Coming to you with yet another business idea you can try out in Zimbabwe. The coaching industry has a diverse number of niches. Today I am dealing with career coaching specifically. A career coach is a skilled professional or expert in the provision of services needed for one to build their career. These are services like offering career path guidance, drafting of resumes and cover letters, teaching negotiation, teaching interview techniques, and other related services. I will share more when we move along; remember we are exploring starting career coaching as a business in Zimbabwe.
What Does A Career Coach Do?
In building your career you are often presented with scenarios that require strategic decision-making. It is also inevitable that you have to develop competent leadership skills to thrive in your career. You are also required to present documents such as resumes, cover letters, motivation letters, portfolios, and so on. There are skills, aptitudes, and support you will need in building your career. A career coach provides guidance and mentorship in navigating all that. We can summarize it as a career coach helps with making the necessary career assessments, providing counsel, recommending, and skills development. They can even link you up with career opportunities since they usually have a huge influence and network.
How To Become A Career Coach
Almost anyone can become a career just so long you are willing to put in the work. At the most basic level, you must have a degree, diploma, or certificate. It is much more strategic if your academic qualification aligns with career-related issues. I am referring to examples like Human Resource Management, for example. It is confined to that though; you can have any other qualification and still be cut out to become a career coach.
It would be ideal to have an appreciable experience of the corporate world or simply any professional environment. This helps you to be acquainted with the dynamics of career development first-hand. Your soft skills are also pertinent to becoming a career coach; they are your backbone. The 7 core soft skills are leadership skills, teamwork, communication skills, problem-solving skills, work ethic, adaptability (or flexibility), and interpersonal skills.
Certification puts you ahead of any other players in the industry. There are countless certification programs for career coaches all around the world. Being a certified career coach gives you credibility and value. The most important thing though is to connect with strategic people and events. This helps put your name out there thus potentially building your clientele.
Starting The Career Coaching Business
Once you have set your things in order you must establish an online presence. Have a website; it does not even have to be that sophisticated. Set up social media accounts i.e. on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and maybe Instagram. The former 3 are much easier for engagement as opposed to Instagram but you can always make it work. Once that is all done you start rolling out your marketing to attract clients. When you get clients make sure you do a good job and get reviews or testimonials. This will be vital to add to your website and social media accounts for social proof.
The career coaching business thrives on having to be a reputable brand – it is all about reputation. The more you build your clientele, the bigger your brand grows. Niching is important in this line of business. You can just be universal i.e. offering your services to anyone. Alternatively, you can stick to just a particular industry or career path. You have to conduct some market research to arrive at that decision.
The global hourly charge career coaches charge is US$16. Annual incomes for career coaches range from US$30 000 to US$250 000. The average annual income is around US$90 000. Career coaching as a business is still not yet that commonplace in Zimbabwe. I believe that presents an opportunity to make money. Unemployment is extremely high in Zimbabwe and that makes the job market highly competitive. We are also seeing a growing trend of remote working. This now allows Zimbabweans to apply for jobs anywhere in the world. Most people need professional guidance in those regards. Give career coaching a shot!
