As you've probably already gathered by watching some of our other videos, there are quite
a few innovative and unexpected ways to get your side hustle on. But today, we're going
to be tackling one side hustle that you've likely never considered.
If you happen to have a way with the ladies – or the gentleman – did you know that
you can use your dating expertise to make a little extra cash in your free time? The
side hustle we're about to discuss is perfect for any of you matchmakers out there that
often find yourself helping your friends land dates and find love. If that's a position
that you've frequently been in before, then trying your hand at being an online dating
coach just might be the perfect side hustle for you to consider.
While it may not sound like something that would bring in a lot of money, there are people
out there making over $20,000 a month by coaching people through dating.
Business Insider reported that online dating consultant Sarah Jones earns a six-figure
income by helping men attract women and find love. Today, she runs Introverted Alpha, a
dating coaching business with programs that start at $7,000. This whole business is designed
to help men find the confidence to get into the dating scene and find their perfect match,
and as you can see, people are willing to pay a lot of money for success in that area.
So in this video, we’re going to take a closer look at Sarah’s journey to figure
out what it takes to become a well-paid dating coach. This will include the skills required
to get started, how you can start finding work and then how to grow your business into
a massive source of income. If you follow a blueprint like Sarah’s you could be on
your way to $20,000 a month in no time! Let’s get started.
What Skills Do You Need?
If you're wondering if you have what it takes to be an online dating consultant, Sarah Jones
gives us a great indication of the qualities and beliefs that are most essential.
The first skill is first-hand experience, as it will give your clients faith that you
are a professional worth hiring. Your clients are going to be looking for you for answers
– they aren't likely to stick around if you're not capable of convincing them that
you have been successful in the past and can help them find what they’re looking for.
If you’re someone with a bumpy dating record or a lack of relationship experience, you
may not be the best candidate for coaching other people through the process. For Sarah,
this started with hiring a life coach. She herself was lost in life, but she was able
to find new meaning through life coaching and mentorship. This eventually drove her
to provide life coaching to others, which she later narrowed down to dating coaching..
Next is you’ll need to have empathy and a true love for people and their wellbeing.
It should go without saying that you should not have any distasteful or cynical views
towards love and relationships if you want to keep your clients happy. Even if you already
know your way around the dating scene and you’re prepared for the ups and downs, you
need to be able to be there for your clients so they don’t get discouraged. You might
be their biggest support system throughout the dating process, and that is a big responsibility.
Online dating consultation can also be a very intimate line of work, which means you’ll
need to keep things confidential and professional. Throughout your sessions with your clients,
you're going to learn a lot of very sensitive things about them, and it's an absolute must
for you to remain both neutral and non-judgmental when they open up to you. Beyond that, you
owe it to them to keep everything that they share with you to yourself. If you struggle
to keep secrets or have a tendency to gossip about others, then you might want to reconsider
taking this kind of project on.
It's also extremely important for you to have a bit of intuition when it comes to matchmaking,
particularly when figuring out the qualities your clients are looking for in a partner.
Part of the challenge of this side hustle is figuring out how to identify the traits
and qualities that are important for your client, and that might not be as simple as
it sounds. Some people will express that they are looking for a specific kind of person,
but their previous dating experience reflects a completely different track record. Again,
identifying what your client really wants and needs – which can sometimes be two entirely
different things – might just be one of the hardest parts of being a dating consultant.
Next, a great dating consultant is friendly and approachable. Not only will this help
you enhance your interactions with clients, but it will make you more appealing to potential
clients who might not have met you yet. Whether you are trying to get clients through online
marketing or word of mouth, your personality and relationships with current clients are
going to be the most decisive factor in whether you land additional clients.
Finally, Sarah says that one of the most essential skills is being well-organized. She credits
her strong start in dating consulting to her systematic approach and organizational skills.
For one, you need to be able to keep your clients organized and stay up-to-date with
their progress, which may involve multiple dates, video meetings, phone calls and more.
Similarly, you’ll need to fine-tune a process for getting to know your clients and progressing
them through the world of dating and finding love.
How to Get Started So once you’ve got those skills down, all
that’s left to do is actually get started with finding clients. With platforms like
Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr dominating the online dating world, many people find love
with a simple swipe to the right.
And given that dating is primarily driven by digital interactions on these apps, the
dating profile is more important than ever. Unfortunately, not everyone is very skilled
at coming up with an intriguing and arousing profile page. Some people might even be excellent
communicators and fully capable of hitting it off with the right person in real life,
but their profile falls short and prevents them from getting dates.
Luckily, this gives you a great place to start your side hustle as a dating consultant. Sarah
Jones and other dating consultants like her specialize in profile optimization to help
clients catch the eye of potential love matches. One of the most common entry points to this
service is through freelance platforms like Fiverr. By advertising yourself as an online
dating profile ghostwriter, people will come to you to optimize their profiles and get
more matches. You might help them craft their bio section, select the best images for their
profile, or even workshop some messages for reaching out to their match for the first
time.
