My husband gave me a jar full of romantic date ideas – now I’ve turned it into a £300k business
FOR most couples, date nights are the perfect opportunity to spend an evening doting on your other half – even if they are few and far between.
But for Kate Greenhalgh, her weekly date nights with her husband John became the foundation of her £300k business.
In 2014, John gave Kate a jar filled with 72 sealed envelopes – each containing a different idea for a date.
The date ideas included everything from a romantic walk, watching the sunset together or even spend an evening listening to their favourite songs.
One of the first handwritten notes Kate pulled out was to “buy each other a £10 gift” – which John used to buy the domain www.ayearofdates.co.uk so she could blog about their dates.
After impressing friends and family with the sweet gestures, Kate decided to start selling personalised versions of their dates in a jar – and six years on, their business has turned over £300k.
Kate, 38, from Bolton, spoke to Fabulous Digital for our #BOSSINGIT series about ordinary women who have launched extraordinary businesses.
The former graphic designer realised she was onto something when her friends said they loved John’s romantic gift but didn’t have the time or creativity to think of so many ideas.
During her maternity leave from a design agency, Kate – who has a four-year-old daughter called Phoebe – started researching printing costs and started sourcing labels and glass jars like the ones John had used.
Kate explained: “With my degree in Graphic Design and John’s experience in IT we designed a box of 52 coloured envelopes, each with a date card inside.
“We then created two choices – a surprise pack with a lucky dip of dates or a categorised pack which allows you to choose from a colour coded set of dates that help you to plan an appropriate date.
“For example a green envelope is something you can do at home – ideal for parents after the kids have gone to bed!
“These two sets remain our best sellers but over the last three years we’ve added a range of products for milestone birthdays, self care activities for new parents and ideas for wedding anniversaries.”
Originally, the couple’s products were just sold to friends and family through the blog John had set up for Kate.
After securing a £120,000 investment, Kate and John were invited to pitch their product to online giant Not on the High Street in September 2016.
She explained: “Some feedback I had from them was about the glass jars we were using.
- Dessert Edition, £25 from A Year of Dates – buy now
- Movie Edition, £25 from a Year of Dates – buy now
“The worry was that lots of them would smash in the post and so we have them as an option still on the website and we do package them extremely carefully but we mostly sell boxes that contain date ideas in envelopes now.
“For our first ever order we created 100 boxes, priced at £25 each and were thrilled when they all sold out before Christmas.
“Now in a busy period like the run up to Christmas and Valentine’s Day we can sell up to 150 boxes a day.”
A Year of Dates have recently expanded to offer personalised bespoke boxes that feature a special date or the names of a couple.
What’s more, Kate has also launched desert edition for couples with a sweet tooth as well as a year of personalised movie dates for up to £29 each.
Kate said: “We are launching new products all the time. I’d love to create a line of travel inspired cards that ask a couple to use their imagination and plan an Italian date with dinner and an Italy inspired movie or activity like making pasta together.”
The success of the business isn’t just financial, their customers are very grateful for the opportunity to lavish their loved ones with attention.
Kate said: “What is really lovely is the feedback we get from couples who tag us on Instagram and share lovely pictures of our cards out with them in a restaurant or whilst they play a board game at home.
Last year, A Year of Dates had an impressive £300k turnover and Kate and John have since quit their 9-5 jobs to focus on the business.
Kate added: “We love seeing our product making a difference in people’s lives in this way.
“The pictures they send us make great content for our social media channels and different interpretations of the cards give us inspiration to keep creating and coming up with new ideas to inject some romance into our customers busy lives.”
Katie's tips for aspiring businesswomen:
- Believe in your idea. To succeed you will need to give it your all. Be prepared to work some evenings and be passionate about your business. If one of you doesn’t have the drive, or you’re doing it ‘get rich quick’ it won’t work.
- Know your strengths. Have defined roles within the business and stick to them. This goes for day to day jobs and admin/finance/design tasks. Also know your weaknesses – you can’t be good at everything!
- Do your own thing if you’re working together. Make time to do your own activities – hobbies, sport, see friends etc. You can’t be together 24/7. We also split networking and have our own groups.
- Switch off. Try and shut the door on work – if you’re working at home it can be tricky – but make sure work isn’t all you talk about.
- Have fun. Working for yourselves is the dream – you can go for a long lunch, do the school pick up and work when it suits you. Just make sure you enjoy it.
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