Starting an Online Dating Agency - Female Entrepreneur Association Tracey Hill left her very well paid job of 13 years to start a business in a totally different industry: the online dating agency.
Read how she did it below...
Tracey Hill UK Simplicity3 Personal Introductions amp, Dating 30s WHAT MOTIVATED amp, INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS?
Well, my past relationships motivated me, how she did it.
WHAT MOTIVATED INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS?
Well, my past relationships motivated me, and so did the future of finding people love and happiness.
This is what motivated me the most to start Simplicity3.
A year ago, I was lying on a beach in Turkey and had a call from two different friends both complaining about their experiences with online dating.
For some reason, friends come to me frequently with dating disasters or relationship issues.
Sometimes I think its because Ive probably experienced the worst of relationships but also the best one with my husband.
One friend had acquired a stalker after passing over his mobile number and the other had been on numerous sites for years and just didnt have any luck.
So I decided to take it upon myself to do some in-depth research into the online dating industry and was quite shocked with what I found.
In the UK alone, the dating industry turns over 3.7 billion and mostly all it offers is a complex platform for anyone to sign up on and leaves people to go it alone.
I couldnt see where there was a service element for the members parting with money every month.
The more research I did, the more I could see a huge gap in such a saturated industry.
I wanted to create a company that would be an honest brand with all the services and products you could possibly need to make your journey in finding that special someone in a way that is fun, personal, secure and, in turn, far more successful and so I created Simplicity3.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS Simplicity3 is an online dating agency, which also offers personal introduction services for people that dont have the time to date online or have had a bad experience.
You have to be accepted to join Simplicity3 you cant just sign up.
We put each member through brief verification checks, and we only want genuine people on our site, which is why were growing organically without any purchased databases.
Once a member is accepted, they have three packages to choose from to suit their lifestyle.
We offer additional products to our members, Identity Checks, Profile creation, Photography, style and image consultants, coaching, personal matchmakers, a platform to communicate with your potential date, called simplyTalk, and much more.
I want my members to have one place to go for anything they need when it comes to dating, but also I want them to date confidently and in a secure environment.
Were a company that truly cares about how are members date.
WHAT WERE THE FIRST FEW STEPS YOU TOOK TO GET YOUR BUSINESS UP AND RUNNING?
I researched the industry for three months while building my business plan.
The last thing I wanted to do was to create something that had already been done.
Instead of taking investment, I took money from my savings and my house, left my job and started designing the platform.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY OF RAISING AWARENESS OF YOUR BUSINESS AND GETTING NEW CUSTOMERS?
Word of mouth and social media, I still believe that word of mouth is a very powerful tool.
Social media has also helped.
I only really focus on London and the surrounding areas but Id love to franchise to other major cities within the UK, its just not that easy to find good matchmakers.
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES SO FAR WITH RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS?
Well, there have been many, if it were easy then surely everyone would be doing it.
Ive had issues with potential business partners and staff, all promising everything but not delivering.
BUT my most major issue has been growing my site organically.
Most dating sites use a purchased database of people or use a white label product and 100s of websites share the same database, I decided that that wasnt the company I wanted to be.