But the potential doesn’t end there, as there is huge demand for dating advice on
these platforms, too. If you’re not sure where you fit into the process yet, you can
do some searches on platforms like Fiverr for inspiration. A quick search for “tinder
dating advice” shows lots of demand for Tinder profile head shots, messages that will
get responses from matches and even one-on-one vide call coaching. And of course, there is
plenty of opportunity for profile evaluations and helping clients fine-tune their profiles
for success.
While you may know the best practices for dating and dating profiles better than I do,
try to find the areas that best match the skills you already have. If you’re a great
writer, you might want to focus on helping people optimize their bio sections. If you’re
a photographer, you can give your clients some tips on best practices for photos or
even take new profile pictures for them. If you’re a natural conversationalist, you
can help clients make that first connection with new matches and coach them through future
conversations and even dates. It’s all about finding where you excel, and figuring out
how you can use that to give your clients a better chance at love.
Starting Your Business
If offering your services on a freelancing platform like Fiverr isn't really your thing,
you could always follow Sarah Jones' example and start your own online dating consultation
business from the ground up.
After Sarah Jones completed an introductory small-business course, she started her own
dating consultation business in early 2014. The trick is, she didn’t quit her job right
away. Instead, she continued working full-time and used the income she was making to invest
in her coaching business and get it off the ground.
Her first step was creating a website that advertised the services offered by Introverted
Alpha. This is where salesmanship, organization, and creativity came in. On the website, she
published an eBook that laid out the basics of her methods and gave clients a detailed
introduction to her beliefs and what she could offer them through one-on-one coaching. The
takeaway here for new businesses is that you need to put something out there to show how
you can help people. Sarah did this with a website and an eBook, but you might choose
to do it with blog posts, podcasts or even YouTube videos. If you gradually produce content
that demonstrates your expertise, people will start to follow you to learn more, and it
doesn’t take much to convert that audience into clients.
Even Sarah admits that she struggled to find clients at first. She was lucky enough to
make a sale during her first month of business, and she failed to make any sales during her
second month. But she was resilient and extremely patient, and that’s what it takes. You have
to continue putting yourself out there, displaying expertise in the area, and eventually, clients
will find you and hire you with enthusiasm.
As far as a coaching business model, Sarah gives us a great blueprint for her program.
She regularly hosts introductory sessions on Google Hangouts, where prospective clients
can ask questions and learn more about the service. For clients who choose to hire her,
she provides biweekly sessions either on video call or over the phone. These sessions are
one hour long and fully recorded so that her clients can go back and listen to them if
they need any reminders or tips throughout their journey.
Sarah has obviously made a successful business out of this, but even now, it’s not exactly
easy. She estimates that she spends at least 50 hours a week working on her business. So
don't think that being an online dating coach is going to be a walk in the park. To make
your business a successful one, you'll have to treat it like a full-time job, and to earn
a full-time income, it might have to be.
But if you want the income and freedom that you can only achieve by owning your own business,
the journey is undoubtedly worth it. The next question is how do you take a dating consulting
side hustle to a legitimate business? How to Grow Your Business
Finding the sweet spot where you shine the best as an online dating coach might take
a little bit of trial and error, but once you've found your niche, you'll have greater
success as you can help your clients achieve success.
Beyond optimizing their dating profiles and doing one-on-one coaching, you may help them
look for potential matches outside of the popular dating websites. Whether you have
your own pool of dating candidates or other resources to draw from, finding potential
matches for your clients is the best way to set them up for success. While this may not
be as hands-on as helping your client prepare for a date, it is a service that will set
you apart from other dating coaches and can give you a competitive edge.
And don’t forget that coaching goes way beyond the first date. In fact, after helping
your clients land the first date, your work may just be getting started. If they feel
like the date was a good match, you’ll need to continue coaching them through future dates
and the early stages of a relationship. As any dating coach knows, the first few dates
can be incredibly delicate, so it’s important to be there to help your client navigate them.
Conversely, if the first date didn’t go so well, you’ll need to meet with your client
to figure out why. Perhaps the date wasn’t a good match, and you need to re-evaluate
what your client is looking for in a relationship. Or, maybe your client needs further coaching
on conversation topics and body language so that they feel comfortable and confident during
future dates.
Finally, after you've helped clients land and complete a successful date, you’ll need
to keep up with their relationship progress if it pertains to your business. For example,
some clients may want some long-term coaching, or may want to come back for further advice
if their relationship doesn’t work out. Dating coaches know better than anyone that
finding love can be a complicated journey, so expect to have further meetings with your
clients long after their first date. Of course, at the end of the day, the goal is to help
clients find healthy long-term relationships. You’d rather have successful clients who
recommend you to their friends than repeat clients who come back time and time again
because of failed relationships.
But if you have a passion for helping people find love, there’s really no limit to the
earning potential of a dating coach. You just need to find your area of expertise, reach
clients who need your help and show them you are a valuable resource. Then, just like Sarah
Jones, you could turn this side hustle into a full-time income.
If you’d like us to cover any other side hustles, leave us a comment below! And if
you’re looking for another side hustle idea, check out this video on how you can get started
with freelance writing and start earning upwards of $30/hour. We’ll see you in the next video!