Dating Tips -- Yahoo! Personals

9 Steps to Becoming a "Dating Mogul"

An entrepreneur's guide to your dating success

By A.K. Crump Special to Yahoo! Personals Updated: May 22, 2009

Have you ever read an article in which a wealthy entrepreneur from Slurfenburg says, "Gee, I just sort of kicked my car one day and the next thing I know I'm running this fantastic business?" Success does not simply happen on its own or by luck. It happens because people figure out how to take care of "the basics."

Fortunately, the basics of dating are very simple. They are essentially the answers to the following business questions:

Who is out there?
What do they want?
How can you reach them?
What do you have that gives you an advantage?
How should you package yourself?
How do you pay for your efforts?
How do you avoid [or win] disputes?
How do you deal with money?
Who do you go to for help?

To become a Dating Mogul you need to think of yourself as an entrepreneur, and your business is "Me, Ltd."

You are a dating enterprise, and you are also the main product

You are a dating enterprise, and you are also the main product. As part of your strategic plan, you are going to take your firm public, gain market share, identify and promote attractive product features, satisfy suppliers, increase customer loyalty, and expand your portfolio.

Here are a few tips to get you thinking like a Dating Mogul:

Understand yourself as both a person and a product. What do you have that's good, that's bad, that's OK, and that can be replaced?
Understand your target market and what he/she wants or needs. Maybe you really can fill that need. Or maybe you need a new market.
Know where to find your target market. Do some market research with friends, associates, and in chat rooms to find out where others have been successful.
Update your product packaging. Accentuate the assets that your target market would find attractive. Remember, you can't be all things to all people, and you do not want to promise what you can't deliver, but you can improve how you get their attention.
Be consistent with your product positioning. Think of it this way: "Product positioning involves identifying, creating, and communicating a message that can establish and differentiate the company or brand in relation to competitors." What's your brand? What's your position?
Advertise your product. If the target market doesn't know you're there and what you have to offer, then the world is not going to beat a path to your doorstep. Yahoo! Personals is a very good first step.
If you don't understand it, don't invest in it. That goes for people too.
Negotiating is exciting, fun, and useful. But know where to stop, and where your cutoff is. Dating Moguls don't negotiate to win, they negotiate to make sure everyone wins -- even if the question is where to go to dinner.
Consult experts when you need objective advice. Just remember, they're not always right, but they have a lot of useful information to share.

A.K. Crump is the author of "Everything I Know About Dating I Learned in Business School: How to Succeed in Dating by Using Basic Business Practices," as well as editor of "Seduction by Shakespeare." His web site is cafeandre.com.