Helping Catholic singles find their mate

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This would be a great idea, if you could achieve a critical mass of enough singles (100-300 at least) to find viable matches.

The economics of it all are a bit daunting, though. Other matchmaking services (which is what you’re trying to establish) charge well over $1000/year. In contrast, plenty of Catholics are already howling over having to pay $179 for a lifetime Ave Maria membership. I don’t think you can run a good matchmaking service “on the cheap”, but with that kind of fee, you will never sign up enough singles for it to work.

Verdict: Your clients will love it, but the business model stinks. If you want to run something like this as a charity endeavour, go right ahead – many singles will love you for it!
Nah, just have them sign a contract that if they marry someone they must pay a fee $1,000 or whatever, or $150/month for each year you’re married for a maximum 3 or 5 years…something like that. If they marry someone not matched by you…no fee. This would be good since no one pays anything upfront and it will help build a big client base to help match people.
 
:whistle:Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match. Find me a find. Catch me a catch.Matchmaker,Matchmaker, look through your book, and find me a perfect match…:whistle:
Chava, I found him.
Won’t you be a lucky bride!
He’s handsome, he’s tall,
That is from side to side.
But he’s a nice man, a good catch, right?
Right.


*You heard he has a temper.
He’ll beat you every night,
But only when he’s sober,
So you’ll [be] alright.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
You know that I’m
Still very young.
Please, take your time.

Up to this minute,
I misunderstood
That I could get stuck for good.:*

I don’t think it’s a good idea.🤷
 
My husband and I have been mulling over a business idea for a couple months now. I’d love to hear your feedback if you’re willing to give it 😃 Especially I would like to hear from any singles and any entrepreneurs out there. Come to think of it though, I’m sure some of you other married folks would have great insights as well.

We’ve noticed it seems particularly hard for singles to find other compatible Catholics to date/court this day in age. And I’ve heard many complaints about trying to use the online dating sites, even the Catholic ones. It works for some people, but for others it feels to unnatural and they don’t like having to form a hundred shallow online connections before actually meeting a good match in person. So here’s our idea:

What about a service where we, the married couple, get to know a bunch of singles individually, one at a time to find out what he/she is really looking for? We would also try to give tips and guidance where appropriate if we think the person is open to advice. So it would be more like a dating consultant business (though I kind of hate the way that sounds). After we’ve sufficiently come to know a good group of people, we would start setting them up on dates with compatible matches. We would start very small, in our immediate geographic area and then see where it goes from there.

The focus would be on trying to really help people fulfill God’s will and their vocation. We’d only work with Catholics who are faithful to church teaching, and from there try to set them up based on the other factors for compatibility. I would consider it a combination of a business and a ministry–we’d truly be invested in the people that we work with.

So what do you think? If you are a single, would give something like this a try? How would we go about finding you? Bulletin ads? Word of mouth? What are the shortfalls of other ways of meeting people, and how could we avoid those?

And for those of you who have a small business, do you think we’d actually be able to make a profit doing something like this?

I’m so excited to hear your thoughts!
What Catholic Match has going for them are two things:

(A) They’re impersonal, so they don’t need to worry about group dynamics, like the fact that the number of good Catholic women far exceeds the number of good Catholic men. I know this because I was fighting women off with sticks on CM and I consider myself medium-rare at best.

(B) Their impersonality means they don’t have a lot of expenses, since they can just throw open the floodgates and let people come to them and do all the hard work.

You, on the other hand, WOULD have to worry about these group dynamics, and that stinks. And since you’re talking about doing stuff on a small scale, your expenses would be higher, which means you’d have to charge more. Maybe a lot more. Like maybe quadruple digits.

Tell ya what, though. Set me up with my dream woman and I’ll give you $1,000 right now!
 
I know a Christian (non-Catholic) woman who met her husband this way. She was ready for marriage, paid a reputable matchmaker a lot fo money and met a great guy. They were engaged a year after their first date and their first child is on the way. I would consider using a matchmaker but it is cost-prohibitive for me right now. I think a Catholic slant to matchmaking would be great. Other cultures have a similar service in place (ie Jewish cultures, Indians, etc). I think part of the problem that singles today face is we’re just out there on our own. In the past, people were introduced or met in appropriate social settings. Online dating has kind of filled in the gap but that is not without issues.

