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Name: Saskia Nelson
Business: Saturday Night’s Alright
Industry: Personal Services
Location: London, England, U.K.
Reason for starting: I spent many years online dating (until meeting my boyfriend of six years on Guardian Soulmates) and, after seeing so many bad photos being used online, spotted a gap in the market for a niche photography business specializing in creating cool profile photos for online daters. I decided to combine my passion and talent (photography and running a business) with my life experiences and knowledge (online dating) and Saturday Night’s Alright was created.
We work with hundreds of awesome single people who are serious about looking for love and are ready to try something different. We help them by working with them to create a stand out set of portrait photos for their dating profiles enabling them to get out there and reclaim their dating life.
Related: Read about another photographer entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? Ultimately success for me is when I get emails from clients singing my praises saying how delighted they are that their new photos are winning them so much more attention online. When they start to enjoy the online dating experience, I know I have done what I set out to do.
Biggest Success: My biggest success was being credited by Time magazine with kickstarting a new genre of photography – dating photography. I plan to keep going, recruiting and training portrait photographers, until dating photography is as well-known a genre as wedding photography.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My top challenge is finding portrait photographers who understand, live and breathe the brand so that I can rely on them to not only provide clients with a set of awesome photos that fit seamlessly with the brand but also provide them with the high-quality experience that I expect.
I tackle this by having a robust selection process in place where the photographers do test shoots with my friends for feedback, assist on shoots and get training and are tested against a number of criteria related to providing excellent customer experience.
Related: Secrets of Growth: How to Hire the Best
Who is your most important role model? My mum is a crucial role model in terms of staying positive when the going gets hard. And then I love DJ Mamy Rock who became a massively successful international DJ in her 80s – it makes me think, you can do anything at any time if you put your mind to it. And finally Mindy Kaling gets a mention for being a brown girl showing America, and indeed the rest of the world, that you don’t have to fit the Hollywood norm to be hugely successful.
[box_light]Website www.saturdaynightsalright.com
Twitter www.twitter.com/SatNightAlright
Facebook www.facebook.com/saturdaynightsalright
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/SaturdaySunday/
Other www.instagram.com/HeySaturdayNightsAlright[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange