, thank you so much for this article! I’m planning to download the mini coaching business plan because I love how you laid it out here!

Hi Laura! I’m so glad this helped 🙂 The mini coaching business plan is laid out exactly like this, so if the article helped the download will follow the same process.

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How to Start Your Life Coaching Business Plan & Template

Life Coaching Business

Perhaps like many of us, you’re unsure where to start. Maybe you’re disillusioned by the lack of clear, actionable information available and have shelved your plans – for the moment, at least.

But don’t give in. Help is at hand.

This article introduces many of the answers to the question, “How do I start a life coaching business?”

In doing so, we borrow heavily from a book written by one of our founders at PositivePsychology.com, Seph Fontane Pennock, The 7 Pillars of a Profitable Practice . It is a great read and highly recommended; however, this article offers a powerful starting point regardless, with actionable points, a business plan, and a free template.

This Article Contains

How to start your life coaching business, 3 requirements for setting up your practice, crafting your business model plan: a template, how to market and advertise your coaching business, 10 best names for coaching practices, building and promoting an online coaching business.

  • 10+ Software & Forms to Use in Your Practice

A Take-Home Message

Life coaching can have far-reaching and diverse positive impacts on clients’ lives (Clutterbuck et al., 2016).

Many of us have toyed with the idea of starting a life coaching business, helping people change health-related behavior, improve wellness, boost their careers, and strive for personal goals (Karmali et al., 2020; Mann et al., 2022).

You most likely feel you have something to give: highly transferable skills learned from harsh life lessons and/or expertise in psychology, learning, leadership, self-development, and communication.

Or perhaps you are simply great at making people feel so empowered that they stop being “stuck” and take the bold steps to overcome obstacles holding them back.

Whatever your reason and motivation, we will help you get there, and the best place to begin is right here.

Begin at the beginning!

We start by recognizing our barriers.

What’s stopping us? Most likely, it’s our mindset rather than something physical. The following beliefs are potential obstacles, blocking us before we even start:

  • Fear of failure : We are afraid we will not succeed.
  • Not enough time: “I would give it a try, but I simply don’t have enough time.”
  • Self-doubt: Our lack of confidence sabotages our entrepreneurial journey.

It’s not about ignoring the fear or letting it determine how we act; it’s about accepting it as an inherent part of our journey.

Accept fear as part of your journey.

Next, evaluate your existing time commitments. Prioritize your current tasks, dropping some of the nonessentials, and plan to set aside time to start your life coaching business. This is something you’ve dreamed of doing and aligns with your bigger life goals.

There will always be things to do, but by changing your mindset and prioritizing this dream, you will find the time to make it a reality.

Everyone has 24 hours in a day. What will you accomplish with yours?

Finally, recognize your feelings of self-doubt but don’t let them control you. Reflect on some of your past successes and reach out to those closest to you for their support, encouragement, and practical advice.

We’d like to share a great article with you that can help, as it includes tips for increasing your self-confidence. Have a look at What Is Self-Confidence? (+9 Proven Ways to Increase It) .

To build confidence, you have to practice confidence.

If we don’t start, we will never know

Now that we have faced our barriers and established a healthier relationship with them, it’s time to step outside our comfort zone and start the journey.

Who is our dream client?

We can’t be great at everything, so we need to narrow our focus and reach and find an authentic niche.

For example, perhaps you enjoy helping people in the workplace . So, maybe your dream client has worked for several years but now feels stuck in their career. They need help to reevaluate where they are, where they want to go, and how to change their mindset to move toward a more fulfilling career.

Once we’ve defined our ideal client, we can consider each of Seph’s seven pillars for starting and growing a coaching practice sustainably:

  • Pillar #1 – Promise We need to be able to make a pledge to our dream client. The five Ps will help: People : Who are we helping? Place : Where are we helping them? Problem : What are we helping them solve? Product : What will we use to do this? Price : What will we charge to do it?
  • Pillar #2 – Leads We need to attract more of the right sort of clients (ideally, they will contact us). We must think about how our dream client will find us, perhaps via YouTube, a blog post, a personal website, or social media (think LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
  • Pillar #3 – Clients How will we convert leads into clients? It may involve screening out those who are not a good fit for our services (depending on our coaching philosophy ) and following up quickly with compatible ones.
  • Pillar #4 – Traffic Reducing the legwork associated with finding leads is crucial; ultimately, it gives us more time to help others.
  • Pillar #5 – Retention Attracting and converting new leads is vital, yet so is holding on to existing clients. What potential offers can we share with existing clients to maintain (or boost) engagement?
  • Pillar #6 – Products How can we generate more income without spending extra time? It might include offering group coaching sessions or additional training, downloadable PDFs, podcasts, or webinars.
  • Pillar #7 – Team We can’t achieve everything alone. Over time, a successful coaching business may expand and include dedicated staff performing those administrative activities that take our time away from coaching.

Best coaching platform

What is the best platform for a life coaching business?

Traditionally, life coaching was practiced face to face and involved a great deal of manual administration behind the scenes.

Thankfully, new technology and online platforms mean we can perform coaching remotely through video calls and set up meetings, share activities, and exercises, and take notes online (Ribbers & Waringa, 2015; Kanatouri, 2020).

Our very own Quenza has been designed by and for coaches, counselors, and therapists, and that is why we believe it is the best coaching platform out there. It allows life coaches to focus on client needs, goals, and overcoming challenges and is a scalable solution for a growing business.

Do you need a business license?

You do not need specific qualifications to set up as a life coach, but accreditation can boost potential clients’ confidence in your abilities.

However, obtaining a business license is required in some locations to provide life coaching services legally. If you’re unsure whether you need a license, check with your local government agencies or consult a lawyer or accountant familiar with your jurisdiction (Lumia, 2022; Blackbyrn, 2023).

3 Best life coaching certification programs

There are many life coaching courses available. However, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the world’s best-known and respected coaching program certifier.

We list three of our favorite life coaching certification programs, but many others exist.

Spend time researching the one that best matches your coaching plans, availability, and budget.

  • Coaching Out of the Box This fast track to ICF certification can help turn your dream of starting a life coaching business into a reality. It includes group and one-to-one coaching and certification and supports individuals as they obtain documented coaching experience.
  • Barefoot Coaching This ICF and university-accredited coach training offers online coaching expertise to develop the coaching skills required as a life coach, HR professional, or business leader.
  • Life Purpose Institute The institute offers the coaching tools and marketing expertise to build a life coaching practice plus the training hours required to get ICF credentials. The number of students in online courses is limited, and students can learn the skills needed to coach individuals, groups, and workshops.

For further training opportunities, see our articles, 19 Best Coaching Training Institutes and Programs and 8 Best ICF Coaching Certification Programs and Courses .

A life coaching business plan doesn’t need to be complicated and must remain current, capturing the key actions and challenges.

Use the Life Coaching Business Model Plan or one of our templates from our How to Write a Life Coaching Business Plan: 5 Templates article to create an initial plan.

In this example, we target people who feel stuck in their career or their life (or both).

Business identity

What is the business called? “Clarity Life Coaching”

Target client

Our target clients are individuals who feel stuck, lost, or uncertain in their personal or professional lives. We focus on mid-career individuals or those experiencing significant life changes, such as divorce or career transitions.

Client pain points

Our clients struggle with a lack of direction, feel overwhelmed, and lack clarity about their goals and values. They may feel stuck in unfulfilling jobs or relationships and experience high stress or anxiety.

Your solution

Clarity Life Coaching provides personalized coaching services to help individuals clarify their values, goals, and priorities. Our coaching process helps clients identify their strengths and areas for improvement, develop a plan to achieve their goals, and overcome obstacles that may stand in their way. We use various coaching techniques , including goal setting, visualization, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Your competition

Several life coaching businesses in the local area provide similar services, but our unique approach and personalized coaching services set us apart from the competition. We focus on a highly customized coaching experience tailored to each client’s needs.

Revenue streams

Our revenue streams include one-on-one coaching sessions, group coaching sessions, and workshops on topics such as goal setting and stress management.

Marketing activities

We use online advertising, social media marketing, and partnerships with local businesses and community organizations. We will also attend local events and conferences to promote our services and network with potential clients.

Existing and future expenses include rent for our coaching space, coaching materials, advertising and marketing costs, and attending events and conferences.

Team and their key roles

The team will consist of one life coach responsible for providing coaching services, managing client relationships, and handling administrative tasks such as scheduling and billing.

Initial thoughts on milestones include:

  • Launching the business and securing our first clients within the first three months
  • Expanding our client base by 25% within the first year
  • Increasing revenue by 35% within the first year
  • Hosting a successful workshop or seminar within the first six months of operation

Help mid-career individuals gain clarity and direction and achieve their personal and professional goals.

Your plan will evolve and should be revisited regularly to grow and manage your life coaching practice.

Marketing your business

For many of us, marketing and advertising can fill us with fear – an unknown and confusing process.

So here are a few valuable pointers drawn from Seph’s The 7 Pillars of a Profitable Practice and Steve Chandler’s book How to Get Clients: New Pathways to Coaching Prosperity .

Your coaching website should be like a funnel

  • When your visitor arrives on your website, they should:
  • Know which problem you can help them solve or which goal you can help them achieve.
  • Find clear evidence of your successful track record.
  • Be confident in your abilities and experience.
  • Be provided with some upfront value (perhaps a free e-book).
  • Do not overcomplicate the website. Consider removing unnecessary content. The goal is for traffic to arrive as visitors and leave as leads (or sales).
  • Make use of a call-to-action, either:
  • Offer a giveaway in exchange for their name and email.
  • Allow them to sign up for their first (complimentary) coaching session.

Productive conversations

Productive conversations and creating relationships lead to new clients.

  • Make sure that you follow up on discussions promptly.
  • After an initial chat, ask the potential client to complete a prequalification survey.
  • Don’t leave them wondering. Tell them when they will receive a follow-up email.
  • Don’t be needy (even if you would like their business).
  • Be aware that the client will remember how you made them feel rather than precisely what you said.
  • Talk less about yourself and your coaching and listen more to their problems.

Online writing

Writing for a personal blog or elsewhere can increase your reach, get you in front of clients, and help others take you seriously. But remember:

  • Aim for quality over quantity – you are targeting the right kind of traffic.
  • Change your mindset from “How do I find more clients?” to “How do my dream clients find me?”
  • Know what people are looking for and create resources on that topic.
  • Earned reach is the organic attention that you receive. Perhaps you got a mention in a podcast or on a news website. Paid reach has a cost, such as Facebook and Instagram ads or using the Google Ads Platform. Consider both.
  • If you post on your website, consider your owned reach. You should appear in the search results, so get to know which keywords people are searching for when they look for help.

In The 7 Pillars of a Profitable Practice , Seph covers in more detail how to rank for keywords and create a content marketing plan that includes platforms with active audiences, such as:

  • The Huffington Post
  • Entrepreneur

Ultimately, your goal is for people with problems to find you so that you can help meet their needs.

Finding the right name for your coaching business is not easy. Too obvious, and it is either likely to be already taken or so bland that it will not be memorable.

One approach involves using AI to create life coaching business names . Use it or your own research to consider and evolve potential names, thinking about:

  • The customers’ first impression
  • The identity and brand of your business
  • The type of customer you wish to attract
  • How memorable the name is (and for the right reasons)
  • Whether the name is already being used

Here are 10 names to start you off:

  • Coaching for Success
  • The Successful Living Academy
  • Evolve Coaching
  • Courage Coaching
  • The Breakthrough Coach
  • The Change Academy
  • Coaching for Vitality
  • Abundant Life Coaching
  • Positive Change Coaching
  • The Courage Academy

Building a life coaching busines

The following articles offer more suggestions regarding how to build and promote an online coaching business.

  • How to Get Clients for Life Coaching [5 Strategies] provides more information and guidance on nailing your business’s value proposition, marketing funnel, and online and offline strategies.
  • How to Start an Online Coaching Business: Step-by-Step Plan is a practical guide for building a successful and profitable business.
  • How to Start a Life Coaching Business From Scratch explores what you will need and your first moves to becoming an online coach.

10+ Software & Forms to Use in Your Practice

There are several online platforms for coaching, many of which are introduced in the article 12 Best Online Coaching Platforms & Tools .

PositivePsychology.com’s dedicated coaching software Quenza is compelling and unique because it:

  • Is extraordinarily user friendly and intuitive
  • Uses the latest SSL encryption to store client results to ensure HIPAA and GDPR compliance
  • Is highly scalable, growing with your business
  • Stores forms as customizable templates
  • Securely delivers exercises and forms to clients
  • Enables form completion on mobile, tablet, or desktop
  • Nudges clients when they need a reminder to do something

In How to Send & Build Counseling Client Intake Forms Digitally , we explore how to create and share online forms using the Quenza platform.

Next, our two articles, Coaching Forms Toolbox: 17 Templates for Your Sessions and How to Create Feedback Forms: 3 Templates + Best Online Tool , explain how forms can be created from scratch, copied, or modified within the tool.

We suggest using the following forms:

  • Pre-coaching questionnaire
  • A self-contract to encourage client accountability
  • Life domain satisfaction questionnaire
  • Strength interview form
  • Session rating scale
  • Coach evaluation form
  • End of therapy evaluation

Many other templates exist, including ones for visualization, mindfulness, goal setting, and benefit finding.

Fear, time constraints, and self-doubt can hold us back from starting a life coaching business. Learning to accept our barriers and shift our focus from ourselves to our clients can dramatically improve our chances of success.

Learning from the experiences of successful business owners like Seph Fontane Pennock can provide valuable insights and help us create a profitable and impactful practice.

You most likely feel like you have something to give to your dream clients. You wish to create an opportunity for positive change in their lives while delivering on a personal vision for a life coaching practice.

Creating a clear and achievable business plan can be simple and will help you find your ideal clients and offer them a path to setting and striving toward their goals.

Having read this article and been inspired to start your life coaching business, why not look at The 7 Pillars of a Profitable Practice and use the many lessons Seph learned along his journey to inform your business plans and give your clients their best chance of success?

  • Blackbyrn, S. (2023, February 17). Does a life coach need a business license? Coach Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://coachfoundation.com/blog/life-coach-business-license/.
  • Clutterbuck, D., David, S. A., & Megginson, D. (Eds.). (2016). Beyond goals: Effective strategies for coaching and mentoring.  Routledge.
  • Lumia. (2022, August 4). Does a life coach need a business license and insurance? Lumia. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://www.lumiacoaching.com/blog/does-a-life-coach-need-a-business-license.
  • Kanatouri, S. (2020). The digital coach . Routledge.
  • Karmali, S., Battram, D. S., Burke, S. M., Cramp, A., Mantler, T., Morrow, D., Ng, V., Pearson, E. S., Petrella, R., Tucker, P., & Irwin, J. D. (2020). Clients’ and coaches’ perspectives of a life coaching intervention for parents with overweight/obesity. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring , 18 (2), 115–132.
  • Mann, A., Leigh Fainstad, T., Shah, P., Dieujuste, N., & Jones, C. D. (2022). “It’s nice to know I’m not alone”: The impact of an online life coaching program on wellness in graduate medical education: A qualitative analysis. A cademic Medicine , 97 (11S), S166–S166.
  • Ribbers, A., & Waringa, A. (2015). E-coaching: Theory and practice for a new online approach to coaching . Routledge.

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What is executive coaching: benefits for the 2024 workforce

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Understand Yourself Better:

Big 5 Personality Test

Find my Coach

Many think that executive coaching is for the exclusive realm of the C-Suite. And at one point, it was. But professional coaching is now more accessible than ever — and no matter your position on the organization chart , you have the capacity for growth and leadership development . 

If you feel stuck or behind in your professional journey, there’s a way out. Working with an executive coach can generate the self-awareness you need to unlock your potential and advance your career.

What is executive coaching?

Executive coaching is a professional development strategy that involves a coach working with an executive (or any other high-potential employee ) to unlock their potential, enhance their performance, and achieve their goals. The primary aim of executive coaching is to improve leadership and management performance, often by developing the individual's self-awareness, emotional intelligence , and capacity to influence others.

Coaching relationships have a similar dynamic, no matter the niche. A coach’s role is to inspire and support their client as they work toward their full potential — and beyond. With their help, you learn to see yourself more clearly — and with compassion — and discover the extent of your capabilities.

What is an executive coach?

An executive coach specializes in supporting clients as they develop the leadership and high-level skills necessary to succeed as business leaders. Their clients are often highly motivated and achievement-orientated professionals looking for an edge to take their careers to the next level. 

The practice is action-based, meaning the coach focuses both on altering a client’s thinking and encouraging tangible work and progress. Working with individuals or groups, the coach aims to nurture intelligent, capable, and ambitious employees ready to take their place as leaders in the business world.

But you don’t have to be destined for the boardroom to benefit from executive coaching. A good coach meets you where you are and tailors their practice to fit your needs and goals. As you two work together to generate a development plan, your coach can offer a fresh perspective on your abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. 

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12 types of executive coaching

Before jumping into your search for an executive coach, here’s an introduction to the different types. Take a look at this list and see which best aligns with your unique needs and aspirations.

  • Performance coaching : A performance coach provides strategies and tactics to help employees execute their tasks more effectively. They focus on elevating clients' skills and techniques so they’re more effective at what they do.
  • Developmental coaching : This one's for the personal growth enthusiasts. It's about expanding your capacity to juggle roles, navigate complexity, and conquer challenges.
  • Skills coaching : Got a skill you want to polish? That's where Skills Coaching comes in. Be it public speaking , time management, conflict resolution, or any other professional skill , this type of coaching has got you covered.
  • Career coaching : If you're contemplating a career transition or aiming higher on the ladder, Career Coaching can guide you through your career goals, options, and paths.
  • Onboarding coaching : New to an organization or role? Onboarding Coaching will help you blend into the company culture, understand your duties, and hit the ground running.
  • Transformational coaching : This digs a little deeper, focusing on changing underlying beliefs and attitudes that shape behavior. Get ready for profound shifts in your perception, thinking, and actions.
  • Team coaching : This isn't a solo journey. Team Coaching involves guiding an executive and their team towards improved teamwork, communication, and performance.
  • Strategic coaching : For those with an eye on the horizon, Strategic Coaching assists in devising and executing strategic plans, setting long-term goals, and determining the steps to achieve them.
  • Organizational or business coaching : Using coaching skills, business and organizational coaches support companies by assisting them in identifying organizational goals and building a plan to achieve these targets. They usually work holistically, improving productivity and performance across the entire operation.
  • Management coaching : Newcomers to management often need to build a new skill set. That’s where a management coach comes in: they train leaders-to-be in planning, organization, and implementation skills while enhancing their resource and people management competencies.   
  • Executive team coaching : Teamwork is often challenging. Executive team coaching takes a bilateral approach to support working groups by improving communication and collaboration to boost overall performance. Leaders learn to manage their teams effectively while team members become more productive. The process involves coaching, teaching, facilitation, mediation, and positive psychology.
  • Executive leadership coaching : A leadership coach works with promising employees to develop the necessary skills to make better decisions and become the company's next generation of executives. 

Executive leadership coaching is characterized by seven benefit-generating attributes:

  • Acquiring and offering feedback
  • Recognizing development opportunities
  • Developing awareness
  • Generating solutions by asking the right questions
  • Encouraging lifelong learning
  • Offering long-term support
  • Establishing a system of accountability and monitoring progress

Remember, each form of coaching serves a distinct purpose and addresses varying needs. As an executive, you may find yourself engaging in multiple types of coaching throughout your career, depending on your evolving ambitions and hurdles. The choice ultimately depends on your unique situation, the challenges at hand, and the goals you're striving for.

Two-Elegant-women-working-on-project

Why executive coaching works

A recent study found that 77% of executives who worked with a coach found improvements to at least 1 of 9 business measures, with overall productivity and employee satisfaction receiving the largest increase. Researchers concluded that executive coaching produced a 788% return on investment.

As impressive as these results are from a business standpoint, executive coaching is even more impactful for the individual. Here’s how executive coaching benefits you on a personal level: 

Achieve your goals faster

Your coach helps you identify your dreams and ambitions. You work together to set SMART goals with achievable milestones and concrete deadlines — all transferable skills. Then they keep tabs on your progress so you meet targets according to your timeline. 

Stay accountable 

Work doesn’t end at the close of a session. You should receive assignments to finish independently and within a specific timeframe. You can’t put them off — you’ll discuss the results during your next meeting. These time management skills developed with your coach lend themselves well to your professional life. 

Gain an open-minded perspective

Coaches shed light on new possibilities. They show you how to look at challenges from different perspectives, apply your skills in new ways, and shed limiting beliefs . This knowledge infuses your work with empathy and encourages you to be a better listener.

Make better decisions

Difficult choices are often stressful. Working with a coach pushes you to ask better questions and evaluate options from different viewpoints to identify the best solution. And when you’re stuck, your coach can be a valuable sounding board to help you sort through the possibilities and find your way.

Stay motivated and focused on your goal

When you’re busy with day-to-day challenges at work, it’s hard to focus on yourself. A coach can step in and redirect your attention back to your goals and provide the encouragement necessary to stay on target.

Feel appreciated

When someone invests in developing your potential, you can’t help but feel valued. A coach not only lends a supporting hand, but enables self-improvement and career growth that encourages you to appreciate your worth.

Woman-writing-feedback-in-her-notebook-at-office

What to look for in an executive coach

Coaching is an unregulated industry. Not every coach completes a certification course or development program. If you’ve decided to pursue coaching, research potential candidates and evaluate their experience, credentials, and outcomes before you commit.

Remember: choosing a coach is a big decision. You owe it to yourself to take the time necessary to ensure you’re comfortable and that your choice can help you achieve your desired success. Here are a few things to look for:

Leadership and corporate experience

While you don’t have to be a CEO of a multi-national company to train other executives, familiarity with the necessary leadership skills is a must. 

Your coach is there to guide you through your professional growth journey with advice and insights. Experience as a leader in your field empowers them to offer relevant perspectives and solutions.

Proper credentials

While professional coaching certification isn’t required to become an executive coach, it offers clients security and peace of mind to know they’re in qualified hands. 

According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), there are three levels of certificate programs. Each level requires the candidate to demonstrate a thorough understanding of coaching principles, complete hands-on training, and exhibit dedication to upholding the profession's ethical guidelines:

  • Associate certified coach (ACC) candidates must complete 60 hours of in-class training and 100 hours of client coaching experience.
  • Professional certified coach (PCC) consists of 125 hours of coach-specific training and 500 hours of client coaching experience.
  • Master certified coach (MCC) requires PCC certification, 200 hours of in-class training, and 2,500 hours of client coaching experience.

Without professional oversight, anyone can still call themselves a coach. Always double-check that your top choice is accredited to ensure you receive the safe, effective guidance you need.

Style and values 

Finding the right coach is a personal process and requires some self-reflection. What kind of coach do you want to work with? Are you more comfortable with a straightforward, practical style of guidance? Or do you prefer a gentle-natured, diplomatic delivery? These are important considerations, but keep in mind that no coaching style is inherently better than another. You need to choose the coach that works for you and your unique needs. 

The only hard-and-fast rule is you don’t want to compromise on listening skills. Your coach needs to listen — really listen — to what you’re saying in order to be an effective guide.

Experience and background 

Has your coach worked in your industry? Depending on your field, this may be an essential factor. On the other hand, it may be refreshing to work with someone outside of your niche who can provide new perspectives an insider can’t. 

Also consider a coach’s reputation. Do they have glowing testimonials from their prior clients? Can they present case studies showing how they’ve helped others transition into a leadership role? Are they the right person to help you achieve the same success?

Take the next step in finding your executive coach

If you’re ready to take the next step to become a great leader but aren’t sure what it should be, executive coaching is for you. 

Working with a coach who can help fuel your career transformation isn’t just an investment in your future. It’s a commitment to grow, develop, and strive to be your best self. And you deserve that.

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Elizabeth Perry

Content Marketing Manager, ACC

How a nutrition coach can cook a recipe for success

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Coaching Business Plan

Quick and Easy Business Plan For Life, Executive, Health, and Business Coaches

How to Create an Executive Coaching Business Plan

There are several steps that you need to take in order to create a good executive coaching business plan . Following these basic steps will make certain that your executive coaching business gets off to a good start.

How to Create an Executive Coaching Business Plan

The First Step in Creating an Executive Coaching Business Plan is to Know Your Niche

One of the largest industries today for starting a coaching business is the executive coaching industry. In fact, there is a huge and growing market for executive coaching as business leaders and executives need constant coaching so they can refine their skills, excel at work, and contribute to the growth of their companies. The first step in creating an executive coaching business plan is to decide which niche of the market you feel most comfortable with. If you are comfortable with offering your products or services in that niche, you are going to have a larger chance of success. When creating executive coaching business plans , coaches need to ask themselves a few questions: What will be the name of my new business? What will be my company’s motto? What are the goals of my business? What are the credentials of my management team? What are my products or services? Who is my target market and how do I plan to market my business? How large will the business be? What expenses will I occur when running the business? Where will I obtain my products or equipment for my coaching services? 

Plan Your Finances 

Once you’ve selected the niche and answered the questions, it is important to know how you’re going to fund your business by organizing your finances. You need to sit down and write a realistic budget that you can follow for your new coaching business. Think about all the possible different expenses that you will have daily, weekly, and monthly. If an expense such as a professional coaching membership is annual, then divide it by 12 and add it to your monthly expenses. Having a working budget is important to starting a coaching business because it allows you to see on paper if your goals and the expenses are realistic before you ever sink a penny into your business.

Apart from having financial plans and projections, you will also need to determine if you need to talk to a financial source such as a bank to obtain the necessary starting funds to create your new business.

Licenses and Permits

Finally, you’ll also need to list down any licenses or permits that are required for the new company in your particular area. After you’ve obtained the business licenses or permits, go ahead and list your company with the Better Business Bureau of your area as well. This will help your credibility in marketing both online and offline.

Once you’ve completed your business plan and your business is running, you should have a calendar that is just for business-related activities, deadlines and goals. Each day make a comprehensive to-do list. Prioritize the tasks on it. Also, make a list of deadlines and goals for each week. Keeping a list of deadlines and goals will help you to achieve your business goals and not miss anything important to have to rush later on. Following these business planning tips will help you be successful with your new executive coaching business.

To learn more about how to generate an endless wave of high paying coaching clients, get your 

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More From Forbes

How to use executive coaching to its maximum potential.

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Founder & Managing Director of  BSG  & Talent Sequencing, pioneering an engineered approach to talent acquisition, management and optimization

If the term “executive coach” immediately causes you to think of “fixing a problem,” I’ve got news for you: Today is the day your view is going to change. Why? Because its time that executive coaches move out of the remedial perspective and into the spotlight, alongside key specializations and professional coaches, as the true agents of change and performance that they are.

Taking from my experience working in the executive coaching and recruiting space, let’s explore how you can put an executive coach to work for your team. 

Taking A Proactive Approach To Executive Coaching

In my opinion, executive coaching is a key ingredient to creating top-performing executive teams and individual professionals. To maximize your executive coaching, business leaders need to take a proactive approach — moving away from remedial or punitive approaches to a framework of optimizing your human talent and quality of executives. 

Executive coaching, as an essential part of your approach to development and management, can help your employees to be happier and more engaged at work — and ultimately, better functioning individual contributors, managers and teams. By learning how to take a proactive approach to talent management, you can help ensure your company has the best people in place for success. 

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Where Executive Coaching Can Make A Difference   

If you’re not sure whether this applies to your teams, here are some recent examples of engagements where forward-thinking companies have leveraged coaching to improve everything from their organizational structures and teams to their hiring practices:

• Organizational Design: Executive coaching can help to determine the best structure between product, marketing and engineering, for example. By learning how to align these departments in the most functional and effective manner, you can reduce friction points and prioritize interconnectivity and productivity. Coaching these teams to successful outcomes directly informs the overall performance of the company on the balance sheet and beyond.

• Executive Development: Providing executive coaching to your high potential technology executives can support their leadership, management and communication skills and drive improved organizational impact. If you have a top individual contributor who is poised to move into a higher-level role, it’s important to consider the additional skills required. Approaching this with a proactive view will position these transitions for success.

• Improving Leadership Team Alignment:  One of the key areas where teams get stuck is in aligning executives who have different spheres of influence and/or key performance indicator (KPI) scorecards. This natural misalignment can be alleviated by utilizing psychometric assessments and educating the leadership team on how to best communicate and engage based on their psychometric profiles. By engaging these types of communication and understanding, you can specifically target alignment and make the team that much stronger.

• A High-Performance Hiring Model: An executive coach can help you to develop a high-performance hiring model to identify key success ingredients possessed by the most successful existing sales team members and create an assessment tool to drive team expansion. With this model, you can better identify the best potential performers and create hiring metrics around them to propel strategic team growth.

Before Hiring An Executive Coach

There are a few factors you should take into consideration before committing to a coach.

• Coach Type: First, you’re looking for a business coach, not a life coach. And it's critically important you don’t confuse the two. Also, be clear on whether you’re looking for an individual coach or a team coach, as not all coaches are the right fit for both.

• Educational Background: This can vary widely, but many coaches may have a doctorate degree or even a background in clinical psychology. Depending on your needs, these credentials may offer additional support in many coaching contexts.

• Certifications: Certifications can run the gamut, but traditional certifications have Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) accreditation and include Coaches Training Institute (CTI), International Coaching Federation (ICF) and others.

• Location And Proximity: The pandemic taught us many things can be done successfully via remote methods, but that doesn’t mean it has to be that way. Consider whether in-person sessions are important to your success when you review your options.

• Assessment And Tools: A coach doesn’t work in a vacuum. They should leverage a host of tools and assessment mechanics to support their work. Compare the tools of choice for the coaches you’re considering when making your decision.

• Duration: Setting expectations is going to be a big part of your plan. Understand the expected timeline for coaching and results to make sure you’re on the same page before you decide.

The executive coaching process with a leadership team often begins by identifying shared goals and aspirations to determine a common pathway. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data and analysis plays a strategic role in the development of coaching initiatives. Engaging in an ongoing dialogue can guide transitions essential to performance. Your executive coach may leverage psychometric assessments and other strategies to learn about how people think and perceive their roles and companies. Coaches can then pinpoint key areas for opportunity, improvement and engagement that ultimately drive efficiencies and profitability. 

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executive coaching business plan

For Professionals who Aspire to Be in the top 5% of executive-level and leadership coaches worldwide

About the program.

Unlike other coach training programs that are academic, theoretical, or just plain vacuous, our program emphasizes practical, measurable results for executives, managers, and other leaders. Graduates of our program report that they feel confident and competent as coaches, because they have the knowledge needed to really engage leaders and help them improve performance. At the same time, we are a boutique program committed to providing highly personalized, ongoing one-on-one support to participants.

Scroll down this page to review our curriculum, unique advantages, a comparison of your options, and a video tour of your member area.

executive coaching business plan

here is the center for executive coaching certified executive coach curriculum

Executive coaching foundations

  • Coaching defined
  • Why executives hire coaches, and what they expect
  • The orientations of the executive coach
  • ICF Code of Ethics and Core Competencies

The executive coaching process

  • The internal talking shop” coaching process
  • Your 3 or 4 part proprietary process & methodology
  • The coaching plan
  • The coaching contract
  • Defining results and clear expectations for a return on investment up front
  • Getting all stakeholders in the coaching process on the same page up front
  • (Special session for internal coaches): Setting up an effective internal coaching group

The key coaching conversations to get results with clients

Assessing the client and situation

  • 360-degree verbal assessment
  • Off-the-shelf assessments
  • The leader’s dashboard
  • Six other methods to assess the client

Coaching situations for individual effectiveness

  • Coach to change or develop a new behavior
  • Coach to shift a limiting perception
  • Communicate simply and powerfully
  • Influence others
  • Manage time and handle overwhelm
  • Think comprehensively about an issue
  • Develop leadership presence
  • Coaching when personal issues overlap with work

Coaching situations for strong professional relationships

  • Improve one’s powerbase of professional relationships
  • Engage and mobilize employees
  • Resolve a conflict
  • Foster collaboration inside and outside the organization
  • Build a great team

Coaching to support organizational initiatives

  • Plan strategy
  • Lead change
  • Plan for succession
  • Service excellence
  • Create a high-performance culture
  • Board development and effectiveness
  • Why can’t we execute effectively?

Career coaching

Coaching methods for coaching owners of the small-to mid-sized, growing business

here is what sets the center for executive coaching apart....

What your receive – program comparisons.

Our Core Program Distance/ Online Certification

Intensive Seminar (includes Core Program)

ICF Training for ICF Designation (includes Core Program)*

ICF Training for ICF Designation PLUS Seminar (includes Core Program)

Certified Executive Coach Certification

ICF Training for ICF Designation (includes Core Program)

  • Career Coaching Methodology & Certification at no additional cost

Business Coaching Methodology & Certification at no additional cost

30 proven, practical, results-focused leadership and executive coaching toolkits and solutions, 423-page proprietary textbook the way to coach leaders, executives, and managers, access to hours of weekly, highly interactive webinars. we teach in mini-modules so you choose when to attend., massive member area with 90 hours of recorded webinars, all toolkits, reading list, quick coaching reference guide, and business development guides and tools.

  • PowerPoint deck of leadership development solutions for training leaders and facilitating group challenges (over 400 slides!)

License to use and adapt our content

Training hours accredited with the international coaching federation, board certified coach training (for those with a masters degree). learn more..

  • Over 20 hours of Business Development webinars, including how to launch your practice, attract clients, pricing, conversations to close engagements, create online programs, market the most effective ways.

Business development guides including sample proposal templates, how to choose a niche, how to write compelling marketing copy

One-on-one personalized support for coaching challenges and business development guidance, for internal coaches: support and guidance to position internal coaching to be successful in your organization, members-only linkedin group to network and form alliances, we help you match with other coaches so that you can practice coaching and accumulate experience hours, optional specialty certification: create your own certification title and complete a research project to earn it (e.g., technology leadership coach, non-profit leadership coach, diversity & inclusion coach, team effectiveness coach), 3-day intensive seminar to accelerate your progress, full icf level 1 and level 2 training including 10 hours of icf mentor coaching for your icf designation.

  • Ability to apply to the ICF via their easiest, fastest pathway - no recordings need to be sent for review to the ICF

Time to Get Certified

Up front cost, monthly cost via 10 convenient installments, register here, * we also now offer the icf program with a certificate program through st. joseph's university. click here for more information., what you receive and your program options.

With the Center for Executive Coaching’s executive coaching certification, you have four options from which to choose. Every option includes our Distance Learning/Core Program option, described first. Join this program if you are not sure where to begin.

You can always add the other options later on by paying the difference in cost. We do it this way because some participants know they want an ICF designation and some are not sure. Similarly, some know they learn best in an intensive seminar format or want to accelerate their training while others do not.

Option One: Distance Learning/Core Program

If in doubt, choose this program. The only two things that are not included are the required International Coaching Federation Mentor Coaching and our intensive seminar. You can add one or both of these at anytime. If you already know that you want one or both of these options, you can add them now with the other options below.

Start time: Start anytime. When you join, you get an orientation to the foundations of coaching so that you can jump right in. All of our classes stand on their own and give you opportunities to learn how to coach, no matter where you begin.

Duration: 2-4 months. Complete this program by submitting recordings of your coaching (we match you up with fellow members to make it easy) that we review with you.

  • Certification as a Certified Executive Coach.
  • Access to hours of weekly, live, and highly interactive webinar classes. We teach in mini-modules so you choose when to attend. Click here to see our schedule. When you join, you receive a detailed curriculum.
  • An entire suite of proven, practical, results-focused leadership and executive coaching toolkits and solutions (over 1,000 pages in Word and PDF format)
  • 423-page proprietary textbook The Way to Coach Leaders, Executives, and Managers
  • The acclaimed Quick Coaching Reference Guide, which offers one-page summaries of the top coaching methods and approaches to top leadership challenges.
  • Extensive member area with over 90 hours of recorded webinars, all toolkits, and reading list.
  • Community: You will meet amazing fellow members from around the world and we provide ways for you to connect according to your interests and geography.
  • Everything you do in this program counts toward an International Coaching Federation ACC and/or PCC designation. In fact, you get ALL of the hours you need excepting mentor coaching, which you can add later or by joining the ICF Training program described below.
  • We help you match with other coaches so that you can practice coaching and accumulate experience hours.
  • Business Coaching Methodology & Certification at no additional cost.
  • Our training is approved for you to apply for the Board Certified Coach (for this certification, offered through a third-party certification body, a Masters Degree is required. However, this is NOT a requirement to join our program!).
  • Our Business Development Guide, which includes sample proposal templates, how to position yourself as a coach, how to write compelling marketing copy, pricing, and how to win engagements.
  • One-on-one personalized support for coaching challenges and business development guidance. Reach out anytime for support.
  • License to use and adapt our content.
  • For internal coaches: Support and guidance to position internal coaching to be successful in your organization.
  • Membership in our private LinkedIn Group to network and form alliances.
  • Optional Specialty Certification: Create your own certification title and complete a research project to earn it (e.g., Technology Leadership Coach, Non-Profit Leadership Coach, Diversity & Inclusion Coach, Team Effectiveness Coach)

Investment: $4,900 or 10 monthly installments of $500.

For even more information click here or register directly here .

Option Two: FULL International Coaching Federation (ICF) Training

If you already know you want an ICF designation, then this is the program for you. You receive everything described above with the Distance Learning/Core Program PLUS the required ICF Mentor Coaching. The training we provide allows you to get all of the training hours you need to apply to the ICF for their ACC and/or PCC designation. You can start with the ACC and upgrade to the PCC later, or apply directly for the PCC. Please check the International Coaching Federation website to understand their requirements, but take comfort in knowing that when you join us there are no additional fees other than applying to the ICF and we give you the easiest path to apply to the ICF. (Other programs will require you to go through a lengthy performance evaluation with the ICF; not with us!).

Start time: Start anytime. When you join, you get an orientation to the foundations of coaching so that you can jump right in. All of our classes stand on their own and give you opportunities to learn how to coach, no matter where you begin. 

Duration: 5-6 months. This is due to ICF rules.

  • Entire Distance Learning/Core Program described above including Certified Executive Coach certification
  • Full ICF Level 1 AND Level 2 Training. Learn via our live, highly-interactive weekly classes. Click here for a class schedule.
  • The required 10 hours of ICF Mentor Coaching for your ICF designation. This takes place over 3 months, and starts about 2 months after you join our program. It entails four 90-minute classes with a cohort of 10, and a series of observed sessions with our mentor coaching staff.
  • We match you up with fellow members to get the required coaching experience hours so that you don’t have to worry about having an existing coaching practice. (The ICF allows barter coaching with another coach to count as paid experience hours!).

Investment: $7,350 or 10 monthly installments of $750. Remember that this program includes the full Distance Learning/Core Program and everything included with that.

For even more information click here or register directly here.

Note: If you want a university certificate along with your ICF training and don’t mind paying a little bit more, we also now offer ICF Training WITH A CERTIFICATE PROGRAM THROUGH SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY. Click here for more information. 

Option Three: Intensive Executive Coaching Certification Seminar

Participants rave about our intensive seminars. They take place via Zoom, move at a fast and engaging pace, and give you plenty of opportunities to become competent and confident as an executive coach. Our seminars have become known as game changers for careers and coaching capabilities.

They also include EVERYTHING described in our Distance Learning/Core Program so that you can take advantage of ongoing learning and reinforcement, or to achieve additional ICF training hours if an ICF designation is your goal.

The seminar is completely optional and adds $2,500 to the Distance Learning/Core program. Participants report that it is among their most valuable and enjoyable professional development trainings they have ever experienced.

Dates: We offer our seminars every 2-3 months. Click here to see upcoming dates, and email us anytime for future dates if you can’t attend the dates listed.

Duration: We now have a 3-day weekday format and a 2-day weekend format. You choose which works best for you! You still get the full support and ongoing learning opportunities from our distance learning program.

Agenda: Click here to see the high-level agenda for the 3-day seminar format. We now also offer a weekend seminar for those who can’t attend during weekdays. Click here to see the agenda for that version.

  • Certified Executive Coach certification achieved immediately on completing the seminar.
  • Entire Distance Learning/Core Program described above
  • The seminar provides the live hours you need to qualify for the ICF, excepting ICF mentor coaching (which you can add now via your shopping cart or later if you are not sure you want the ICF designation; we discuss the pros and cons aof the ICF during a seminar session).
  • You will meet amazing people and form ongoing professional relationships with them.

Investment: $7,350 or 10 monthly installments of $750. Remember that the seminar option includes the complete Distance Learning/Core Program and everything that comes with that.

For even more information click here or register directly here 

Option Four: All of the Above…Intensive Virtual Seminar plus full ICF Training

This is your fastest, most comprehensive path for the ICF training plus our acclaimed seminar. It includes everything described above: The Distance Learning/Core Training, ICF Mentor Coaching and full ICF training for your ACC and/or PCC, and our 3-day intensive certification seminar.

Investment: $9,800 or 10 monthly installments of $1,000.

How it Works Step-by-Step

This program is for you if you want our methodologies, ongoing guidance, best-practice content, Certified Executive Coach designation, and you learn well in a distance learning environment. You can add a seminar and/or the ICF training program for an ICF designation now or at any time.

Register on this page. Scroll down and choose to pay up front or in convenient monthly installments.

You receive a welcome email within one business day with instructions to log into your member area and access our massive library of content and learn how to join our live webinars.

We have an orientation call to make sure you are ready to go and answer any questions you have. Note that this is only one of as many calls as you would like to have to support your success throughout the program.

Join our live, interactive webinars when convenient. We have hours of live webinars each week. Each is different. Each is recorded for anytime access. Click here for a schedule.

Take full advantage of the resources in your member area, including: coaching methodologies, coaching plans, business development guidance, sample proposals, and past recorded webinars.

Receive our Certified Executive Coach Certification by completing 45 hours of training and by submitting up to six 30-60 minute recorded coaching conversations for review. Don't worry -- we match you up with fellow members to complete the recordings. We work with you closely to make sure you complete the program successfully.

Yes, we match you up with other coaches via our coach matching service, so that you can practice coaching and keep getting better.

You can add the additional training needed for the International Coach Federation designation now or later.

You can do extra work to qualify for our additional certifications, all at no extra cost. This includes Business Coach and Career Coach certification. You can also do a special research project to create your own specialty certification (e.g., Non-profit Leadership Coach, Technology Leadership Coach, Healthcare Leadership Coach). If you have a Masters Degree or higher, you can also complete the requirements for the Board Certified Coach with the Center for Credentialing and Education.

You get ongoing support anytime you need it.

By the end of this program you will be confident and competent as a coach and know how to work with executives, leaders, managers, business owners, and up-and coming talent.

