Success Stories

Blaize Davies - Life Coach

Blaize writes:
"I had been a coach for a number of years in my last job, managing training programmes and supervising staff. I had tried to set up as a coach with private clients, but found it too much on top of my full-time job. So when the opportunity came to go self-employed I started to explore it again. I joined IBS in May 2004 and this gave me the breather I needed get good financial and administrative systems in place, identify my target market, decide how I wanted to work as a coach and gain clients. It also gave me the time to hone my skills and gain new qualifications.

Now a year later I have been in profit for 6 months; I am thoroughly enjoying my work. The majority of my clients are managers, businesses owners, directors of voluntary organisations and self-employed consultants i.e. those who don't have the kind of support structure often available in large organisations. They face a variety of issues: they may not be making the most of business opportunities; they may find themselves having to manage or work with someone they find challenging; they may be juggling too much on a daily basis; they may be having difficulty managing their client portfolio.

How can coaching help? I help them to think through the problem in a more objective and focused way by asking searching and sometimes challenging questions, by offering suggestions, rehearsing a conversation, working out strategies for handling difficult situations and motivating them to change unproductive work patterns."

I derive huge job satisfaction working with my clients and observing them make big and small changes in a relatively short time.