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In this Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A, Dating Twistsis a business that helps couples plan dates through digital services like cold case files, conversation starter cards, and romantic board games.
Image courtesy of A Twist of Date. Ruta Drungilaite.
What was your day job (or other source of income) when you started your side hustle?
After graduating with a degree in Economics and Finance at the age of 21, I followed the “textbook” path to a graduate program at a major bank in Canary Wharf, London. Since then, I stayed there for 7 years, held 7 different roles across different departments and lines of business, and quickly rose up the “corporate ladder”. I specialised in Financial Product Management and my last role was as VP Senior Product Manager for Payment Innovation (a new payment acceptance solution for corporate merchants).
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When did you start your side hustle and what inspired you to start one?
The idea for A Twist Of Date came about during the 2021 Covid lockdown. We live in London so we’ve always been blessed with the opportunity to have fun. My fiancé and I have experienced it all: hidden jazz clubs, secret cocktail bars, underground theatre, wine and cheese tastings, comedy nights, Horrible Histories boat tours, an escape room style outdoor food maze, indoor rock climbing, quirky art installations, a golf driving range and more.
But lockdown took all of those options away. As a result, my fiancé struggled to come up with unique date ideas, while my own creativity was only fuelled by it. I realized there must be other people out there struggling to come up with original date ideas at home (beyond just a movie and dinner), so I started thinking about how to solve that problem for couples.
What was the first step you took to start your side hustle?
My initial idea was to bring you a date night box with all the preparation and planning for a romantic evening at home. I launched the cocktail making box in February 2022 in time for Valentine’s Day and then the pottery workshop box. The boxes included a playlist, all the tools to make cocktails and pottery pieces, some deep conversation starters and other activities to help you connect better with your partner.
Couples loved the boxes and I got a lot of positive feedback, but making the boxes by hand was very time-consuming, the profit margins were very low, and sales were not as high as I had initially hoped. Ultimately, the date box idea was not scalable or financially sustainable for me.
Six months after starting up, I started selling a PDF of 110 date idea cards that couples could quickly download and print at home. The idea was so successful that I pivoted my business from physical date night boxes to digital products and expanded my product range to include romantic board games, cold case files, escape games, conversation starters, and more. That’s when my business really started to take off and I knew I was on to something good.
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What was the biggest challenge you faced in starting your side hustle and how did you overcome it?
Starting my first business was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but also the most rewarding. It was an emotional rollercoaster journey with countless challenges.
Here are some of the main ones.
- The initial product is not viable: As I mentioned above, my original idea for a physical date night box was basically a loss and not financially viable or scalable. Even today, our cupboards are still filled with hundreds of mini alcohol bottles from the cocktail boxes I used to sell. I could have given up at this point, but I decided to experiment and pivot. That led to the digital date night product I sell today, with over 5,000 orders in over 80 countries.
- Knowledge gaps: Most of the time, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to learn and persevere. I didn’t have a big budget in the beginning, so I searched for answers on YouTube to code my website, designed a logo using Adobe Illustrator, wrote the website’s privacy policy, terms of use and other legal documents, created and designed all the products with Canva without any prior experience, learned how to make TikToks, and grew on social media. I had never used TikTok before. Throughout this journey, I have always tried to embrace the mindset of “live life your own way”. I don’t know how to do it, but I’m sure I can learn..
- Trying to build a business as a full-time job: There is no magic or secret. Balancing my demanding day job with my business was extremely hard. I tried to work on my business as much as I could in the evenings and on weekends, but after a full day of “putting out fires” at my day job I was often emotionally and physically exhausted and it wasn’t always possible to work on my business as much as I wanted. I had to accept that my energy and time were limited. To make this business sustainable meant that in the short term things would move slower than I wanted, but I had to prioritize my health, mental health and overall well-being. I had to closely watch for signs of negative effects on my mental health from overwork and prioritize rest and the things that brought me energy and joy. My approach was to prioritize consistency in my actions and strive to do at least a little every day to build and grow my business.
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How long did it take you to start earning a steady income each month? How much did you make from your side hustle?
In the first six months of launching my business, my total revenue was less than £3,000 (approximately $3,800). Seven months later, my printable board game called “Flirty Dice” became popular on TikTok and brought in over £700 (approximately $890) in just three days. At this point, I knew I was on the right track and began leveraging organic social media to drive sales and see further growth.
My income levels fluctuated significantly from month to month as my sales were primarily generated through viral videos. I am working on diversifying my marketing strategies and income sources to increase the stability of my earnings.
Why did you decide to go from a side hustle to a full-time business and how is your growth and revenue going so far?
Before I left my 9-to-5 job, I had over 5,000 orders from 80 countries and made around £60,000 (around $65,000) in sales. This convinced me that my idea solves a universal problem for couples around the world. With a proven business concept, I felt this venture could be successful if I put all my effort into it. I have built up enough personal savings to survive for at least the next 12 months, after which I hope to earn enough to pay myself a similar salary to what I was making in finance. Leaving a high paying finance job is the biggest risk I have ever taken, but I truly love the business I have built and believe that with consistency, discipline and a growth mindset, I can be successful.
What do you enjoy most about running this business?
Although I have a background in finance, I am a very creative person by nature and I love coming up with new concepts for date ideas and bringing them to life.
What gives me the most joy is knowing that my hard work is helping countless busy couples around the world spend quality time together. The heartfelt customer messages and reviews I receive always brighten my day. Couples tell me how they use my date nights to reconnect after having a baby or discover new things about each other even after 18 years of marriage.
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What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a side hustle or their own successful business?
- Find the problem. Great book recommendations Work to be done Any aspiring entrepreneur can learn how to identify and solve real problems.
- Validate your ideas. Every entrepreneur thinks their idea is great, but the only way to validate it is to see if someone is willing to pay for it and if it will be profitable. If you’re thinking about quitting your corporate job for a side hustle, I think it’s essential to prove your concept before you do.
- Prioritize action over perfection. Get used to bringing your ideas to market and testing them before they’re perfect. The more messy and piecemeal you are, the faster you’ll get the feedback you need and learn from it. What’s the point of spending years perfecting your product only to find out no one wants it?
- Do something that really interests you. Ask yourself if your business idea is truly important to you — if it is, it will be worth enduring the setbacks and disappointments you may encounter along the way.
- Embrace a growth mindset. When things don’t go as planned, it’s easy to slip into victim mentality, blame the situation, and feel sorry for yourself, but that won’t get you anywhere. Own the failure and focus on what you can learn from it. Cultivate a spirit of curiosity and never-ending learning.
- Stay true to your values. We see the typical super successful entrepreneur go without sleep for weeks, work all day, and have no time for socializing or relationships. While this may work for some, I am a big believer in intentionally defining what success means to you and consciously choosing the price you are willing to pay in different aspects of your life to get there. Because I believe you can do anything, but not everything. I know that my health and the relationships I have with my family, friends, and fiancé will always come first. I am not going to neglect those aspects of my life, even if it means slowing down the growth of my business.