Study Business Coaching AND Life Coaching.
Highly Experienced Tutors.
Study in Your Own Home and In Your Own Time.
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Business and Life Coaching is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
Sample Notes From Business Coaching
Consider methods for optimising the operations of a new or existing business. There are some other areas that can improve this, such as marketing, networking and so on, but these will be discussed in more detail in later lessons.
An important aspect of any business – new or existing – is their aims. What are they planning to do? What are they hoping to achieve and how are they going to do that? So one important way that this is considered is with the business plan. All businesses should have one, no matter how small the business. Also, business plans should be flexible and continually updated, to take account of the changes within the business.
A coach may need to work with a client to develop their business plan. So firstly, let us consider -
Developing a Business Plan
A business plan sets out the method for running a specific activity over a specific future period. For a business to succeed in today’s marketplace of rapid changes and increased competition, it must have clearly defined objectives and fully developed strategies for achieving them. In other words, a business plan is needed.
A business plan is one of the most important tools a business can have. A good business plan helps to give form and substance to an entrepreneurial vision, providing a mechanism that enables business owners, managers and workers to function effectively.
A good business plan will increase your chances of business success. It will help you identify your customers, market area, pricing strategies, financial and operational goals. By completing a business plan you will better understand your competitive advantages, new opportunities, current weaknesses and longer-term objectives for the business. Having a business plan is also an important requirement for gaining finance from financial institutions.
The specific activity could be the business operations of a sole trader or of a global conglomerate, it may also refer to the business as a whole or as a department, and it can apply to a business venture, charity or non profit making organisation.
The future period might be the first six months of a new company, five years in the life of an existing company or the entire duration of a project. Usually, there is a detailed focus on the next 12 months, which is set against a more general plan for the next three to five years.
A business plan precisely defines the business, identifies goals, and serves as the firm's resume. The basic components include a current and pro forma balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow analysis. It helps allocate resources properly, handle unforeseen complications, and make good business decisions.
Because it provides specific and organized information about the company and how it will repay borrowed money, a good business plan is a crucial part of any loan application. Additionally, it informs sales personnel, suppliers, and others about the company’s operations and goals.
It is simply a written document that describes the future path of a business. A good business plan explains the business concept, summarizes the objectives of the business, identifies the resources (both in terms of money and people) that will be needed by the business, describes how those resources will be obtained, and tells the reader why the business will succeed.
A business plan can serve many purposes and should be of greatest use when:
· Starting your business
· Expanding your business
· Developing new products
· Obtaining finance
· Making management decisions
· Maintaining control
The business plan is a guide to the business, which allows the reader to understand the culture, vision, goals and objectives of the new venture.
How is a business plan different from a feasibility study?
The feasibility study gives a preliminary check on the viability of a venture by estimating whether there is sufficient demand for your product/service. The business plan provides a more comprehensive analysis that includes, in addition to market research, a discussion of the operational and financial management and controls of the new business.
Some benefits of producing a business plan include:
· The process of preparing a business plan will force the client to think about their business, research some options, recognize opportunities and risks, and test some of their assumptions
· Will help identify the cash needs of the business
· Can be used to raise funding from banks and from investors
· Can be used to tell employees, investors and others about plans and strategies
· Provides a benchmark against which to compare the progress and performance of the business.
The business plan represents a unique opportunity for the client to think through all aspects of organising and operating a business; provides a facility for examining the consequences of different strategies and for determining what resources are needed to launch or expand their business. Prior to start up, the business plan helps owners/managers fully understand the nature of the venture being undertaken, and assists them in deciding if the business will be viable, or if new direction should be taken.
Business plans are used for many purposes. Essentially, it may be considered that they are:
· A formal expression of the planning process
· A request for funding
· A framework for approval
· A tool for operational business management
Learning Facilities
ACS follows the old fashioned idea that “the student comes first”. Our staff are told to treat every student as an individual and respond promptly to their enquiries; and the facilities we have developed and continue to develop, are all focused on that goal. Facilities include:
- Offices in two time zones (UK and Australia) –which means an international team of academics are responding to students 5 days a week and 16 hours a day.
- An online student room with unique resources that are only available to students studying our courses, including online library.
- Bookshop offering quality downloadable e books
- A data base of 20 million words of unique information written by our staff over 3 decades that can be drawn upon if needed by academics for use in supporting our students.
- Systems that ensure assignments are tracked, marked and returned to students, fast -commonly within a round 1 week & rarely more than 2 weeks (note: many other colleges take longer).
- The school is active in social networking and encourages students to connect with us and each other.
- No automated handling of student phone enquiries. When you call you get a real person; or leave a message and a real person will call you back within a day, but more commonly within an hour or two.
- No additional charges for extra tutor support over the phone or email.
- Free careers advice for graduates –It is our policy to provide support and advice to our students even after they graduate. If a graduate needs help with getting a CV together, or advice on setting up a business or looking for work; they only need ask.
- The quality of academic staff is higher than many other colleges.
How our Courses Differ
- Courses are continually improved –we invite feedback from all graduates and change courses immediately the need is detected.
- Courses are relevant to the whole world –we try hard to teach make the learning transferable to any region or country because the world is increasingly a global economy
- Courses written by our staff, teach different skills to standard courses; giving a unique mix of skills and knowledge to provide a career advantage. Do you want an accredited certificate and the same skills as 100 other job applicants; or one of our courses with skills that no other applicants have?
- Certificates and diplomas are longer. They teach you more, and our qualifications have built a reputation amongst academics and industry as being a very high standard for this reason.
- We are focused on helping you learn in a way that improves your capacity to understand your discipline, apply knowledge, and continue learning and developing your capabilities beyond your course.
These things cannot be always said of other colleges.
Career Opportunities
Study alone can never guarantee career success; but a good education is an important starting point.
Success in a career depends upon many things. A course like this is an excellent starting point because it provides a foundation for continued learning, and the means of understanding and dealing with issues you encounter in the workplace.
When you have completed an ACS course, you will have not only learnt about the subject, but you will have been prompted to start networking with experts in the discipline and shown how to approach problems that confront you in this field.
This and every other industry in today’s world is developing in unforeseen ways; and while that is unsettling for anyone who wants to be guaranteed a particular job at the end of a particular course; for others, this rapidly changing career environment is offering new and exciting opportunities almost every month.
If you want to do the best that you can in this industry, you need to recognise that the opportunities that confront you at the end of a course, are probably different to anything that has even been thought of when you commence a course.
BOOKS
Visit our School bookshop at www.acsebook.com
- Downloadable ebooks that can be read on ipads, PC’s, Laptops, or readers like a Kindle.
- Titles are written by our principal and staff.
- Anyone can purchase books –ACS students are offered a student discount