Here Is Additional Information About Our Program Format and What You Receive

Click here to download our brochure -- perfect if you want an overview of our program or want to convince a sponsor..

Click here to see all that you receive when you join our program.

Our live, interactive classes are at flexible times and you can attend as your schedule permits. Perfect for busy professionals! See the schedule here.

Read what our graduates say....

Dean Hart

President, CommEx Consulting; CEO En Fuego Learning

Sandy Hansen-Wolff

Sandy Hansen-Wolff

Business owner, speaker, business visionary & consultant.

Dennis MacGillivray

Dennis MacGillivray

Growth leader development expert partnering with professional service firms; international speaker.

Casey-Richardson

Casey Richardson

Managing partner at authentica | board certified coach.

Steve Goldin

Steve Goldin

Real estate developer, proptech pioneer and executive coach helping the best proptech ceo’s accelerate growth.

Cathy Dove

Member at The Registry

Pamela Coburn-Litvak PhD ACC HLC

Pamela Coburn-Litvak PhD ACC HLC

Neuroscientist and stress researcher | author | speaker | certified executive coach for business and healthcare leaders | co-founder and partner at healthcare leadership advisory program.

Diana Lowe

Helping Companies Keep Their Top Talent | Helping Senior Leaders Create High Performing Teams | Executive Leadership Advisor | DEI Champion | Realistic Optimist | Global Citizen

Maxine Dotseth

Maxine Dotseth

Certified executive coach | business consultant | leadership coach | sales performance | career transition | board of directors leadership.

Candice J. Menge, MS

Candice J. Menge, MS

Hr professional demonstrating servant leadership through happiness, healthiness and with a heart.

Casey Richardson

View the video below to learn what sets successful coaches apart, and why our program helps you succeed…

Watch this quick video to review our executive coaching certification curriculum, member area, and proven solutions....

executive coaching business plan

Get Certified

Solutions for organizations, for seasoned coaches, copyright © 2024 center for executive coaching, which is a dba of atn associates, llc. all rights reserved..

Charles Hooper, Jr, MCC , is an Atlanta-area Executive Coach and Leadership Development Trainer. He has worked with senior leaders in a variety of industries and organizations domestically and internationally to design and deliver leadership development processes and systems. Charles is especially skilled at accelerating leaders who are High Potentials, Leaders in New Role, and Leaders Developing New Leaders. Clients regularly gain clarity and confidence as they go through the change and transition process in their professional roles. In addition to his private practice, Charles trains coaches with an international coaching training company. Learn more at LinkedIn and his website

Highlights from Interview with Charles Hooper

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching is having access to the critical strategic tools that I need to help executive leaders and their organization to be successful in carrying out their assignment.”

Charles’ Results

  • Access to useful toolkits
  • Has strategies for gaining clarity with clients
  • Proven frameworks that can be customized
  • Increased confidence

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Charles offer more value to his coaching clients

  • High quality coaching resources
  • Proven techniques
  • Personalized help and advice
  • Membership in a community of professionals

What were your goals before joining the Center for Executive Coaching?

My name is Charles Hooper, and I am a Master Certified Coach from Atlanta, Georgia. My motto in business is accelerating leaders through complexity with clarity.

I have been in the for-profit space, and the non-profit space. I have had my own coaching business, corporate training, and now work with the non-profit foundation.

I feel like I had a generic coaching framework, but what I needed were resources that could accelerate executives’ experience. The toolkits, excellent questions, and the different processes that are used in the course really filled in a gap for me.

How has working with the Center for Executive Coaching helped your career?

The resources are tremendous. When a leader says they need help with developing others, or communication, I feel that I have tools and resources that can help me make a difference.

I am able to take the resources that I have and design a specific product or experience for that client based on what their organization needs. I love that aspect of starting with a structure, but then being able to customize a program that best fits what they need.

How have you been able to serve your clients better?

I love to accelerate leaders through complexity, so that they can get clarity. I try to make an impact, whether it is related to leadership style, leadership mindset, or leadership communication.

I was recently hired by an upscale farm hardware manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, and their executive leadership team wanted help with strategic planning. I pulled out the toolkit to craft a unique strategy for them.

Then I pulled out the execution strategy, and we were able to talk about how to make the changes happen. The resources from the course just keep on giving, and it has increased my confidence in my ability to help clients.

Was the Center for Executive Coaching worth the investment?

I believe my investment of money and time has resulted in exponentially high ROI. I got a lot of value from meeting other professionals. It was very stimulating to hear their context and questions.

Those of us on the course would look up each other on LinkedIn and make connections. We had some good discussions where we helped each other. I regularly look at the community that we have, and find it to be very stimulating and helpful in my business.

Would you recommend the Center for Executive Coaching?

I would recommend the Center for Executive Coaching to friends and colleagues, especially those that have had some coaching training but really need the resources and the toolkit.

The no nonsense, straightforward, fun, and bold approach made the Center for Executive Coaching a very enjoyable experience. I looked forward to the online experiences, and it has been worthwhile based on the investment of time and money.

Onika Williams is an organizational strategist and executive coach. For 16 years, she drove meaningful transformation at one of the world’s largest food companies. Through her consulting and coaching as Founder & President of Evolv3 Consulting, she motivates and empowers others to do the same. Onika is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC)®, a Certified Executive Coach, and an Advanced Certified Birkman® Professional.

Highlights from Interview with Onika Williams

“My biggest win since joining the Center for Executive Coaching is that I have been able to realize a life goal of mine, which is launching a coaching academy.”

Onika’s Results

  • Launched a consulting business
  • Has new skills to help business leaders
  • Can help both individuals and organizations
  • Has built a strong network

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Onika expand her consulting business

  • Individual help and advice
  • A recognized certification
  • High quality resources
  • Help building a successful coaching business

My name is Onika Williams, and I am the founder and owner of Evolv3 Consulting. After a 16-year tenure at a Fortune 100 company, I built Evolv3. Our focus is helping clients reimagine what’s possible by developing and managing organizational change, in transformational, operational, and team dynamics.

I started off doing business consulting. In the middle of working with startups to mid-size companies, I learned that leaders with vision do not always have the skills to lead organizations through the startup, and commercialization process.

I thought there was a chance for me to develop a one-stop shop for leadership and development services. That led to me getting my certification in the Birkman Method.

From there, I realized that I probably needed another level of certification, because in some industries that is important. I also wanted to be as knowledgeable as possible to help my clients.

My business is drastically different since I have joined the Center for Executive Coaching. I am a better coach and consultant. My ability to bring value to others has been magnified.

It was this toolkit that made everything easier. I am now able to take a client from their assessment phase to making progress in about half the time. It allows me to recognize these characteristics in particular leaders.

I am really intentional in curating something targeted to individuals or organizations, and it was the Center for Executive Coaching that helped me achieve that.

My focus is organizational effectiveness, so it could be optimizing an organizational model, role clarity, business process improvement, consulting, or coaching leaders through scenarios.

I also do team engagement for executives and those at the director level. I really enjoy bringing leaders together so that we can help the organization meet its goals.

Both financially and time invested in the community it is definitely worth it. I still engage with coaching colleagues that I went through the three-day intensive with. One of them is in Africa, one in Europe, and we are still connected.

If you are someone who wants to get into executive coaching and you do not have the time to think about where to start, the Center of Executive Coaching is perfect. If you are someone who needs a thought partner and someone that can be available to ask questions along the way, then they also have you covered.

I would definitely recommend the Center for Executive Coaching. The team is phenomenal, and what I love most about it is that no matter where you are in your journey, there is something for you.

I was an executive that came from a big company, and I was able to jump in and not feel overwhelmed. There have been some people who have woken up and decided they want to coach, and they seem to be doing just fine. So it really is for everyone.

Dr. Heath Jolliff is a dual-boarded physician in Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology with 30+ years of clinical experience, and a former residency and fellowship program director. In his coaching practice, he works with physicians and healthcare professional with areas of focus that include: burnout prevention and recovery; career optimization and transition; and Leadership development. Learn more about Heath at  Physician Coaching Solutions and Linkedin .

Excerpts from Heath’s Interview

“My biggest win with joining the Center for Executive Coaching has been reaching a place in my career where I have always wanted to be, and having the support, education, mentoring, and coaching to get me here.”

Heath’s Results

  • A better understanding of how to run a business
  • Long term collaborators
  • The ability to assist a wide range of clients
  • A strong support network

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Heath transition into a full time coaching role

  • Practical courses
  • A focus on how to run a successful business
  • Flexible learning options
  • Membership in a supportive community

My name is Dr. Heath Jolliff, and before I joined the Center for Executive Coaching, I was a clinical physician and working as a program director for a residency program.

Since then I have retired from clinical practice and I work exclusively with coaching other physicians and healthcare professionals.

I needed a program that was flexible with my schedule, because I was still working clinically. I found the program offered by the Center for Executive Coaching very flexible. I was able to go back and review lectures and classes that I had missed.

It was all based on real world scenarios, and things that I thought were very practical to my clients instead of just being theoretical. Also, having a wide group of people involved provided a lot of learning opportunities.

One thing that I had no real clue about was how to run a business. I did not have those skills, and the Center for Executive Coaching provided a lot of that mentorship and coaching. I also gained a lot from other students with a business background who were open to networking.

My primary specialty was emergency medicine and I was looking at the stresses and needs of my own colleagues, but I was also very curious to find out about other physicians and what they needed.

In the Center for Executive Coaching, I had the pleasure of meeting four other doctors that I work with continually.

We each have a different perspective, and it is a lot of fun to learn from them. I am able to match things up with my own experience and consider things that I have not even thought of before.

Many physicians and healthcare professionals come to me. They are usually dealing with some form of burnout in their career, and looking at how they can overcome some of that through coaching.

Some people want to change directions in their career. Maybe they want to go into a leadership position, maybe they want to go into a nonclinical role. The big question a lot of them have is, how they can fit into a position like that.

I need to get them to understand a little bit more about what it is like to do something different. I am able to help them identify the leadership skills they possess and what they need to work on to make their career successful.

The return on investment is much higher than the money and time that I put into it. I think that is also because of the ongoing support and networking that is so priceless.

If I have a question, I can get it answered instead of stumbling on my own to find something. Somewhere in the alumni or coaches at the Center for Executive Coaching I will find the answer.

I have recommended two of my friends to the Center for Executive Coaching and they have completed the program as well.

It is great to see their growth and how happy they are. I think anyone who is interested in learning about leadership, executive coaching can benefit from this program.

Ilana is the Founder and CEO of Werq, an executive coaching and strategic leadership advisory firm serving CEO’s and their teams from around the world. An experienced executive leader and a Certified Executive Coach, Ilana is passionate about combining strategic, systemic, and relational interventions to generate business impact that lasts. Ilana’s clients include C-suite leaders and teams from across industries, ranging from founder-led SMB’s to multi-billion dollar publicly traded enterprises. A lifelong student of “what makes people and organizations tick,” Ilana is an enthusiastic change agent who believes in embracing challenges in pursuit of growth. Through this, she inspires others around her to be equally courageous in their pursuits to lead at their best. Ilana holds a Master’s degree in Social Work, and spends her free time adoring her young children and enjoying living in the vibrant city of Austin, TX.

Website:   www.werqpeople.com , Twitter : @werqpeople , Linkedin : Ilana

Key Points from Ilana Zivkovich’s Hall of Fame Interview

Ilana’s results.

  • More confident in her own abilities
  • Understands the value she can provide
  • Started her own coaching firm
  • Achieves results for her clients

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Ilana start her own successful coaching business

  • Practical advice on starting a coaching business
  • Help defining the value you can bring to clients
  • A well structured program of study
  • Led by industry experts

My name is Ilana Zivkovich, and before coaching I was a trained social worker. I have translated that into leadership roles within the behavioral healthcare industry, specifically with addictions. It turns out that working with executives is a little easier than working with addicts!

From running treatment centers, I came to find that the only way to have sustainable, and effective outcomes for our customers was to focus on a bunch of things that I did not know what to call it at the time, but what I recognize now as what an executive coach would do.

From a personal perspective, I came out of the womb intending to be an entrepreneur. When I went to the Center for Executive Coaching, it was with the express interest in becoming adept at the skill of coaching and starting a firm.

The Center for Executive Coaching took all the mystery out of how to partner with top-level executives and quickly understand what is actually keeping them up at night.  It helped me to identify the big problems they had, and partner with them to solve them.

The second thing that the Center for Executive Coaching did was give wonderful context around how to engage with those folks.

From a subject matter expertise as well as a practical perspective, I do not believe that my business would have got off the ground without the Center for Executive Coaching.

We work with CEOs and their teams. We end up doing a lot of work around strategy, performance, and culture. Those are the three elements that show up the most.

Our differentiator is whether we’re working with a small media business or with an enterprise. We are typically working with the executive leadership team who are dealing with strategic challenges.

We help them tackle those challenges by looking at their purpose, what are they focusing on, what are they actually doing about it, but also how are they working together as a team.

If it is coaching with an individual, we look more at how they are engaging with employees. If it is an executive team, we look at the group dynamics and how they can work together for a sustainable outcome.

I could have paid ten times what I did and still call it the most valuable investment of my life! The practical application of what they teach, and how it sets you up to go out and provide value is amazing. I swear by the Center for Executive Coaching and would reinvest in it without question.

I have recommended the Center for Executive Coaching 100 times in the last five years!

If you are someone who wants to get in there, and start taking action with real-life humans in the wild and do it exceptionally well, then the Center for Executive Coaching is what you need.

Kelly Tweeddale coaches high-performance leaders and organizations with one focal point: connecting people and organizations through creativity. She developed Break the Tape Leadership to connect her three decades of experience and insight to leaders and organizations as they position to win in the “next normal.” As an ICF certified executive coach and emotional intelligence practitioner, she works with leaders, business owners and Fortune 100 clients to bring purpose and impact at both the individual and organizational level. She is an alumni of Tara Mohr’s “Playing Big Facilitators Training” and recipient of the Puget Sound Business Journal Women of Influence and the Greater Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction awards. She coaches one of the top performing cohorts in the THRIVE Emerging Leaders Program for the U.S. Small Business Association and is passionate about making a difference and achieving results in any environment. Website.

Highlights from Kelly Tweeddale’s Interview

“My biggest win as a result of joining the Centre for Executive Coaching has been setting up my own business,  breakthetapeleadership.com , and I am thriving.”

Kelly’s Results

  • Now has her own business
  • Has secured a number of clients
  • Feels equipped to add value for others
  • Has successful strategies to help her clients deal with stress

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Kelly develop a career as a coach

  • Access materials at your own pace
  • Certified programs
  • Access to a knowledgeable community

My name is Kelly Tweeddale and before I joined Center for Executive Coaching, I was a CEO executive director for performing arts. Now I am a creative executive coach and I focus mostly in the creative sectors.

I knew that I wanted to share my experiences, but I was not sure how. I did some research on coaching. I had worked with a coach before, but I didn’t really know what it was all about.

I was looking for a program that would match my 30 years of experience in the business sector and then up it a level while also helping me learn about coaching.

I love my business. I love what I do and I was looking for the ability to be self-driven. That is something I have always been, but I wanted to be in control of my time, my schedule, and the direction of my life.

What I loved about the Centre for Executive Coaching is that our sessions were a mix of live sessions and live virtual, so it could really be matched to my schedule.

There were great instructors I got to work with, and I met a community of coaches that I am still in contact with on a weekly basis.

I want to help people live and work their best life, whatever stage they are in. I help people slow down for a second and clarify what is important, what would a creative solution look like, and what would make them sleep at night.

With live performing arts still recovering, it has been stressful for everybody. I am helping people take the stress off and move people forward in a creative and joyful way.

My investment was a gift. The gift that I received back was 10 times what I invested. What I got back and continue to get back is access to a community of professionals.

I found that the people who signed up were there because they were committed to moving forward. They were not just looking around and kicking the tires.

Part of the program requires you to be vulnerable and go on camera to coach. You might be really bad at first, but that is how you get better.

I would recommend the Centre for Executive Coaching if you are looking to up your coaching practice or if you are a beginner. I would recommend taking advantage of all of the different opportunities.

For example, you can develop your own specialty, which I did. I did not think I would use career coaching at all, but I just had an individual that needed coaching through a finalist interview and it turned out great.

Just “dig in” and don’t hide. The more coaching and practice you do with your peers on the course, the better you become.

Ashley Schaer is an ICF-ACC, Certified Executive Coach and Accredited Small Business Consultant with a professional background as a leader in large city government. Along with her professional success, she is an accomplished entrepreneur having founded, scaled, and sold two successful small businesses. Also serving as a Fractional COO, Ashley brings the left-brain practicality that right-brain visionaries need to successfully establish, stabilize, and grow their businesses. She helps overwhelmed entrepreneurs, small business owners, and start-up founders with the details of their businesses, so her right-brain partners can focus on the things they do best – driving their business forward.

Highlights from Ashley Schaer’s Interview

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching has been joining this network. Not only do you have tools, resources and experts on the staff, you also have peers you can learn from and collaborate with. It really adds value to the opportunities you are giving your clients.”

Ashley’s Results

  • Better equipped to help her clients
  • Access to more tools and strategies
  • Part of a professional network
  • Opportunities to collaborate

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Ashley develop her own coaching business

  • Expert course leaders
  • A supportive and knowledgeable community
  • Learn at your own pace
  • A large library of valuable resources

My name is Ashley Schaer and I am a graduate of the Center for Executive Coaching. Before I started at the Center for Executive Coaching, I had 12 years serving in multiple leadership roles within the City of Portland in roles such as senior business systems analysts, senior management analyst, and program manager.

I thought that the only way to go out on my own was to become a consultant, so I did that. I went out on my own and landed my first consulting client. I found that much of my time was spent working one-on-one with business owners.

They needed more than just the tactics of creating effective business strategies or dashboards. There were real personal challenges and obstacles preventing business owners from being successful.

I started to look into coaching and that’s when I came across one of the Center for Executive Coaching videos on YouTube. I realized this program has it figured out. They really get my clients and my client needs.

What I found along the way was that this program helped me with my clients, and it also helped me better understand my own business, my own needs, and the opportunities I had to improve.

Whether I was looking at those opportunities for myself or for my clients, this program became a one-stop shop for learning techniques and methodologies.

The access to resources was abundant and you could find anything on pretty much any topic. There is a space for networking with the members of the Center for Executive Coaching and the staff. It was a great way to collaborate with others.

I found tangible things that I could use to help my clients, and also gained a lot of new opportunities by being a part of this group.

I mostly work with my clients on the tactical side of things, and business strategy planning. When I started working with more executives, I was able to bring in other opportunities to improve.

Some of those areas would be time management, stress and dealing with feeling overwhelmed. Small business owners are my clients, and oftentimes they are doing a lot of different things on their own.

I was able to advise on managing all aspects of their business and helping them delegate. I also had more value to offer regarding working with teams, team dynamics, and conflict resolution.

As a consultant I was missing all of these things that involve people and working with people that drive your business forward. The Center for Executive Coaching was able to provide for me.

I do not think I could have got a better return on my investment. I have graduated, and two years later I still keep coming back. I am not sure I have seen the end of the deliverable that I’m receiving from this investment.

What I appreciated about the program is that it gave me so many different routes so I could go as fast or slow as I wanted.

Some months when I was feeling really ramped up and excited about it, I could really knock out a lot of hours with all of the different tracks that they offer.

In the next month, when I had maybe an extra client or a higher workload, I could tone it down. It really catered to my schedule, which I appreciated.

Who would you recommend the Center for Executive Coaching?

I most certainly would recommend the Center for Executive Coaching to another business owner. They go beyond consulting or coaching.

As a business owner, or as somebody who is a leader of teams, understanding the methodologies and different approaches of coaching will make you a better leader.

It will make you think about things in different ways, and that is definitely something you get out of the Center for Executive Coaching.

Dr. Terry Jackson is an Executive Coach with a Ph.D. in Leadership and Organizational Change. He was selected by Marshall Goldsmith for membership in the prestigious Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches. He has served as a Leadership Advisor, Coach and Consultant for the US State Department and has 25 years of progressive leadership development experience in sales, marketing, operations management, and business consulting with Fortune 10 companies. Learn more at www.jcgconsultinggroup.com

“It is different now because I have become a better listener, which enables me to truly understand the challenges clients are facing, and opens up the opportunity to present the right solution.”

Terence’s Results

  • Can help employees optimize their skillset
  • Networked with many talented individuals
  • Can help clients identify their strengths and weaknesses
  • Has become a better listener

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Terence become a more skilled and successful coach

  • A large library of quality resources
  • Opportunities to network with other coaches
  • Certified training programs
  • Coaching strategies that are tested and proven

My name is Dr. Terry Jackson, and prior to becoming a member of the Centre for Executive Coaching (CEC), I was a Field Sales Director. I did that from 2008 to 2013 and never missed a number!

I wanted to gain those skills, because I understood the importance of being able to coach employees, leaders and managers within the organization as a way to optimize their skillset and results.

Utilizing the tools of the CEC has enabled me to pursue clients at a higher level. I have always wanted to get into the executive coaching and consulting space and this allowed me to do so.

Now I can deal with people and process, whether it is managing change, or creating a system where you take high potential leaders and develop them.

Working with the Center for Executive Coaching has been worth the investment.

For anyone who truly wants to become an executive coach, I recommend going through the process with the CEC. I have actually just recommended someone to go through this process.

Dr. Amy Bladen Shatto is distinguished by a 25-year record, merging scientific rigor with business realities in the application of leadership development, assessment, and coaching. Drawing from culturally diverse internal and external experiences, she partners with organizations and individuals to enhance leadership skills throughout the talent lifecycle. She is sought out for high impact solutions around upskilling high-potential successors; adapting leaders for rapid change (e.g., post-COVID complex technology, multi-generational demands); and fostering high-performance teams. A certified ICF (ACC) and BCC coach, Amy also brings to her practice both leadership and executive coaching. Her clientele spans industries, with prominent names like Johnson & Johnson, Merck, MetLife, NEA, and Merrill Lynch. Website .

Highlight’s from Amy Bladen Shatto’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win with the CEC has been becoming more crisp and clear in the way that I express my offering, and doing it in a way that is more marketable than before.”

Amy’s Results

  • More marketable offering
  • On demand resources to help clients
  • A better understanding of what it means to be a coach
  • Skills and strategies for building her business

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Amy build her own coaching business

  • Proven coaching techniques and strategies
  • Guidance in building a strong business
  • Expert instructors

My name is Amy Bladen Shatto, and I am a PhD I-O Psychologist, doing leadership development and coaching work. I interviewed a lot of different organizations for my coaching certification.

It was really clear to me that the Center for Executive Coaching was the right fit. My background is in industrial-organizational psychology. I come from a very metrics-oriented perspective so this course was an excellent fit, while still meeting the standards that ICF wants you to have.

My business is different now than it was before I went to the CEC. Mostly because it is now a business! I went in not sure that I was going to make it as an entrepreneur. I really lacked confidence.

I walked out a few months later after getting the tools and having the experiences with much more confidence that I have a business, and confidence that I was going to make it.

Following the course in a very flexible way has allowed me to figure out what my needs are. You can start at any point with the CEC, which means you can get the tools but as you are going along.

If your client brings you something right now and you are not at that point in the program, you can immediately go and watch something on a video that is already recorded.

They can answer questions about marketing your business, getting started, and ramping up. They can help with all the common things entrepreneurs have concerns about. It helps you to not feel alone.

The red thread in my career is leadership development outcomes. You build the strategy, which might include a competency component.

First we figure out the skills that they need to develop. Then we assess against these skills, in some way. I do a lot of assessment work and then we come back and do development, which includes training of some sort.

After training, we come back and measure. I develop measurement processes, as well as strategies to help them get to the next level.

Timewise, this course fits well into your schedule. You can take time at night or during the day when it suits you. It is by far the most flexible offering that I have ever seen.

In terms of the investment, it is actually somewhat less than others, which is pretty outstanding. I feel you are getting more bang for your buck.

One of the things that I did not expect about the CEC, was to grow a very natural network of other professionals. I suddenly have this whole network to reach out to, and who can reach out to me.

One member that has become a dear friend has given me opportunities to present in communities that she is a part of, which has further built my business. We have been able to exchange opportunities with one another.

By the end of my second day in the program, I felt like it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I do not say that lightly. The flexibility, the offerings, as well as the tools and processes are very different from what you see elsewhere.

I would recommend this course to anybody who is looking to develop their coaching and is looking to be an entrepreneur.

Stefanie Breyer is founder of Breyer Coaching LLC, a certified executive coach and a former corporate tech executive with over 25 years of experience in leading development teams, product strategy, organizational design, managing P&Ls, and M&A integration. Her clients are purposeful achievers, leaders who want to succeed in alignment with who they are. She uses and teaches a philosophy called genuine-leader impact, which affirms that it is possible to harmonize your own convictions with business and organizational realities to achieve success.   With increased confidence, Stefanie’s clients find harmony in the chaos that surrounds them and gain personal and professional clarity to succeed in a way that feels true to themselves. Learn more about Stefanie here :

Key Points from Stefanie Breyer’s Hall of Fame Interview

“For me the big win since joining the Center for Executive Coaching has been gaining confidence around how to approach coaching, how to conduct individual coaching sessions, how to build that into a business, and overall increasing my confidence in my ability to do that.”

Stefanie’s Results

  • More confident as a coach
  • Has a framework to build her business
  • Has a recognized coaching qualification
  • Proven strategies to use with clients

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Stefanie build her skills as a coach

  • Expert trainers
  • A helpful and active community
  • Tried and tested methods

My name is Stefanie Breyer, and before my current role, I was a tech executive. I had a big passion for mentoring and coaching.

I had been doing that informally in a volunteer capacity, and decided I wanted to make that my full-time role. So I founded an executive coaching firm called Breyer Coaching, where I am doing one-on-one executive coaching.

I had a gut feel for how to coach. I felt like I knew how to listen, and I felt like I knew how to guide the people I was working with.

If I was going to make a career out of this, I did not want to just hang up my shingle and say I am an executive coach.

I wanted to understand more about the practice of coaching, and I wanted to have some credentials and credibility to bring to my coaching, along with all of the executive work experience that I had.

I feel a lot more confident now that I have a framework to bring to my clients, and some proven approaches. There is also the benefit of the network that I have been able to grow within the Center for Executive Coaching.

There are a lot of impressive people who are part of the program, and everyone is really generous in helping each other.

It has given me a lot more flexibility in my day-to-day life as well. I have teenage children, and I wanted to have more time to spend with them.

I help executives who are newly enrolled and when they are newly promoted. That role looks really different from the role that I had before. It is about helping those new executives accelerate their impact, and also accelerate their confidence in that role.

I definitely think that joining the CEC was a fantastic investment of my time, energy, and money. It is such a flexible program. There are multiple instructors, so you can find someone who is a good fit for you.

There are lots of different sessions at different times, so I could adapt it to my schedule, which I really appreciated. Then there is the wealth of information that I have gotten from the sessions. There are still things that I continue to go back to.

I would definitely recommend the Center for Executive Coaching to others. I think the right person for this course is someone who has had a successful career in business, has a passion for coaching, and wants some training to give them a good grounding before they start that business themselves.

Dr. Peter Bath’s 45-year career has consistently centered on helping individuals and organizations develop insight and realize agency in responding to their future opportunities. Through his continuing education and multiple certifications in team and personality assessment, he has been able to help individuals and teams overcome what seem to be impossible challenges and be able to find successful, working relationships. As an executive and systemic team coach, he facilitates insight and ensures the experience is engaging, safe and inspiring. You can reach out to Dr. Bath via his LinkedIn

Key Points from Peter Bath’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win since joining the Center for Executive Coaching has been both clarity and connection. Clarity for myself and my coaching model, plus connection with people that I have continued to work with two or three years later.”

Peter’s Results

  • Can serve clients around the world
  • Is equipped with highly effective coaching models
  • Better serves a diverse range of clients

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Peter develop a successful coaching business

  • Proven coaching methods and strategies
  • A certified program of study
  • An active and supportive community
  • Strategies for building your own coaching business

My name is Peter Bath, and prior to joining the Center for Executive Coaching, I had retired from a career as an executive in healthcare and a college president and a pastor. I have been around people all my life. My primary goal was to get a clear model of interacting with people.

I found myself in search of the perfect question, because having questions to clarify and to put the issue back in the client’s lap is the real work of coaching. It is a very common process across all the other domains and so that is what I was looking for.

Being on this course has been a remarkable experience, because it has introduced me to an excellent model for coaching and interacting, and it has also connected me with people from all over the world.

Currently I am coaching hospital executives in Asia, physicians here in the US, and executives in education. I have unlocked so many remarkable opportunities.

The networking that one can affect through professional contact, through word of mouth, and through just being present is remarkable. I have achieved all that I really want to.

The key results that I help people achieve are, clarity of options, brainstorming, and helping them identify options and courses of action before considering how those steps need to be implemented.

The hospital executives I am coaching are looking at a major initiative in physician leadership education. I am coaching them through that process by looking at how to deal with the change, and how to introduce new initiatives.

When I was figuring out what the next chapter was going to be after retirement, the Center for Executive Coaching came highly recommended.

Just within the first three months, I can say I have got my money’s worth. It has been well worth my investment. The biggest part of that investment has been the introductions to people around the world.

I have been able to introduce and refer people to the program with the utmost of confidence, knowing they will experience something that will be as meaningful for them as it has been for me.

I have recommended the Center for Executive Coaching to many people, and have told them that it will be a lot of hard work, but will result in a lot of focused self-awareness.

Coaching is not about learning a skill as much as it is about internalizing that skill within yourself and adjusting who you are to that whole process. Being able to do that is a wonderful opportunity.

If you are willing to invest your time and to do work, this program will take you wherever your heart might desire. You will be surprised where you end up.

Michelle, with Optimized Leadership Coaching and Consulting, invests in leaders through coaching to enhance their interpersonal skills resulting in empowering cultures, high performance teams and breakthrough results. She is known for her highly relational approach, high energy, and her innate ability to truly hear clients making sessions personal and applicable across differing industries and cultures. Capitalizing on almost three decades of executive experience in a complex and highly regulated, high-risk environment, she vulnerably and candidly shares both positive leadership experiences and lessons learned to connect with the clients. Michelle is dually Masters prepared with a MEd in Human Resource and Organizational Development and MHA with Leadership Specialization. She is an Authorized Partner with Wiley Everything DiSC, Agile EQ, Workplace and Work of Leader, and a certified facilitator through Development Dimensions International (DDI). Learn more about Michelle at www.michellecabell.com .

Key Points from Michelle Cabell’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My business is different now because I have knowledge, expertise and credibility. People are looking for that in a coach. There are many coaches out there, and this certification that is from a credible institution has helped to garner business.”

Michelle’s Results

  • More confidence in her own skills
  • Has a recognized qualification
  • Equipped with versatile coaching tools
  • Has support to build her business

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Michelle make a career change into coaching

  • A library of useful resources
  • Help to unlock your potential as a coach
  • Highly regarded qualifications

My name is Michelle Cabell, and I served as a chief nursing officer at a flagship hospital. Now I own my own business optimizing leadership, coaching and consulting, as well as full-time executive and leadership coaching.

I realized that the higher I rose in the organization, the more I moved away from my authentic passion. My passion was always more around investing in people and developing them individually.

I always thought I was good at seeing the potential in people and helping them to see the potential in themselves so that they can grow and advance.

Coaching seemed to be my natural style. I just lacked the formal training, which is what led me to the Center for Executive Coaching. I started learning more about coaching, I just knew it was authentic to who I was.

What I initially thought I was going to do was more of a consulting role. However, coaching is different because you do not have to be an expert in the field.

You simply have to be an expert coach, so that you can draw out the expertise, knowledge, abilities, and solutions from other people as opposed to delivering the knowledge.

It was very freeing for me to look at it from this angle because now I can talk with people and have pretty profound insights. I am better able to ask the right questions and empower them to have their own answers.

The highlight of my growth has been recognizing that I could go into any industry, and at any level in the organization and be able to do this really well.

My practice has taken a little bit of a different spin since taking the program. I do individual coaching, but also a blend of coaching and facilitation, which is where I found my sweet spot.

I use a group coaching style where I give them something to work off of, but the work is done through them. It is not just me telling them how to do it.

I now ask the right questions to get them thinking more deeply and applying tools and models to get them unstuck and moving forward.

Working with the Center for Executive Coaching is worth your time, energy and investment, for a couple of reasons. The first is the lifetime nature of the investment.

Once you invest in this program, you have access to the members’ site. There are tools, resources, and PowerPoint slides. You have access to unlimited built-for-you resources that you can take and use.

When I am thinking about developing an assessment or a spreadsheet, I just go look and usually there is something there that I do not have to rebuild.

You are also investing in skills you will have for life. The only way you coach well is by practicing coaching and working with the Centre for Executive Coaching made me a better coach.

For several reasons, I would highly recommend the Center for Executive Coaching. The reason is that it is an ACTP program, which is really important for your ICF credentialing. It gives you that gold standard stamp for coaching that says it is approved training.

Secondly, they are delivering the course in a way that regardless of how you come into it or what your direction is, you will get the skills, practice, and experience necessary to coach with confidence.

Don is an attorney, business coach and entrepreneur who has started over twenty-five businesses in the small business space. He is the author of seven books on personal productivity including “Organizing Your Life”, “The Productivity Handbook” and “Beat the Clock”. Don has made over 3,000 domestic and international presentations to more than 100,000 people from around the world, sharing his unique personal productivity and business growth principles, practices and tools. His coaching practice focuses on serving entrepreneurs in the building trades helping them to significantly increase their businesses. He is known in the building trades as “The Tradesman’s Business Coach” and his website is at http://www.productivity-institute.com

Key Points from Don Wetmore’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win since graduating from the Center for Executive Coaching is that I have become a much better coach and the marketplace has rewarded me for that very handsomely.”

Don’s Results

  • Improved coaching skills
  • His revenue has doubled
  • Charges fees that are 66% higher
  • Client engagements last for much longer

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Don develop his coaching and consulting business

  • Proven strategies for effective coaching
  • A certified program
  • Expert teachers
  • Methods for growing and maintaining a sustainable business

My name is Don Wetmore, and I have been a business coach for 30 years. I had a very successful coaching practice in the small business space, but you get stale doing the same thing after a while.

I was looking for a marketing technique to get more clients. What I got was so much more than that, and it was a very pleasant surprise. I learned more about coaching than I thought I would, and I learned ways to do my job more effectively.

One of the things that I was doing wrong was not understanding the difference between consulting and coaching. As I was consulting I thought I was really coaching, but I was not.

Now my revenue has doubled. It is not magic, I just changed some simple things. I have become a better and more effective coach, and that has led to greater engagement from my clients.

My typical engagement pre-CEC was about six months, now it is 18 months. I have seen opportunities within the clients’ sphere that I can be of help with as well. My fee also went up by 66% during this time.

I have really focused my effort in two areas. One group is contractors, and people in the trades. That is part of my background growing up and I really understand them. The other group are people in finance.

I have been taught to be very selective on where I go and how I cultivate working relationships. I love my clients, I really do. I enjoy them and I have mutual respect, whereas maybe I didn’t so much earlier in my career.

Dealing with the clients that I am excited to be with, and having great affection for them as friends, is an amazing way to make a living.

There is no question about it, joining the Center for Executive Coaching is a real commitment. If you follow the formula and make yourself available to do all of the follow-up things, and take coaching seriously then you will be successful.

It is not all about the money. You need to want to do a good job and have good clients that really enjoy what they are doing. If that sounds like you, then you should consider this kind of program.

I just did recommend them. It was a client that I have been working with on a variety of issues related to executive coaching. He left that position and I coached him in writing a book.

He has reached a point where he is interested in coaching, but I have taken him as far as I can. I want him to go forward, but I was not going to recommend the course until he was really serious about it. He started last week and is already saying his life has been changed.

Karl Pister is an executive coach with over three decades of experience as an executive coach and trusted advisor to C-suite executives and professionals. He is known for his low-dey and unassuming approach, challenging clients to think differently and achieve transformative results. As the founder and president of The Coaching Group, Inc., Karl has worked extensively with executives in various states, guiding them through critical leadership challenges. His impressive background in account management and health care program implementation provides real-life business expertise that enhances his coaching. Karl holds two master’s degrees in behavioral sciences and is certified by respected coaching organizations, including the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching Excellence.

Key Points from Karl Pister’s Hall Of Fame Interview

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching is having a well-established business model that allows me to serve my clients and develop a long term organizational reputation of integrity, excellence, and inspiration.”

Karl’s Results

  • Has a successful consulting practice
  • Gained a recognized certification
  • Knows how to organize his business
  • Has had a massive return on investment

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Karl build and run a successful consulting practice

  • Industry leading certification
  • Decades of experience
  • Proven strategies for success

My name is Karl Pister, and before the program I was doing executive coaching and clinical counseling. Now, 10 years later, I am only doing executive coaching and consulting with organizations.

I had done coaching already for years, however, I knew that I was spending too much time explaining why I was not certified.

I looked at a lot of programs that ICF noted, and the Centre for Executive Coaching came across as the most business-oriented. I did not need life coaching skills. I needed something that taught me the business aspects of coaching.

Working with the Center for Executive Coaching has been a complete and total game-changer. What they did was teach the business of coaching, how to run a business, price, organize, go after clients, and establish new relationships. These were things that I had no idea how to do.

What has been most impressive is the ongoing support that the Centre for Executive Coaching has provided over a decade. Having your students do what they need to do and then come in with the support they need is teaching at its best.

It has been over the decade, and this training has contributed high six figures to the business and changed it completely.

The coaching that I provide is for disruptive physicians, and for the physicians that have been identified as being high potential. It is helping them see what leadership is, and acknowledge or identify where their growth areas are.

Through a CEC connection, I have been certified in a certain assessment that helps my clients identify emotional intelligence areas. It has really been helping both parties identify what their leadership strengths and gaps are and helping them focus on that.

What that does, especially with the disruptive physicians, is change their thinking about coaching. They often come into coaching thinking it is going to be a punishment. Once that thinking has changed then behavior changes, because behavior will always follow improved thinking.

Anytime I can learn something new, it is worth it. You get off a call with the CEC leadership and feel like you can solve any problem that you have.

In just one year, we easily get 500 times return on investment. There is no fluff in the CEC training. It is instantly usable, highly organized, and very pointedly delivered.

I have referred 10 to 12 people to the Centre for Executive Coaching over the last 10 years. They have had similar experiences to myself.

The course nailed every single aspect of running a coaching business that I didn’t even know I needed. They knew I would need those skills and knowledge though, and it has been absolutely worth it. I would recommend it to anybody who wants to be well-trained.

A former C-Suite executive, Stacy leads a team of capacity-building consultants and coaches at Gladegy Consulting who work with diverse organizations to meet their strategic goals. Gladegy Consulting offers a suite of strategic services that include human resources and organizational development consulting, executive and leadership coaching, corporate training, and assessments. Gladegy Consulting, LLC works with clients in diverse industries, including healthcare, government, professional services, small businesses, and nonprofit/community-based organizations. Visit Stacy’s website at www.gladegy.com

Key Points from Stacy Sufka’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching was developing the credibility that I needed to be an effective coaching practice owner.”

Stacy’s Results

  • Gained recognized qualifications in coaching
  • Now has increased credibility
  • Has a network of other coaches to tap into
  • Gets referrals from other coaches

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Stacy build credibility in her consulting practice

  • Industry leading training
  • Practical lessons and exercises
  • A large and active alumni network

My name is Stacy Sufka, and I am the founder and CEO of Gladegy Consulting. I had been looking around for a coaching program and wanted to become certified to add credibility to the services that we started providing in my consulting practice.

The industry is saturated with a lot of people who call themselves coaches, so I wanted to make sure that we were known as a reputable coaching practice with qualifications from an institution that is credible and known in the industry.

I looked at many programs, and the Center for Executive Coaching kept bubbling up as one of those reputable programs that had a unique layout of offerings.

I have been able to tap into a really large community of professionals from all over the world.

There are thousands of alumni from the program, so I have been able to meet former tech executives, hospital administrators, people who are in professional services, and those in the nonprofit industry.

They are all doing coaching now, and their diverse experiences have helped me become a much better coach.

My career has taken me from being a licensed counselor to an administrator, and now to a business owner. What is interesting about that is that I can lean into my counseling toolbox of skills.

The Center for Executive Coaching really helped me to understand how I can partner with executives to create a real impact even if we don’t have a lot of time.

As a coach, I help leaders with a lot of the issues, whether it’s juggling multiple priorities, or helping them through making big decisions.

Oftentimes those difficult decisions cause us to become somewhat paralyzed or what I call “in the grip”, faced with a lot of stress – more stress than we can cope with.

I also help leaders who want to increase their emotional intelligence. They’re working in a very difficult environment and oftentimes they are trying to determine how they can be the most effective leader for their organization.

I am helping leaders with more self-awareness, so they understand themselves and how to build a bridge to other people effectively.

I have been through a lot of educational and certification programs and the Center for Executive Coaching is like the Harvard for coaching education. I gained a huge toolkit that I can use to develop my business and become an effective coach.

The toolkit also allows us to leverage the material that is given to us for so many situations. I have also met friends for life. We often refer clients to each other and have developed a relationship and network that is unmatched.

I have referred several people to the Center for Executive Coaching, not only for the education, but also to our coaches. I tell them they are not just getting a program where you read some material and take an exam. This is hands-on, and it’s going to feel like a masterclass or bootcamp.

It might be hard, but you leave the Center for Executive Coaching with a sense of confidence and credibility that you would not have if you went through another program. The Center for Executive Coaching builds and develops consummate professionals in the coaching field.

Samantha Wasserman is the CEO of Growth Curve Consulting & Coaching. She empowers leaders and teams to accelerate business growth and innovation. With over 30 years of experience in strategic change, talent development, and executive coaching, she has delivered proven results across diverse industries, including technology, biotech, healthcare, and consumer goods. Her mission is to help CEOs, executives, and leadership teams achieve their highest potential and performance, while creating a positive impact on their organizations and society. She leverages her three pillars of expertise: succession readiness and transitions, executive coaching and advisory and team/organizational transformation to design and implement customized solutions that address the unique challenges and opportunities of each client. Samantha is passionate about enabling leaders and teams to thrive in a complex and dynamic world. Visit her website at  growthcurveconsulting.com

Key Points from Samantha Wasserman’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win has been my ability to distinguish between the value that I can add to my clients. I can now differentiate between coaching, advisory, and consulting.”

Samantha’s Results 

  • A better understanding of how her skills can be applied
  • Better at identifying coachable moments
  • Can add more value for clients
  • Now has a formal certification

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Samantha validate and formalize her coaching skills

  • Proven techniques and strategies
  • Work towards a recognized certification
  • Learn from expert coaches
  • Individualized help and support

My name is Samantha Wasserman. Prior to joining the Center for Executive Coaching, I was an executive coach. I was also doing strategic advisory consulting, leadership consulting, culture work, and organization development work. 

