READ THE RAVE REVIEWS!

Amazon.com Editorial Review

Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching offers a go-to reference designed to help every professional coach build, manage, and sustain a thriving coaching practice. Packed with hundreds of proven strategies and techniques, this nuts-and-bolts guide covers all aspects of the coaching business with step-by-step instructions and real-world illustrations that prepare you for every phase of starting your own coaching business.

This single, reliable book offers straightforward advice and tools for running a successful practice, including:

•  Seven tools for making a great first impression

•  Fifteen strategies for landing ten paying clients

•  Seven secrets of highly successful coaches

• Ten marketing mistakes to avoid

Complete with sample business and marketing plans and worksheets for setting rates and managing revenue, Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching identifies the 15 biggest moneymaking markets to target and offers valuable recommendations for financing that get the most impact and mileage from every budget. Quick "Action Steps" for applying ideas and techniques make this book useful right away.

Get started in coaching today!
 

December 4, 2003

This book is hot! The "must have" guide for ALL coaches!
Reviewer: Sylva Leduc, Executive Coach and President of Client Compass from Seattle, Washington
Stephen Fairley and Chris Stout collaborated to create the coach's "must have" guide to getting started. Even for established coaches it's more than simply a refresher - it provides a benchmark to go "from good to great" for a coaching business. There's no doubt that coaching is serious business: Stephen and Chris show coaches how to treat their business with respect. Their approach isn't based on theory: they surveyed 300 successful coaches, then distilled the results into an easy to read (and follow) book. As one of the coaches interviewed by Stephen, I waited in anticipation to read their book. One word suffices to describe it - Outstanding!

Wondering about the different types of coaching, including the challenges each client group faces and how to market to them? This information is here. Strategies, tips, powerful questions, checklists, tools: there're all here just waiting for you to implement. In a step-by-step fashion they discuss how to sidestep the pitfalls and mistakes that most beginners face. They also outline the best practices for building a successful practice including establishing a target niche, fee setting, set-up costs, revenue forecasting, and marketing. The last chapter, "Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Coaches" provides the insider's peek at the strategies used in the most successful coaching practices. I found lots of new ideas that I'm going to implement in my own business. Coaches who are serious about the success of their coaching practice will read this book more than once and keep it as a ready reference. As Stephen says in closing, "Here's to your never ending success.
 

December 4, 2003

I highly recommend this book

Reviewer: Patrick Williams, Ed.D. President of the Institute of Life Coach Training from Fort Collins, CO
Stephen and Chris have written an excellent book with many tips and techniques that are proven to not only show you how to be a great coach, but also how to build a successful business as well. I highly recommend this book, especially for those coaches who want to coach in both the personal and business arena.

January 14, 2004
The Ultimate Guidebook for Coaching
Reviewer: Harold McFarland from Florida
So you want to start a new business enterprise as a personal or executive coach? Reading a copy of "Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching" is the place you will want to start. This is not just another book on the joys of coaching, but has real life information that you should know before making the commitment. The authors have provided some cold, hard facts about executive coaching including how long it typically takes to get started, how much the average person earns after one year in the business, typical problems getting clients and referrals and what to do about it. The book is a business analysis of the industry from beginning to end.

It includes such important information as what you need to know to get started, what you need to know to succeed, how to market, how to segment your market, how to target that segment, financing your business, Internet marketing, using E-zines, and web sites. Fairly and Stout even include 7 secrets of highly successful coaches. This is a complete road map of what to realistically expect, how to get to your goal, and all the steps along the way. If you are interested in becoming a personal or executive coach it is a highly recommended book. It’s the best I've come across to date.

January 13, 2004

Personal or business coach—This book will help!
Reviewer: Dennis Gibson, PhD from Illinois
The authors have captured my attention in this book. They take you step by step to help you decide "your place" in the coaching field. From there they lead you through target markets, marketing and strategies. This is a must read for anyone interested in starting a coaching career.

January 8, 2004

Starting out coaching? This is a must read!
Reviewer: Melissa Fristrom from Watertown, MA United States
This is one of the best primers on coaching. Anyone who is just starting out as a coach or thinking about becoming a coach should read this book. Stephen brings the much needed tactical world of business to coaching. Reading this book first will help you succeed.

January 2, 2004

An Insiders Guide on Creating a Successful Coaching Practice!
Reviewer: Ginger a Professional Life Coach from Boston, MA
I saw this book at the recent ICF conference in Denver but waited to buy it. I should have bought it then because I haven't been able to put it down since I received it! I am so impressed with the authors grasp of the field of coaching and their ability to clearly articulate how to create a successful coaching practice.

Unlike a lot of the other books I've bought, this one really distinguishes itself by basing its marketing recommendations on actual research. The authors conducted a national survey of 300 coaches to find out what financially successful coaches do that financially unsuccessful coaches don't do--the findings are AMAZING!

I've been coaching professionally for almost 3 years now. I really wish this book was around when I started because it would have kept me from making a lot of the costly mistakes I did. I also wish my coach training program had included this book in its curriculum because they were quite weak in the area of practice building.

However, that's not to say that the book is only for new coaches because I was able to immediately identify over 2 dozen marketing strategies I could start using in my practice. They are now part of my 2004 business plan (which is one of the things this book showed me how to create).

The other thing I found to be really helpful were the interviews with the top coaches in the field: Sandy Vilas of CoachU, Mike Jay of B/Coach, Pat Williams of Institute of Life Coach Training, Wendy Johnson of the Worldwide Assoc of Business Coaches, and many others.

I give this book my highest recommendation! If you're struggling with how to create a successful coaching practice there is simply no better book available anywhere.

December 17, 2003
Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching.
Reviewer: Mary Sue Reining from Lisle, IL United States
This is an excellent comprehensive resource that covers the A-Z's of establishing a coaching practice/business. The information is straight forward, instructional and thorough. A much awaited "how to" book and a must read for coaches at all levels and stages of their practice development.

December 16, 2003

A 'must-read' book!
Reviewer: Paul Lam, PhD from Life Coach International
This is an excellent book packed with hundreds of proven strategies and practical techniques how to build a thriving coaching practice. Stephen and Chris take all the vital elements of getting started in personal and executive coaching and bring them together into one valuable resource. This book is essential for not only new coaches but also for all coaches who want to build successful coaching practice.