How To Start Online Dating Business
Starting Online Dating Business
Online dating business is one of the businesses that is trending now. Sometimes it is true to say that a man or woman live without a partner is incomplete. Finding a compatible partner helps the vast majority of people feel fulfilled. But sometimes finding the perfect date without getting help from an experienced matchmaker or relationship professional may be a daunting task.
If you know people who are having difficulty getting hooked up in a relationship, consider it an opportunity to help them by starting a dating services business. You can open it right there in your sitting room and operate it from there. However, since you are going to be seeing potential clients, you must have a private home office.
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Why starting an online dating and matching business
In 2011, dating service was said to have accounted for about 1bn US dollars in revenue. Online dating service helped about one-third of all couples in America met their partner, while the internet assisted one in five to experience love. Dating service is a serious business for serious people and can be profitable if you channel your energy to its success. I will show you how you can make it a big success if you follow the steps below:
Step 1. Find out what is happening in the online dating industry.
Find out from the dating industry to get a clue what is happening there: the types of services online dating agencies are offering, who are their clients, why people go for a date, the class of people that date. Is it just for fun, have a new experience, find new friends, or even get married? What about the gay people and their opposite counterpart? Are they also seeking for the services of online dating agencies are providing? Are there still unexplored niche/s that you can look at and explore or you want to compete directly and offer similar service others provide?
What is their modus operandi in terms number of employees, their location, promoting their online dating services; is it subscription-based or hourly or daily or weekly fee-based. How do they communicate with their subscribers and why they use a particular method to communicate?
What is the industry average revenue and how much do you project to earn? How long does it take to break-even? These are some of the issues you should consider at the onset before you deploy your resources.
Step 2 Have a Focus
Depending on the outcome of your research, you may elect to focus on young college graduates or men of 60 and above. By going for a niche and deciding on the market to serve, you will be in a position to recruit potential clients and target your promotional campaign.
You may also find out from your local market to see if you are going to be the only dating agency in the community or others are already there. Research on the services they provide, how they promote their service and what advertising tools they use. What other methods they adopt to drive potential client. Find out what other services they offer, how and where they advertise and the approach they adopt to attract clients. Come up with ways to differentiate your service, whether through quality service, differential pricing, or offering diverse services.
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Step 3 Services to offer:
Determine the variety of services you would like to offer. It is possible you offer to coach potential couples the do’s and don’ts on a first outing, host speed dating programs, offer date night ideas, and help clientele with choosing body-suitable wardrobes. Cost each of the services you intend to provide, choose the pricing method you would like to adopt – per each service, per hour or adopt to charge by monthly subscription.
Step 4 Name your dating business
Choose an appropriate name for your dating business – a name that will attract attention and maintain interest. The name selected must be unique and will different your dating business from competitors. You must also consult with your local Chamber of Commerce if special permits or licenses are required before you can set up your dating services business.
Step 5 Choose the legal form for your dating business/register it
The legal form for your business invariably will depend on the ownership structure, the size, and the initial capital outlay. If you choose a sole proprietorship, you may need to register the name but if you choose a limited liability company (LLC), you may need to provide details of other directors. In this case, the business is a legal entity separated from those that formed it. It can sue or be sued. Find out the rules regarding business registration and have yours registered. If you have problems handling the registration exercise, let an expert in to register the business for you.
Step 6 Insure your Dating Business
Procure general liability business insurance for your business protection. As it’s likely you are not going to be alone squad, you need also to obtain employee identification number (EIN). Fill out the necessary forms for tax purposes. At this stage, determine which expertise you are going to engage should your dating business begin to expand. You will surely need a helping hand in the areas such as e-commerce, instant messaging, spam detection, moderation, social media marketing and a host of others.
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Step 7 Create a website or blog
Get a web designer and possibly a graphic design to create and design a friendly environmental website where different people, some expected to be nervous or hurt from previous appalling experience meet. Craft a site that is an interactive and user-friendly environment that makes online dating an enjoyable experience. Provide a friendly atmosphere where people can freely express themselves. By creating an app or site that is so friendly, visitors will be motivated to encourage their friends to be part of the fun.
If you don’t have the know-how, engage an expert in the areas of e-commerce, spam detection, instant messaging and moderation. Your site needs to be professionally designed and managed if you want to go places in this business.
Step 8 Build and grow membership
You may from the outset wage a serious marketing campaign with attractive incentives to woo prospective members to join since no one would like to join a dating site used by a few members. Therefore invite all your single friends and acquaintances to join at discounted rates, particularly if membership is based on subscription. Once membership has grown to a reasonable number, you can successfully wage a strong advertising blitz to grow it further through targeted ad with Facebook and Google keyword ad.
Step 9 Market your online dating business
Market your dating services business to your target audience using both offline and online promotional campaign. Go to places and events where your target audience visit. If they go to church, mosque or club, join such places if you hope to lure people to register with your online dating services.
The method you are going to use to market subscription-based membership is different from fee-based membership. In the subscription-based membership you are likely to use direct mail to remind subscribers to pay their annual dues while in a fee-based membership, you are likely to use any of the online media platforms such as Facebook to promote your dating services.
Use online questionnaires to extract information from your prospective clients about their lives, work, lifestyle, hobbies and other interests. Make it as comprehensive as possible to make matching easier. Determine which values will be very important to your prospective clients and the best way to rank the results. As soon as you determine your logarithm priorities, engage a programmer to lay down your search tools, unless you know to program it yourself.
How much you charge for your dating services will depend on whether it fee or subscription-based. Subscription-based may pay on an annual or monthly basis. The industry average for online dating businesses is between $20 and $80 per month. You may consider offering a blanket discount for all in the first year of operation but special discounts for those who pay for multiple months, and those who bring in friends. To attract subscribers at the outset, you can liberalise your discount to attract and compensate your initial subscribers for their patronage.
If you put display pictures of personalities that are having fulfilled relationship in the reception area of your office, it will go a long way in promoting your dating agency. In the same vein, if you have pictures of prospective matching couples or singles looking forward to being joined together by a matching partner, it will motivate visitors to register. To crown it all, if you have as per above as many pictures as possible on your site, it will help prospective subscribers decide quickly whether to register since the pictures can help them narrow down the type of person they are looking for.
Step 10 Maintain quality control
Quality control helps to screen out bad eggs in a system and allow orderliness to flow. But you should expect abuse like sexual harassment to penetrate the system but a good quality control will filter it out.
Figure out a system that will detect abuse and have the membership and privileges of abusers suspended indefinitely. Since you have no right to control what users do on a date, you must engage a legal practitioner to generate a legal agreement that will release you of any liability for what will result in the real-world of your matchmaking.
You must also think about violating users privacy in your documentation, either through the membership form or in the course of the matching process. So you should approach a lawyer for advice.
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Conclusion:
Online dating business is a profitable venture if you have passion as well as business-minded. But be mindful of the fact that only about 1% of dating services survive in the long run, so have a clear working business plan.
Success key to online dating business
You need to focus on a particular segment and market them aggressively.