Business Coaching: Foundations · Early bird closes 16 September 2026
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Business Coaching: Foundations

Most business coaches don't get formal training.
So we built it.

3,000+
Businesses Coached
25+
Years Refining the Method
Course Overview

Every business owner deserves a coach who changes the trajectory of their business.

We develop the diagnostic methodology that gives coaches the capability to do exactly that.

Business Coaching: Foundations is a specialist program built for working coaches and professionals. Fifteen modules developed and refined across more than 3,000 businesses over 25 years, covering the complete business coaching methodology from human behaviour to business strategy. Structured. Evidence based. Immediately applicable.

Foundations builds the judgement to read any business and know which models it needs, in what order, so clients stay engaged.

What business coaching actually requires.

Three roles, same client, often in the same session.

01
Diagnostician
02
Strategist
03
Coach

Diagnose, then strategise, then coach it through. That is what IOBC is built around, and what you will leave able to do.

Get the complete Business Coaching: Foundations brochure.

The full syllabus, dates, pricing and everything covered across the three days.

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Course Features

What You Get

HBDI Thinking Styles Assessment
Completed before Day 1 and included in your course fee. Arrive with immediate insight into how you and your clients process information differently.
Three Full Days Face to Face
9:00am to 4:00pm, one day per week across three consecutive weeks. In the room, not on a screen.
Full Catering
Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea provided on each of the three days.
A Deliberately Small Cohort
Every participant gets the attention and practice time the program demands.
Direct Access to Jacqui and Charmion
Across all three days. Founders in the room, not guest speakers or pre-recorded sessions.
IOBC Certificate of Completion
Recognising you have completed Business Coaching: Foundations.
Course Modules

Business Coaching: Foundations  — Fifteen modules.

Individually each module gives you a tool. Together they give you the capability to coach any client, in any business, at any stage.

Every area of a business covered. Every stage of a client engagement. Every situation you are likely to face.

Module 01 · Day 1

Values and Alignment

The invisible architecture of change

Every business is shaped by the values and beliefs of the people running it, usually in ways the owner has never had named.

Read more ⇾

Module 02 · Day 1

Thinking Styles

Four ways of processing, one conversation

A client who thinks analytically needs a different conversation to one who thinks relationally. Your HBDI results are used live on Day 1.

Read more ⇾

Module 03 · Day 1

The Trust Equation

Why clients open up, or don't

Trust does not build itself over time. It follows a precise pattern, and once you can see it you can build it deliberately in a first meeting.

Read more ⇾

Module 04 · Day 1

Behavioural Drivers

What drives behaviour in business

Every business owner has been told what to do. Most already know what they should do. This module is about why they don't.

Read more ⇾

Module 05 · Day 1

Content and Context

Clear context, fewer assumptions

The model behind every efficient conversation. When context is clear, assumptions drop away and people move forward genuinely aligned.

Read more ⇾

Module 06 · Day 2

Business Lifecycle

Where is this business right now

Pinpoint where a business sits in its growth journey and the entire dynamic of the coaching relationship changes. This is the lens, before any numbers are on the table.

Read more ⇾

Module 07 · Day 2

The Revenue Cycle

How a business actually makes money

Revenue is not a number at the top of a P&L. It is a cycle, and every business has a point in that cycle where it leaks.

Read more ⇾

Module 08 · Day 2

The Expectation Gap

Clear expectations, more referrals

Referrals are not a reward for good work. They follow a gap that either gets managed or does not, and it can be designed.

Read more ⇾

Module 09 · Day 2

Conversation Compass

Moving a client from transaction to trusted

Depth in a client relationship follows a sequence. A coaching tool and a sales tool, depending on the room you are in.

Read more ⇾

Module 10 · Day 2

Positioning

Finding a genuine point of difference

A business that can't articulate what makes it different wastes money on marketing that doesn't land. You learn to find the difference that is actually there.

Read more ⇾

Module 11 · Day 3

Go to Market

Getting products and services sold

Most businesses rely on whoever walks through the door. The ones that grow have a deliberate acquisition system, and you learn to build it with them.

Read more ⇾

Module 12 · Day 3

Strategy

Vision, values and a direction that holds

This is where a client's direction gets built, with them, from vision and values through to a strategy they own.

Read more ⇾

Module 13 · Day 3

The Anchor

Fast results at the start of an engagement

The model you reach for in the first weeks with a new client, when something needs to move and the client needs to see it move.

Read more ⇾

Module 14 · Day 3

Valuation

What a business is actually worth

Most owners are building something without knowing what it's worth, or which levers actually increase it.

Read more ⇾

Module 15 · Day 3

Packaging and Pricing

Bundling, unbundling and what to charge

A strategic framework for how anything gets packaged and sold. You will use it on your own coaching, then on every client after that.

Read more ⇾
Who Is It For

Three audiences.
One program.

01
The Business Coach
You're already coaching. The market is shifting and AI has raised what owners expect from a coach: they arrive better informed and less patient for advice they could have found themselves. Foundations gives you a structured methodology to go deeper with any client, make your value visible from the first conversation and deliver results that keep clients coming back.
02
The Advisor or BDM
You're already in the room with small business owners as a financial advisor, accountant, franchise manager, business banker or BDM. Your clients trust you and increasingly ask questions that go beyond your core service. Foundations gives you the capability to answer them, strengthen the relationship, and open doors your core service never would.
03
The Aspiring Business Coach
You have the business experience and you know you can help small business owners. Corporate experience doesn't automatically translate into small business coaching, and generic coaching skills don't either. Foundations gives you the structured approach, the practical tools and the IOBC endorsement that make your experience visible to clients from day one.

Already coaching and want to prove your results? Look at Business Coaching: Advanced. Either program can be taken on its own.

Your Facilitators
Jacqui Attard
Co-Founder & Managing Director

Jacqui has been coaching business owners since 1999. Across more than 25 years she has worked directly with over 1,600 businesses in every industry and at every stage of growth. As CEO of Realise Business for a decade she grew revenue by 275%, built a team of 25 coaches and advisors, delivered programs to more than 10,000 businesses and secured over $20M in government contracts. Named in Smart Company's Smart 50 and a finalist for the ANZ Executive of the Year Award, she holds a Master of Business Coaching from the University of Wollongong. She co-founded IOBC because she believes business coaching should be a credentialed profession — and that every business owner deserves a coach who can actually change the trajectory of their business.

More about Jacqui →
Charmion Ingram
Co-Founder & Director of Programs

During eleven years as an internal business coach at AMP, Charmion did more than coach. She built. Designing and leading business coaching training programs from the inside, she brought coaching capability to financial advice businesses right across the AMP network. In more than 17 years she has coached over 1,400 businesses and professionals across some of Australia's leading financial institutions, and she holds a Master of Business Coaching from the University of Wollongong. She co-founded IOBC to give coaches the methodology she wishes she had been given — structured, proven and built for the real challenges small business owners face.

More about Charmion →

They don't run workshops. They change how coaches think about their work, permanently.

What Participants Say

"The presenters, Jacqui and Charm, are experts in their field. They are professional, highly trained, and know their content. The value in this workshop and what they are creating is filling a space in the coaching industry, which is really going to change people's lives."

Deb McNee
Founder, Design Coach Grow

"The Institute of Business Coaching represents a turning point, and with Charm and Jacqui at the helm, it couldn't be in better hands. I've experienced Charm's coaching firsthand, both personally and across my team, and I regularly recommend her to my own clients, who always thank me for it. She is the real deal, genuine, caring, and with a rare ability to anticipate what you need before you do. Partnering to professionalise and accredit business coaching is a bold and important step."

Russell Miller
CEO, Pacific Accounting
Your Investment
One day per week for 3 weeks
Day 1
Friday 16 October 2026
9:00am to 4:00pm · Sydney CBD
Day 2
Friday 23 October 2026
9:00am to 4:00pm · Sydney CBD
Day 3
Friday 30 October 2026
9:00am to 4:00pm · Sydney CBD
Early bird price$1270 inc GST
Standard price$1500 inc GST
Early bird closes16 September 2026
PaymentPaid in full at registration
Secure Your Place →
FAQ

Frequently Asked
Questions

No. Each program stands on its own. That said, most participants find Foundations gives them more to build on, because Advanced assumes you can already read a business and hold a coaching conversation.

Foundations builds the judgement to read any business and know which models it needs, in what order, so clients stay engaged. Advanced builds the baseline, the forecast and the measures a client agrees to, and that keep them with you until the numbers improve.

No pre-reading required. Your only preparation is completing the HBDI thinking styles assessment, which you'll receive prior to the course. It takes around 20 minutes and your results will be used on Day 1.

The HBDI is a thinking styles assessment that maps how you naturally process information. Completing it before Day 1 means you arrive with insight about yourself that gets used immediately, first on you and then on your clients. It is included in your course fee.

Ten. That is a cap, not a target. Ten is the largest group we can put in a room and still have every participant practise every model on a real business.

Pacific Workspaces, Level 5, 115 Pitt Street, Sydney. The same venue as Business Coaching: Advanced.

Business Coaching: Foundations carries IOBC accreditation, and you receive an IOBC Certificate of Completion on the final day.

We understand life happens. If you need to miss a session please reach out to us directly and we'll work with you on the best way forward.

The program is paid in full at registration. If you need to arrange something different, contact us before you enrol and we'll work it out with you.

What Comes Next

The pathway
continues.

Business Coaching: Foundations

Read any business. Bring the client with you.

Fifteen modules. The judgement to know which models a business needs and in what order, so clients stay engaged.

Secure your seat →
Business Coaching: Advanced

Prove your results. Keep your clients longer.

Ten modules. Client baselining, forecasting, capacity, succession and the measures that prove your coaching is working.

Find Out More →