In another interview with Gerard Jones, he talks about new venture WhatACoach Ltd, plans on writing a book and his ambitions in becoming a highly successful, top level elite head coach and manager one day at a professional football club.

Gerard, it's great to see you're doing well and always so busy where do you find the time?

Well its tough and I know everyone's circumstances are different but for me and from my experiences, I've always found you make time for the things you want to do!

Well said, so tell me, what's happening at the moment?

Well in a nutshell, since 2012/13 I've been running Gerard Jones Enterprises which consists of a conglomerate of roles, that involves me being an Academy Coach at Rochdale AFC, Coach Educator and Teacher with my business Premier Skills and more recently Rochdale AFC FITC where I teach the Futsal Scholars, and alongside this I'm a motivational speaker doing talks throughout the UK and an investor in start-up companies whether that be purely financial or whether that be more my time, depending on the nature of the opportunity which of recent has seen me become a Director of WhatACoach Ltd.

This hasn't in any way distracted me from my original goal which is well documented and that is that I want to become a highly successful, top level elite head coach and manager one day at a professional football (soccer) club.

Everything I'm doing is geared towards developing my skills and knowledge and supporting me to get to this part of my journey, which is why I'm bringing out a book as well, so got lot's on at the moment ha!

Wow! That is a lot, so tell me about WhatACoach Ltd?

WhatACoach was originally founded by my business partner Carsten who shared a similar dream to myself in that, there are lots of athletes across all sports that are seeking help and expertise from private sports coaches but don't have a means of finding and getting in touch with them for that extra specialist tuition!

Just like teaching, in coaching it's highly important and likewise, coaches are predominantly part-time and so are always looking for extra revenue opportunities so what WhatACoach does is solve both problems by connecting athletes with private sports coaches anywhere in the UK!

At the moment our beta site is live: beta.whatacoach.co.uk where coaches and athletes can signup for free, create their profiles and go from there! The site allows athletes to search online and book private sports coaches anywhere in the UK, so whatever their location and sport, they can find a coach they like and book them based on their availability - it's that simple!

Sounds great, so you mentioned a book?

Yes, well I've recently completed my Master's degree in Performance Coaching from the University of Stirling, and my thesis was based on how we as coaches can use communication (key words) which I call "game-calls" to try and develop game-understanding and skill levels in elite young academy players.

I found that the use of game-calls helps to develop players game-understanding among other things and it's a large part of my coaching philosophy that under-pins the way I work and teach in general.

The book came from this idea to share my ideas of the current deficiencies in English football and how coaches can tackle this issue across all levels of the game, to get more young players talking on the pitch, solving problems as well as learning!

When can we expect the book to be out?

I'm currently writing it now and doing this with a respected publisher which is great, so I'm planning on launching as soon as it's finished and fully edited which may be in the summer hopefully!

How do you continue to create these start-ups and see them grow?

Well it's not easy and some don't always do as well as others, my first company reached the Top 100 Best Business Start-ups list in UK in 2010 at the Startups100 Awards, and did well, my third was ok in the sense that it was not as successful as Gerard School of Football but it did a lot of good and helped develop players and coaches which is what it's about, hopefully through hard work I will continue to see my business grew and help WhatACoach do well.

I think the key is timing because it doesn't matter how good the idea is, if the market doesn't want it at that particular time then it won't work, whereas a few years later or earlier it might.

So what can we expect from Gerard this year?

Well you'll definitely see WhatACoach grow and develop its network of coaches and players so that they both 'connect' which is its aim.

From a personal view, I'll be bringing out my first of many books to come this year and continuing to grow Gerard Jones Enterprises into a leading name for high quality football performance, education and training.

What are your final ideas on what it takes to be successful?

I don't think it's any one thing, I think it's a number of different things but working hard is no good if you don't have the belief that what you're doing will work!

First start with the 'POTENTIAL' and then "BELEIVE' it will work, because if you don't have BELIEF you will make little ACTION and then you will get NO RESULTS, whereas if you BELIEVE, then you will ACT and in turn get the RESULTS you need which will feed your BELIEF that as a result increases your POTENTIAL and the circle is ongoing!

Turn every negative into a positive! Learn from all your experiences, trust your subconscious and thank him/her everyday for guiding you :)

Thanks Gerard and good luck!