Becoming a life coach or business coach requires you to make a commitment to lifelong learning in the fields of both professional coaching and successful entrepreneurship. The four sites listed below are great online destinations for staying current on the information, tools and applications that you need to develop and maintain a thriving coaching practice.
Business Balls is without a doubt the best website that we have discovered to date when it comes to keeping your fundamental coaching skills at their peek. From detailed discussions of personality theories and team development to engaging exercises and timely coaching skill quizzes, you are sure to find something new to get you thinking every time you stop by. The site is a little bit more difficult to navigate than most information portals, so you may have to do some digging around the first couple times you visit. Trust us, it’s well worth the effort.
Changing Minds, on the other hand, is a more narrowly focused information site that is devoted to the various listening, speaking and questioning techniques that can be used to communicate effectively and change minds. Of course, professional coaching is not about trying to talk clients into any specific course of action, but we are in the business of changing minds insofar as we help clients realize that they have what it takes to make their aspirations a reality on their own. At Changing Minds, life and business coaches will find hours worth of useful content covering the principles, theories and techniques professional coaches can implements as catalysts for meaningful, long-lasting inner change for their clients.
Maybe there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but you can now get an free Ivy League level education in business and marketing thanks to Brain Trust. They have assembled a link of 100 free online business courses offered by leading universities like Columbia, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkley. Professional coaching entrepreneurs might find their links to seminars covering leadership and marketing topics particularly useful. You can also access more Ivy League video courses and lectures in business and other disciplines by visiting Academic Earth.
Depending upon the nature of your professional coaching practice, you may find yourself spending anywhere form 10 – 90% of your time out in the field. The fine folks over at Codswallop.com have assembled a freelancer’s toolset consisting of over 100 web apps for everything you will possibly need in order complete business from anywhere with an internet connection. From simple client invoicing and productivity management to web design and marketing campaign analytics, you’ll be hard pressed not to find a solution to your mobility problems at this site.