Our NLP based training courses provide many marketable skills and we get asked all the time about the practicalities of individuals setting themselves up in a coaching/therapy practice.

One of the things that deters people from going ahead is the perceived cost and complexity involved.  In order to support the students of our coaching and NLP training courses we are going to produce a series of blogs on how to practically go about setting up a practice and marketing your services/networking, website construction, design and getting recognised by search engines. Most importantly we are going to explain how to do it all for minimum outlay, avoiding unnecessary consultancy and web design costs.

So, lets start by assuming that you are feeling like breaking free of all the constraints of your current comfort zone. Your comfort zone is that area of life that you are in where life is comfortable, where you do not need to push yourself because you are “ok.” Things are familiar in your comfort zone and things are comfortable. You are fed up of this mundane existence, just getting by and earning a living, you want more! You want to make a real difference to other people and help them improve their life whilst of course making a living yourself.  You want to become a coach.  What do you do?

Setting up a coaching practice

 

Training and qualifications

The first thing that you need to do is make sure that you have the necessary coaching qualifications. Coaching is not a regulated industry as yet and so there is no one national or international body that sets coaching related qualifications or accredits coaching schools or training providers.

There are many providers of coaching and coaching related courses, each offering different levels and titles of coaching qualifications.

So, which is the best provider and what is the best qualification for you?  The best thing to do to answer that question is to think about your desired outcome.  What is the outcome that you desire from your coaching qualification?  Think about that question now and jot some thoughts down.

Ultimately you want training that is going to allow you to be a successful and professional coach, don’t you? What is it that is going to determine whether or not you are successful in your coaching career?

There is one thing that stands above everything else in terms of what will facilitate your success, that is, how good you are at coaching! You can have all the qualifications in the world but if you do not get successful results with your clients, then you will fail in business because you will not have any clients.

Successful coaches, running successful businesses all have one thing in common, they get great results with their clients and these clients are happy to tell other people about how good they are. Referrals (one client referring you, your services to another person) are a major source of business for coaches and will form a massive part of your marketing plan.

So, picking a training course that will enable you to be a great coach is your first and foremost consideration. This is why NLP Training is so popular amongst the coaching community. NLP provides skills that are a perfect fit with coaching, enabling you, the coach to develop your own excellence, and providing skills and techniques that will enable you to help others to do the same.

Your second consideration is probably to ensure that you have a qualification that is recognised by the appropriate professional bodies.  Whilst as I say, coaching is an unregulated industry, in terms of acquiring clients it is possible that some corporate clients will require you to be a member of a recognised national or international body. The largest recognised coaching membership organisation in the world is the International Coaching Federation (ICF).  Our NLP Training courses provide you with “coaching specific training hours” that are required by organisations like the ICF in order to become a member, and our courses provide recognised professional qualifications that are accredited by the NLPEA, an international body of NLP.

There are two stages of professional qualification in terms of NLP. The NLP Practitioner qualification is the first stage, the second stage being NLP Master Practitioner.  These two qualifications combined are recognised now throughout the world of coaching as being a stamp of coaching excellence and I would recommend any wannabe coach to complete these qualifications.

Our popular online NLP Training courses are perfect for International and UK based students alike

Setting up in business

Whilst you are completing your training you can also be in the process of setting up your coaching/therapy business.

There are many things to think about at this stage, here are just a few that we will be writing about in this blog series: