This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Ruta Drungilaite, founder of Side Hustle Spotlight A twist of the datea business that helps couples plan date nights with its digital offerings — cold case files, conversation starter cards, romantic board games and more.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of A Twist of Date. Drungilaite route.}

What was your day job (or other sources of income) when you started your job? side hustle?
After graduating in economics and Finance degree at 21, I took the “text” route of a graduate scheme at one of the big banks in Canary Wharf, London. Since then, I've worked seven jobs in different departments and business units in the seven years I've been there, quickly progressing up the “corporate ladder.” I specialized in financial product management and my last role was as a senior VP product manager in payment innovations (new payment acceptance solutions for corporate merchants).

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When did you start your side hustle and where did you find the inspiration for it?
The idea for A Twist Of Date came to me during one of the Covid lockdowns in 2021. We live in London so we're usually spoiled for fun things to do. My fiance and I have done it all: hidden jazz clubs, secret cocktail bars, underground gaming, wine and cheese tasting, comedy nights, a Horrible Histories boat tour, outdoor food maze in style escape room, indoor rock climbing, whimsical art installations, driving range and much more.

However, the lockout removed all those choices. As a result, my fiance had a hard time coming up with unique date ideas, while my creativity was only fueled by her. It made me realize that there must be other people out there who also struggle to come up with creative ideas for house dates (not just a movie and dinner). So, I started thinking about how I could solve that problem for couples.

What were some of the first steps you took to get yours side hustle from the ground?
My first idea was to create date night boxes delivered to you that would have everything set and planned for a romantic evening at home. I launched the cocktail making boxes in February 2022 in time for Valentine's Day and the pottery workshop boxes later. The boxes included playlists, all the tools to make cocktails or ceramic creations, deep conversation starters and other activities designed to deepen the connection with your partner.

Couples loved these boxes, and I got a lot of good feedback, but making the boxes by hand was extremely labor intensive, profit margins were few/non-existent and the sales volume was not as high as I had originally hoped. Ultimately, the date box idea was not a scalable or financially viable idea for me to pursue.

Six months into my venture, I started selling a PDF of 110 date idea cards that couples could instantly download and print at home. As this idea took off, I moved my business from physical dating boxes to digital products, expanding my range with romantic board games, cold case files, escape rooms, chat starters and more. This is when my business really started to take off and I knew I was onto something.

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What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while building your side hustle and how did you navigate them?
Building my first business was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life – and the most rewarding, too. It has been an emotional roller coaster of a journey with countless challenges.

Here are some of the main ones:

1. The first product is not applicable: As mentioned above, my first idea for physical date night boxes was essentially a waste and not financially viable or scalable. Even today, our cupboards are filled with hundreds of mini bottles of alcohol from the cocktail boxes I used to sell! I could have given up at this point, but I decided to experiment and navigate, which has led me to the digital dating products I sell today, with more than 5,000 orders placed in 80 different countries.
2. Knowledge gap: Most of the time I didn't know what I was doing, but I was willing to learn and persevere. I didn't have a huge budget to start with, so I did everything myself: coding my site by looking for answers on YouTube, clumsily using Adobe Illustrator to design my logo, writing the privacy policy, terms and conditions and other legal documentation for my website, creating and designing all products without any experience with Canvas, learning to make TikTok and growing on social media – you've never even used TikTok before. Throughout my journey, I have always tried to embrace the mentality of I have no idea how to do this, but I'm sure I can learn.
3. Trying to build the business with a full-time job: There is no magic or secret here – balancing my demanding day job and a business has been very difficult. I tried to work on my business as much as I could in the evenings and weekends, but after a full day of “fire” at my day job, I was often emotionally and physically depleted, so it wasn't always possible to work. my business as much as I would have liked. I've had to accept that I only have so much energy and time, and for this venture to be sustainable I've had to prioritize my health, mental health and general well-being, even though this meant that things were moving slower than I would have liked in the short term. I had to be careful to observe and notice any signs of damage to my mental health due to overwork and prioritize rest and doing things that bring me energy and joy. My approach was prioritizing consistency of action – trying to do at least a little each day to build and grow my business.

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How long did it take you to see consistent monthly income? How much did the side hustle earn?
In the first six months of starting my business, my total income was less than £3,000 (about $3,800). Seven months later, I had my own printable Flirty Dice game. go viral on TikTok, which brought in over £700 (about $890) in just three days, which is when I knew I was on to something and started seeing more growth from using organic social media to drive sales.

Since my sales were mainly driven by my videos going viral, income levels varied significantly from month to month. I am still working on my diversification marketing strategies and income streams to achieve more income sustainability.

Why did you decide to switch from a side job to a full-time business? What do growth and revenue look like now?
I had more than 5,000 orders from 80 different countries and made around £60,000 (about $65,000) in sales before I quit my corporate 9-5, which convinced me that my idea solves a universal problem for couples all over the world. With the business concept verified, I felt I could make this venture work if I gave it my full attention. I have built my own personal savings support myself for at least the next 12 months, after which I hope to have enough income to pay myself a salary similar to what I had with my finance job. Leaving my well-paying job in finance is the biggest risk I've ever taken, but I absolutely love the business I've built and believe that with consistency, discipline and a growth mindset, I'll be able to make it work.

What do you enjoy most about running this business?
While my background is in finance, of course I am very creator person. I love coming up with new concepts for dating ideas and bringing them to life.

What brings me the most joy is knowing that all my hard work is helping countless busy couples from around the world spend quality time together. The heartfelt customer messages and comments I receive always make my day. Couples have told me that they have used my date nights to reconnect after the birth of a newborn or to discover new things about each other even after 18 years of marriage.

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What is your advice to others hoping to start successful side hustles or businesses of their own?

1. Find one pain point. I recommend an excellent book called Jobs that need to be done for every aspiring entrepreneur to learn about identifying and solving real problems.
2. Validate your idea. Every entrepreneur thinks their idea is fantastic, but the only way to verify it is to see if someone is willing to pay for it and if it can be profitable. If you're looking to quit your corporate job for a side hustle, I think it's essential to test your concept before doing so.
3. Priority over action excellence. Learn to be comfortable with taking your ideas to market and testing them before they're perfect. The more messy and messy actions you take, the sooner you'll get the feedback you need and be able to learn from it. There's no point in working to perfect your product for years only to find out that no one wants it.
4. Do something you really care about. Ask yourself if your business idea is something you really care about. If you do, the obstacles and frustrations you'll encounter along the way will be worth going through.
5. embrace growth mindset. It's easy to fall into a victim mentality, blame circumstances, and feel sorry for yourself when things don't go according to plan, but it won't serve you well. Embrace failures and focus on what you can learn from them. Cultivate the mindset of endless curiosity and learning.
6. Stay true to yours values. We see the stereotypical entrepreneur who doesn't sleep for weeks, works around the clock, and has no time for a social life or relationships. While this may work for some, I'm a big believer in intentionally defining what success means to you personally and consciously choosing the price you're willing to pay in various aspects of your life to get there – because I think you can do anything, but not everything. I know that my health and relationships with my family, friends, and fiancé always come first, and I'm not willing to drop the ball on those aspects of my life, even if it means my business may grow more slowly.