10 Tips on How to Write a Dating Profile and Dating Plan

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By Andrea McGinty

As a dating consultant and dating profile writer—who does this all day, I’ll start with it’s hard to write about yourself.   

But what it reminds me most of is writing a solid business plan.  Ok, I wrote my first business plans in the early 90’s when I started It’sJustLunch.com.  Back then, there were not any business plan templates or books on this—and luckily I had a friend who had started up a restaurant a few years earlier and he gave me his business plan and was my model.  But a good model as it morphed into a national chain!

Now, the trend is one page business plans.  Yay!  So, these tips will make it easy for you to write your online dating profile and you can write this in 1 hour max!

So, here are 10 Tips on How to Write a Solid Dating Plan:

  1.  Your Mission Statement
    This could be :   
  • My end goal is a long-term relationship, possibly marriage.  
  • Perhaps it is I want someone to travel the world with and explore adventure.
  1. The Research: Industry/Market Analysis  Look at everything that is out there with an open mind:  Matchmaking, Dating Coaches, Relationship Advisors, Online Dating, A Search Firm, MeetUp Groups, a New Sport.  
  2. What you Offer
    Make a list of your attributes, your interests, personality traits.
  3. Are you doing everything yourself, or are you hiring an expert?

In my experience, the most critical thing a founder/ceo can decide is a) what are they doing themselves, and b) what experts are they hiring.    Many tech founders quickly decide they are great at setting long-term goals, but are not good at day-to-day execution and so they hire a COO/President to execute the strategy.   This also applies to dating.   You may set the “goal” (long-term relationship) but you also have to decide whether or not you are the right person to execute this strategy.   Do you want to write your profile, look through photos, spend hours online or do you want to hire an expert to do those things for you?

  1. Cost Structure
    How much are you willing to invest?  Set up a budget.  For example, if you decide it’s a Dating Coach:   Budget their fees, cost of new photos, cost of different online services, etc.   Remember:  as a general rule, “free” or “low cost” is for those who are not serious about finding a long-term relationship.
  2. How you will stand out
    Be honest with yourself:   consider a new hairstyle, new dating wardrobe, teeth whitening, Botox
  3. Why will your photos stand out
    Shots of you doing unique activities like parasailing, jet skiing, glass blowing,  your darling dogs (sorry, cats don’t sell).    Really consider a professional photographer.
  4. List what you are looking for in a mate/date
    Sometimes it may be easier to write this as what you DON’T want—we all know that!   But writing that way is negative and no one wants to date a negative person.   So flip it into the positive…and voila!—you have what you are looking for.  Keep this list to no more than 10 items.  No novellas.
  5. Timetable.
     A good business plan has a kick-off date.  This holds you accountable. Dating is no different. You may have an upcoming trip to Tulum where you return June 18.  Plan to kick off your dating adventures June 20th—a hard, set time to begin!   And, often an end date—or exit strategy.  I want to be in a relationship at the end of Month 3 is very achievable!  60% of my clients are—but they worked at it!   If you do have an “end date” goal (relationship by the Holidays…..you need to work backwards and start at least 4 months before that goal date (this means by July 1st if you want to be in a relationship by the Holidays).
  6. Key Objectives/Success Metrics
    For dating, make this quantifiable.  I generally find that after a client has five 1st dates with new people under their belt, their confidence soars.   A good objective would be:   I will reach out to 20 singles online weekly.  Success metric:   Each week I will go on a minimum of two first dates.

I know.  We don’t want to “plan” out our dating life.   We want it to just happen.  But as we get older, the reality is that the biggest pool of singles we ever met was college. Then maybe grad school. Then maybe the workplace.  Then….?   There are millions of singles online—and most are looking for a relationship.

Starting a new business is filled with fun, nerves, anxiety, adventure….and eventually success!  Think of dating the same way and you will have a dating plan for success!


As I always say, it only takes one!

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