Each day more and more people decide to enter the business coaching field. Spend a little time on the Internet and you’ll find articles, courses, and ebooks on how to be a business coach in a short time period.

I can’t be the only person that finds that ridiculous. I don’t understand how someone with no business experience can be a business coach.

I believe that you can learn a lot about business by reading and doing your own research- but just because you do that, it doesn’t make you qualified to teach. After all, how can you teach methods that you’ve never tried yourself?

If I read a book on space shuttles that doesn’t mean I can be an astronaut. Likewise,I can’t imagine a person who has never performed surgery giving lessons on how to perform heart transplants.

I recently interviewed coach Laurie Hayes (http://www.TheHBBSource.com) who offered some valuable advice for anyone who wants to obtain the services of a business coach.

“You always want to verify a coaches credentials. You want to ask for references and actually follow up on them and make sure that there is risk reversal in place when you enter into an agreement. When I say risk reversal, I mean make sure that there is a guarantee that if you don’t receive the agreed upon results even though you fulfill your obligations of the partnership that you’ll get your money back or maybe even just a prorated amount back for unused services if you decided to terminate the relationship midstream.”

Money chasers who read an article or a book and two days later decide that they are going to become a business coach compromise the integrity of the business coaching field.

If you want to be a business coach, go for it, but before you do make sure you have the necessary qualifications.