My background is in human capital consulting. I have a lot of strategic advisory skills, and I am an expert in succession, organizational planning, and cultural advisory work. While that includes coaching, I never got my ICF certification. 

I do have other certifications for coaching, but I never went through a substantive program that taught me the differences between coaching as a practice, versus the succession and transition coaching I was trained to do.

The coaching I received allowed me to differentiate my different skills and offerings. Most importantly, it helped me fulfill the role that I needed to play for my client any particular time

The emphasis was adding value for the client in a different way. I now have a more keenly trained ear to say whether this is a moment for advisory, a moment to interject some expertise, or a coaching moment. 

I can add more value to my clients, and there is a speed or acuteness with which I can do it now. My advice has so much more intention to it

I am typically coaching people who are looking to transition into larger roles. What that allows me to do is really differentiate the skills, capabilities and experiences that one needs to have in preparing for those roles. 

Differentiating that to the mindsets and belief systems that people have are the coachable things. The other thing you can coach on is helping people unpack that themselves. That is the deep work that coaching comes in handy for. 

I think the return on investment has been amazing. I got paired with, in my opinion, the best person for what I want. She is entertaining, fun, and knows the material really well. 

She has her own experience, having been both internal and external. The people that come through the program are also very qualified with our own experiences, and we add a lot. 

I would recommend the Center for Executive Coaching to people who need flexibility, and have some experience to share. 

There are other programs that affiliate themselves with universities to be exclusive, and I think this is an incredibly high quality program that does not come with that kind of elitism. It is a very down to earth group of people who know what they are doing.

Dr. Mike Hitchcock is the President and founder of Charles Atwater Group, L.L.C. He is a certified executive coach with over 30 years of leadership, sales, and business development experience. He has worked for the last decade and a half to provide corporate growth strategies to small businesses operating within the U.S. defense sector. Additionally, Mike is a retired Marine Corps Officer and combat veteran who has focused his coaching career on developing future leaders and assisting military members in transiting into corporate leadership positions. Mike holds a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University, an M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix, and a B.S. in Economics from Western Michigan University.

Visit his LinkedIn Profile

Key Points From Mike Hitchcock’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching has been having three or four repeatable and reliable customers who provide a consistent source of revenue that allows me to focus and grow my business.”

Mike’s Results

  • Has begun to focus on core customers
  • Better understands his role as a coach
  • Equipped to guide his clients
  • Now has reliable repeat customers

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Mike build a successful coaching business

  • Assistance in building a successful business
  • Access to a wealth of materials
  • Individual support and advice

My name is Michael Hitchcock. I was a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton for a number of years. After I left that position I started my own consulting company supporting federal government contractors, and helping them win federal government contracts.

My initial goals were to be more effective with my clients. One of the challenges I had with the clients was that my advice was not sticking. We needed a better way to understand our client’s problems, and communicate with them.

I thought that coaching was the right avenue to try to help our clients help themselves.

The Center for Executive Coaching has given me the tools that are required to be effective with clients. I have been in business for a number of years, but the coaching tools helped me to figure out what my niche was.

I had been really hesitant to embrace the niche within the federal contracting space. I thought that was more of a consulting space that I needed to be in. What I soon found through coaching was, I did not have to be the expert going in to help these companies out.

The owners themselves are the experts. So it is about helping those owners work through some of the challenges that they have individually with their businesses. They have the solutions and my job is to help them navigate the solutions that they have already identified.

What I have learned helps me serve my clients better. It also changed my business model. Previously, my business model was to have a lot of clients.

What I have seen over the last few years is that it is not necessarily the number of clients I have, but rather it is about having a smaller number who I am a trusted advisor for. In essence, you end up getting a lot of repeat business.

I spend less time marketing and more time with my clients. I now receive more referrals through those clients. This has enabled me to spend more time focused on clients, instead of marketing and sales.

It has absolutely been rewarding for myself, both personally and professionally. I have been able to create a niche for myself without having to work for another company, back in the kind of the corporate grind.

I have seen other folks that I have recommended go through the Center for Executive Coaching who have left their current professions and are now entrepreneurs.

Some of them have gone into coaching, and for some of them it was a self-discovery that they can do other things, and can add value in other places.

I think the experience of going through the Center for Executive Coaching has opened doors not just for myself, but for a number of colleagues that have also gone through the program.

I would absolutely recommend the Center for Executive Coaching to anyone. In fact, I have recommended the Center a number of times to friends and colleagues.

It will change your life both personally and professionally, because the skills that you learn in coaching are not just the skills you use in the workplace. These are skills that you can use in your home, or when you are out with friends and colleagues. They are life-changing skills.

Daiana is a member of our faculty, leading coach training in our Eastern European market. She is an executive coach for leaders, with a Master Certified Coach (MCC) Credential by the International Coach Federation (ICF), Coach Supervisor and a Registered ICF Mentor Coach. She served as a President, Communication Director and Member of the Board of Directors at the ICF Romania Chapter.

As a Master Certified Coach (MCC), she works with leaders-from startup entrepreneurs to C-level executives- who have bold visions and who play for high stakes.

As a Certified Mentor Coach by ICF, she is certified to offer mentor coaching programs for coaches interested in applying or renewing their ACC (Associate Certified Coach), PCC (Professional Certified Coach), or MCC (Master Certified Coach) Credential and need the required 10 hours of mentoring. As a Coach Supervisor she works with leaders and entrepreneurs that take their work seriously enough to set up a reflective space where they can review that work, learn from it and apply that learning when they return to it. She also works with coaches who bring their work to another individual/or group in order to learn how to do that work better.

Daiana is a pioneer in the coaching world in Eastern Europe, both as an executive and leadership coach and in the many coaching professionals she has trained, and who now look to her as their mentor.

Highlights from Daiana Stoicescu’s Hall of Fame Interview

My life is different now because I am free to create my own schedule. I can choose who I work with. I really love what I am doing and I also have time for my family while creating other amazing things and contributing to other people’s lives.”

  • Now a full time coach
  • Works with a range of high performing clients
  • Has the freedom to create her own schedule
  • Feels passionate about what she does

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Daiana build her very own coaching business

  • A fully certified program
  • Advice on how to build a coaching business

My name is Daiana, and I am a former teacher and a leader in the corporate field. When I was in my 20s, I was always wondering about what comes next and was not content.

Then the Center for Executive Coaching came into my life and I began to love my work, because I am doing coaching as a full-time job.

Before joining the Center for Executive Coaching, I was looking for an executive coaching certification and training that could give me tools and processes to attract great clients. I wanted to have an impact and wanted to love what I do.

With the Center for Executive Coaching I have found brilliant tools and advanced techniques for developing my own niche. I can say that the foundation they gave me is priceless.

I am really grateful that I chose this program because it has made me who I am today. Everything I have created in my business and my life is because of the tools and frameworks that I read and implemented.

I have had amazing results from people who want to double their income by changing their position, and opening a new business, or to those who want to have success in a new role as a first-time manager.

I also support some athletes. They are achievers who want to grow fast and I have been able to have an amazing contribution to their goals. I work with a full range of people.

I go back to the Center for Executive Coaching on a weekly basis. I find value in the member area and I meet with peers to plan together. It is an amazing community.

I can say that absolutely, the investment was worth it for me. It was life changing and I am very grateful that I chose to press that button many years ago.

I will highly recommend the Center for Executive Coaching. You will develop a clear understanding of the coaching profession, and how to create your own services, market yourself, and sell your services. This program really has it all!

Rob Berg is a Principal at the consulting firm Perr&Knight and Director of the firm’s fastest-growing profit center. He is an expert in business process improvement and enterprise-wide project/program/portfolio management. Rob consults to executives at insurance, financial services, private equity, and technology companies who have a strong desire to improve operations, promote greater engagement, and derive better outcomes for the organizations they lead. He is also an Executive Coach to leaders seeking to clarify their visions, effect strategic change, and inspire their team members. Rob is the author of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵: 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘒𝘦𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳, which has been called “a must read for professional service providers” and “a wake up call to an industry which badly needs to reconnect with its ‘authentic self.'”

Key Points from Rob Berg’s Hall of Fame Video

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching is that after 20 years, I finally published a book. It was life-changing and it has set me up with a career that I could pursue into my 80s.”

Rob’s Results

  • Gained insight into his own practices
  • Has successfully coached others
  • Has a better vision of the future
  • Wrote and published his own book

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Rob adopt a more coaching oriented approach to management

  • Proven coaching strategies
  • Support and guidance on the business of coaching
  • A large library of useful resources
  • Frequent updates in line with best practices

My name is Rob Berg, and I am a principal of Perr&Knight, a consulting firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California, where I head up the operations and technology consulting practice.

My consulting work has to do with process improvement. We look at large organizations and improve the way they do things.

I always had this notion that we should focus on the technical things, like the technologies that are used, the hiring practices, and compensation.

However, by doing this we lost focus on people. We were losing sight of how we motivate individuals to execute in the new environment that I might be proposing.

One of the unintended benefits is that I can coach myself. When I am at a particular juncture in my life or career, I know what questions to ask myself to get out of the rut and move forward.

Just by writing and being self reflective I can develop a stronger vision for the future. My approach is way less directive now and more coaching oriented, making me a much better manager.

One of the great things I have done is working with a young consultant that came into our firm. His first move was backwards. We brought him in at a management level and he took a step back.

I helped with his calendar, and how he could find more time in his week by organizing it differently, while also developing a vision for his career.

Three and a half years ago, he became a partner, and is a director of the fastest growing practice in the firm. I find that extremely gratifying. He has doubled his income at the firm in the last three years, and I played a part in that.

I graduated from the Center for Executive Coaching five years ago, so it has been a while. I still find myself going back to their library of resources, and tools, as well as all the other content Andrew keeps cranking out. They constantly renew and refresh that material, so five years later, it is still a great resource.

There are many ancillary things available, like marketing, how to contract, handling objections, and other things that are outside a traditional body of knowledge for coaching proper, but are important if you are serious about being a successful coach.

I highly recommend the Center for Executive Coaching, especially for consultants. It was an extraordinary experience! The investment I made has paid for itself many times over, so it is a no-brainer.

The coaching helps you to pull stuff out of your client. This gives you instant buy-in when you present strategies, or devise them collaboratively to help fix their businesses.

Teri Citterman is the founder and principal of Talonn, an organization that helps good thinkers become great leaders. Teri is known as a thought cultivator and trusted advisor to CEOs and the C-Suite. She is an expert in organizational communications and coaches individuals and executive teams in fast-paced, high-growth organizations. Her coaching centers on executive presence, power, and influence. As a result of Teri’s coaching, executives master leadership scalability and drive their vision through others by asserting their conviction, decisiveness, and equal footing to amplify their impact.  www.Talonnllc.com

Key Points from Teri Citterman’s Hall of Fame Interview

“There are a lot of coaching programs out there, but there is nothing like the Center for Executive Coaching. It absolutely changed my life and gave me a path forward in terms of the type of work I do. I have no regrets.”

Teri’s Results

  • Built a foundation for her coaching
  • Learned strategies she could adapt to her own style
  • Has collaborated with other successful coaches
  • Has had an impact on those she has coached

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Teri establish herself as a successful executive coach

  • Expert instruction on how to establish yourself as a coach
  • Adaptable tools and techniques
  • A strong and supportive alumni network

My name is Teri Citterman, and prior to joining the Center for Executive Coaching, I was in public relations, corporate communications, and I was a ghost writer. I wrote books for CEOs.

It was through the process of ghost writing that I became curious about coaching. Now, I am an executive performance coach for CEOs and leaders in the C-Suite.

When I first joined the Center for Executive Coaching, I did not really know what executive coaching was. I had friends that were doing it, but I did not have a construct of the process and frameworks in my mind.

I was really looking for a foundation, and for instruction that was flexible so that I could adapt it to suit my own style.

Joining the Center for Executive Coaching helped me to understand who I am as a coach, and what I was going to bring to the table. I focus on executive presence, power, and influence.

I use a lot of the materials that were created by the Center for Executive Coaching and have adapted them to my style, and my clients.

The alumni network is really strong. It really helped me to understand the type of coach I wanted to be and how to show up as that coach. It gave me a lot of confidence.

I help leaders really understand the power they have, both true power as well as indirect power. The idea of having to have authority, but not actually having authority.

I help them to understand how to influence people, understand the power they have in their relationships and the types of relationships they need to have in order to get things done.

The way I measure my impact is by the impact the leaders I coach get. I am only as good as they are. Their bosses, boards, or their primary stakeholders recognize the changes that they see and that means I have been successful.

The Center For Executive Coaching is designed in an efficient way. The real practical tips for coaching are priceless. The Center for Executive Coaching attracts a different level of coaches.

Working and collaborating with other people that have gone through the Center for Executive Coaching is unlike anything else!

I do recommend the Center for Executive Coaching. In fact, there are a couple of people I know going through the program right now.

Those who thrive in this kind of program are people who are serious. They are not dabbling in coaching, they actually want to go forward with coaching as a career.

Having access to other people, asking questions, and being able to bounce ideas off of each other is so valuable.

When people in the program get to know you, they will share their contacts and best practices with you. It is a unique community that’s willing to share.

Mark Monane is Principal and Chief Medical Officer at Monane Group Clinical Consulting LLC, a firm devoted to providing advice and content to help life science clients with storytelling and strategic positioning to improve their impact and reach. Leadership and executive coaching services further bolster these efforts, including pagingdrcoach directed toward medical executives and Dr x Dr Coaching directed towards residency and chief resident programs. Mark holds A.B. and M.B.A. degrees from Columbia University as well as an M.D. degree from New York University. Mark is a Certified Healthcare Leadership Coach through the Center for Executive Coaching as well as an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation.

Key Points From Mark Monane’s Hall Of Fame Interview

“My biggest win has been the ability to incorporate new information to go beyond mentoring and to move to coaching. It has been a great addition.”

Mark’s Results

  • Moved from mentoring to coaching
  • Built a network of other coaches
  • New ways to structure coaching conversations
  • Started a new coaching business

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Mark develop strategies for coaching medical professionals

  • Structured programs
  • Highly skilled course tutors
  • Help building an executive coaching business
  • The ability to network with other coaches

My name is Mark Monane, and I am a physician by training, doing mostly consulting at this time, in both industry and academia.

Since the program, I have been able to add a new skill set and I am spending time with chief medical officers and medical leaders to get them to the next level, in their job or be more productive to the organization.

What I have heard over and over again from the chief medical officers is, they want to be as productive as they were in their previous career now that they are the medical voice in a commercial company.

My goal was to help them make that transition successfully.

I really like that the Center for Executive Coaching is not just a one-time event. They are building a community. It is like joining a club where you get new knowledge, but you also get to network with other people who are trying to be coaches.

You get to go back again and again to revisit the information, so it is more of a longitudinal experience instead of a one-time event.

After a 20-year corporate career where he enjoyed mentoring team members, and a successful start-up exit, Jack started Levitt Executive Advisors to pursue his passion for coaching full time. His client roster includes a variety of large, mid-sized and entrepreneurial companies, where he has done 1:1 leadership coaching, executive presentation coaching and developed powerful teams. One engagement he had with a partner led them to write C4—Building the Powerful Team. In it, they share their model for taking a work group on a 4-and-a-half year journey to becoming an influential force and the envy of their organization.

Key Points From Jack Levitt’s Hall Of Fame Interview

“I feel like an expert in my field, because I can look any executive in the eye and tell them exactly what I think they need to hear. I can pass a red face test because of the positioning I got during the program, and I love what I do.”

Jack’s Results

  • Was able to transition from a corporate career to coaching
  • Successfully developed his own model and published it
  • Has better work-life balance
  • Now feels like an expert in his field

How The Center For Executive Coaching Helped Jack Build A Career As An Executive Coach

  • Helps you become a certified executive coach
  • Highly experienced course leaders
  • More than 20 years of experience training executive coaches
  • Personalized support and guidance

What Were Your Goals Before Joining The Center For Executive Coaching?

Before I joined the Center for Executive Coaching, I was a corporate guy working in the telecom field.

I was leaving my corporate job and wanted to become a coach, but I needed some real solid grounding on how to get into the field.

I knew what I wanted to do, but I did not know how to execute on it. I did not feel like I had the gravitas to do it and keep me grounded.

How Has Working With The Center For Executive Coaching Helped Your Career?

I just published a book with a partner of mine, and could not have done that without the Center for Executive Coaching. In fact, I actually give them credit in our acknowledgements for that assistance.

The first thing we did was create a model and build the book around this model. It really gave us a center of focus that gave the project some seriousness.

It made sure that our ideas did not feel ‘fluffy’, or like we were imposters. By the time we finished we felt like real experts who had created a useful model.

Sarah Birdsong Major is a Certified Executive Coach with the Center for Executive Coaching, with 15 years of internal and external executive recruiting experience, most recently as a senior consultant to the office of the CEO for Korn Ferry International. Additionally, she has a background in academia in both Development and Undergraduate Admissions and a deep expertise in human behavior. Her specialties include: Transition; Career mapping; Leadership and Team Building; Conflict Resolution; Assessment; Integrative Health; Mindfulness and Meditation. Her additional qualifications include: MEd Counseling with a specialization in Higher Education, University of Virginia; BA Psychology, University of Virginia, Certified Health Coach, Institute of Integrative Nutrition; and Naam Meditation/Yoga Therapies. Please visit her website .

Key Points from Sarah Birdsong Major’s Hall of Fame Interview

“Not only do I have the coaching credential that I feel is important to have, I also have access to the tools that I need for the assessment work that I do. This course has allowed me to take those tools and fly.”

Sarah’s Results

  • Has a coaching credential
  • Gained access to valuable tools
  • Gave her the means to develop her own business
  • Delivers value as a corporate coach

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Sarah develop as a successful coach

  • A recognized coaching certification
  • Small and personal groups
  • Proven tools to build credibility with clients

My name is Sarah Birdsong Major, and before I started with the Center for Executive Coaching, I was working for 10 years at Korn Ferry International. I was working in their New York office and I was a special consultant to the firm working globally.

I already had a master’s degree, and a lot of great experience working at great companies, but I wanted to start my own business.

I felt like it was really important to get a coaching credential, especially if I was going to set up a coaching business. At that time, I really wanted to do a lot of work with assessments.

The Center for Executive Coaching has allowed me to have greater balance in my life. I am able to work with people all over the world everyday.

It doesn’t matter where I am, or how I do it. I have that one-on-one contact with people. I love that aspect, because it has allowed me to run a really thriving business that people really need.

There is one part, where I work with people internally in an organization. They are trying to assess them, and figure out how they best fit.

There is a lot of work I do with succession planning, as well as how to coach and mentor. It goes deeper than whether they will be right for the position and looks at whether they are a good cultural fit as well.

A lot of it is working to retain a person that is already with the company, and keeping them happy. Then I do a lot of work with people who are early in their careers.

They may be in college or even in high school and need help to figure out the college they want to go to based on what their interests and abilities are.

It is about empowering them to see the beauty of who they are and where they can go in their lives.

It was absolutely worth it, because it was a lifeline for me. I needed to figure out a way to get the tools I needed. Just the introduction alone was worth every penny that I spent.

It has been absolutely worth it, and I have been really impressed. I was also very impressed with the people that I met through the program and the resources they were able to share.

I believe the Center for Executive Coaching is a great program for people that already have some life experience, because it helps to come into a program like this with experience.

That doesn’t mean you have to have it, but if you are going to go into a coaching program, you will need that experience to coach effectively.

This course is a great place to share your ideas with others, develop your practice, work on your skills, and find your own style because not everybody coaches the same. It is an intensive program and a very good one.

Dr. Tony Gerth is a Clinical Professor of Information Systems in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business at the University of North Texas. He teaches the strategic management of information technology. His research focuses on the role of the Chief Information Officer. He is co-author of “Taking the Reins as CIO: A Blueprint for Leadership Transitions.” He is also an executive coach and helps IT leaders maximize their impact. Visit his LinkedIn profile here .

Key Points from Tony Gerth’s Hall of Fame Interview

“My biggest win with the Center for Executive Coaching has been engagement with the CIO of a large organization where I provided workshops, and coaching to his direct reports”.

Tony’s Results

  • Has new external clients
  • Feels more confident as a coach
  • Now has a recognized certification
  • Has new coaching tools and strategies

How the Center for Executive Coaching helped Tony become more confident as an executive coach

  • A recognized coaching qualification
  • Help and support during and after the course
  • Connect with other coaches
  • Learn proven tools and techniques

My name is Tony Gerth, and I am a Clinical Professor at the University of North Texas. I teach strategic management of information technology. I was looking for formal training to distinguish myself as an executive coach.

I had a lot of coaching experience with employees, but I felt like a certification would just add some additional credibility to those skills.

I still have my day job at the university, so right now my coaching is more of a supplement. The key takeaway has been the confidence I now have to work with clients and help them improve.

To go to a training class like the Center for Executive Coaching, the person has to be coachable. I have a lot of experience and I can help people fulfill their goals, which is also fulfilling for me.

My niche is coaching senior information technology leaders to grow beyond just technical expertise so that  they have the ability to step into a more senior executive role. It is very fulfilling.

In many organizations, leaders in the IT function tend to hide their impact and contribution. Helping them maximize that impact to the organization, speak in a more ‘businesslike’ language, and develop more productive relationships is so important.

Working with the Center for Executive Coaching is absolutely worth the investment. The framework that we use in the CEC is based on what really works.

It is not based on a standalone coaching paradigm like most other coaching training is. They provide a lot of content, tools and templates that are there to support coaches, and help you build your practice as an executive coach.

I have recommended the Center for Executive Coaching to a number of people. I think it works well for internal coaches.

For experienced external coaches working with the Center for Executive Coaching will be a great experience and they will give you a lot of ongoing support.

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COMMENTS

  1. Coaching Business Plan Template [Updated 2024]

    Marketing Plan. Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P's: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a coaching business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following: Product: In the product section, you should reiterate the type of coaching company that you documented in your company overview.

  2. Coaching Business Plan: The Ultimate Guide To Creating Yours

    Shiny Object Syndrome is a fast-track to failure. A great business plan is the exact opposite. A coaching business plan gives you immunity. It protects you from having to chase one good idea after the next because you already know what your business needs and you'll instantly reduce the uncertainty of how you're going to create revenue.

  3. How to start a coaching business

    3 Things you'll need to become a successful coach. Creating a business & marketing strategy (free one page business plan included) What do you need to set up your coaching business? Create your signature coaching offers. Start creating valuable content. Getting your first clients. Scaling your coaching business with digital products

  4. Effective Coaching Business Plan: Strategies For Success

    2. Mission. After you describe your business vision, you need to write a mission statement that describes your business. The mission is the goal of your venture and is very important for your coaching business plan. In my experience, mission plays a vital role, as this seven letter word drives our professional and personal lives.

  5. How To Build A Successful Coaching Business

    Invest in personal development. All four founders also work with coaches of their own to help them grow and develop, both personally and professionally. It's something they all credit to helping ...

  6. Coaching Business Plan Template (2024)

    Below is a template to help you create each section of your Coaching business plan. Executive Summary Business Overview. Premier Health Coaching Services Is a startup health coaching company located in Seattle, Washington. The company is founded by Tracy Hoffman, a health coach who holds a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition ...

  7. How To Write A Life Coaching Business Plan: 5 Templates

    This life coaching business plan template from Profitable Venture is a more comprehensive example, starting with an executive summary and ending with a startup expenditure budget. [3] SWOT and market analyses are used for an in-depth assessment of potential opportunities, threats, and rivals in the coaching industry.

  8. How to Write a Coaching Business Plan That Helps You Thrive

    1. Write an executive summary. The executive summary is the doorway to your business plan, providing a concise and enticing overview of your coaching business. It gives potential investors, partners, and other stakeholders a snapshot of your business, its goals, and how it intends to achieve them.

  9. Free Coaching Business Plan Template

    As a business owner, you can add more if you feel it adds value. The essential elements include an executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management plan, financial plan, and addendums. ... A coaching business plan template includes a financial plan that includes future ...

  10. How to start an executive coaching business

    Create a Business Plan: Creating a business plan is an essential step to starting any business, and it's especially important for executive coaching. Your business plan should include a description of your services, objectives, marketing strategy, pricing, and expenses. It should also include a financial plan that outlines how you plan to ...

  11. Executive Business Coaching, Explained

    Executive business coaching helps business leaders optimize their impact in the workplace with strategic, tailored guidance in both the personal and professional spheres with long term results. One common source of confusion is the distinction between a coach and a consultant. In short: a consultant will solve problems for your business.

  12. PDF COACHING BUSINESS BLUEPRINT

    THE ULTIMATE COACHING BUSINESS BLUEPRINT coachesconsole.com [email protected] (540) 391-0746 MIND MAP OF A THRIVING COACHING BUSINESS On the next page, you'll see the VERY BIG PICTURE of the Mind-Map of a Thriving Coaching Business. It's hard to read since we had to resize it so it would all fit on one page.

  13. How To Develop A Coaching Plan: 12 Examples and Templates

    Successful coaching doesn't happen by accident, and even the best coaching tools can fail to deliver results without a proper game plan. Creating a coaching plan is a foolproof way to ensure you deliver the right solutions in the most strategic way for your clients, so you can supercharge their chances of success like a pro.. Before you begin, we recommend working along with Quenza's tools ...

  14. How To Write a Business Plan for a Life Coaching Business + Free

    1. Clearly define your offering. To build a successful life coaching business, you must have a precise understanding of your services and how they stand out from the competition. Determine your areas of expertise—whether career, executive, relationship, life, or wellness coaching—and the specific challenges you can help clients navigate.

  15. How to Create a Simple Business Plan for Your Coaching Business

    Why you need a coaching business plan. A coaching business plan is really about clarity and focus for you, your partners, your investors, and your executive team. This plan will help you build a business that will support you financially, have an impact on those around you, and leave a lasting legacy you can be proud of. The research you have ...

  16. How to Create a Simple Life Coaching Business Plan

    Find your business idea and audience. Understand how to position your offer. Learn marketing and sales. And to get a quick start, the best place to start is to talk to potential clients. (You should do this before you write your business plan.) Hop on a few calls and ask your potential clients why they'd want to buy your services.

  17. How to Start Your Life Coaching Business Plan & Template

    How to Start Your Life Coaching Business. Life coaching can have far-reaching and diverse positive impacts on clients' lives (Clutterbuck et al., 2016).. Many of us have toyed with the idea of starting a life coaching business, helping people change health-related behavior, improve wellness, boost their careers, and strive for personal goals (Karmali et al., 2020; Mann et al., 2022).

  18. Executive Coaching: What it is, Benefits, and Tips to Find Yours

    Executive team coaching takes a bilateral approach to support working groups by improving communication and collaboration to boost overall performance. Leaders learn to manage their teams effectively while team members become more productive. The process involves coaching, teaching, facilitation, mediation, and positive psychology.

  19. Sample Executive Coaching Plan Made Easy

    Prior to the first meeting: Define the goal (s)/outcome of the engagement. Agree on how to measure results and success. Confirm fit between coach and client. Make sure that the client and any stakeholders/sponsors (e.g., Human Resources, the client's manager) define the success of the coaching engagement the same way.

  20. Sample Life Coach Business Plan: Complete Template & PDF

    1. Coaching Business Plan Executive Summary. While there are many different elements that can be included in a coaching business plan, the Executive Summary is one of the most important. This section should provide a brief overview of your coaching business, including your life coaching services and target market.

  21. How to Create an Executive Coaching Business Plan

    The First Step in Creating an Executive Coaching Business Plan is to Know Your Niche. One of the largest industries today for starting a coaching business is the executive coaching industry. In fact, there is a huge and growing market for executive coaching as business leaders and executives need constant coaching so they can refine their ...

  22. How To Use Executive Coaching To Its Maximum Potential

    In my opinion, executive coaching is a key ingredient to creating top-performing executive teams and individual professionals. To maximize your executive coaching, business leaders need to take a ...

  23. Overview

    Call 941-539-9623 or email us at [email protected] Also, by signing up you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to our terms and conditions. Learn how to become a certified executive coach with our proven certification program. ICF accredited. Practical, results-focused. No fluff!

  24. Kimberly Kwon on Instagram: "What do Metallica, Bill Gates, Itzhak

    0 likes, 0 comments - coachkimberlykwon on July 12, 2022: "What do Metallica, Bill Gates, Itzhak Perlman and Oprah Winfrey have in common? They have all h..."