It’s funny you posted this thread because today I thought–if/when I get married I want hubby and I to be that couple that remembers singles and tries to keep their spirits up, invite them over for dinner, holidays, etc.
 
Why would someone want to pay when they can get it for next to nothing? I speak of the Catholic Alumni Clubs International caci.org/, a club for college grads and professionals. Individual chapters are allowed up to 20% non-college grads. My wife and I met through it. The only cost is an annual fee to cover the mail-out event calendar. It is an all volunteer organization, and the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. I found that you can learn more about someone in a shorter period of time while volunteering than you could with years of dating.
Thanks for this link. Sounds very promising.
 
Thanks for this link. Sounds very promising.
I forgot to mention that to join, one must be eligible to be married in the Catholic Church. When I was a member, they took those with an annulment only after their annulment was final. Good luck. 🙂
 
One thing is for sure, the Catholics can learn a lot from the Jews. When I was at the temple, even though I hadn’t became Jewish yet…I was swarmed with women seeking to hook me up with someone. Jews are notorious for being a match-making culture…In fact, true story…I heard a Jewish man tell me, that he had invited some Catholic priests over to a seminar of some sort and the women there were wanting to hook the priests up…he kept kicking the women and whispering in their ear “celibate, celibate!” but the Jewish women couldn’t help themselves…they saw a single man and they had to hook him up.

Sadly coming back to Christianity I once again return to the gas stations of religious social life…self service. 🤷
 
Being 42, this business idea reminds me of all the dating services that existed before the on-line ones. It almost seems like a step back to a primitive business model

And personally, as a single woman who just doesn’t bother to date anyone because by the time you are my age all men are divorced or have kids and I come off as judgemental when I say that is why I am not interested. On the surface you would think I would jump at this opportunity but it is actually quite the opposite.

I want to let a man get to know me as I feel comfortable sharing things. I don’t want him to hear about it from you to help him decide if he would like to meet me

Also, I would be concerned you would be mad at me if I honestly told you how bad the date went

I would be scared you would try to convince me some guy is perfect for me when I have no interest in him.

I am not saying that is your intention, but those would be my concerns to avoid the business. That would be a hard sell to convince people otherwise
 
It’s funny you posted this thread because today I thought–if/when I get married I want hubby and I to be that couple that remembers singles and tries to keep their spirits up, invite them over for dinner, holidays, etc.
I just wanted to say that this is a sweet and caring idea. 👍

As to the OP:

If it could be set up viably, yes, I’d try it. The coaching and tips would be great; I make friends very easily, but I have some self-confidence issues that make asking a woman out really difficult for me (at times).
 
My husband and I have been mulling over a business idea for a couple months now. I’d love to hear your feedback if you’re willing to give it 😃 Especially I would like to hear from any singles and any entrepreneurs out there. Come to think of it though, I’m sure some of you other married folks would have great insights as well.

We’ve noticed it seems particularly hard for singles to find other compatible Catholics to date/court this day in age. And I’ve heard many complaints about trying to use the online dating sites, even the Catholic ones. It works for some people, but for others it feels to unnatural and they don’t like having to form a hundred shallow online connections before actually meeting a good match in person. So here’s our idea:

What about a service where we, the married couple, get to know a bunch of singles individually, one at a time to find out what he/she is really looking for? We would also try to give tips and guidance where appropriate if we think the person is open to advice. So it would be more like a dating consultant business (though I kind of hate the way that sounds). After we’ve sufficiently come to know a good group of people, we would start setting them up on dates with compatible matches. We would start very small, in our immediate geographic area and then see where it goes from there.

The focus would be on trying to really help people fulfill God’s will and their vocation. We’d only work with Catholics who are faithful to church teaching, and from there try to set them up based on the other factors for compatibility. I would consider it a combination of a business and a ministry–we’d truly be invested in the people that we work with.

So what do you think? If you are a single, would give something like this a try? How would we go about finding you? Bulletin ads? Word of mouth? What are the shortfalls of other ways of meeting people, and how could we avoid those?

And for those of you who have a small business, do you think we’d actually be able to make a profit doing something like this?

I’m so excited to hear your thoughts!
People with business plans usually try to keep it secret, because someone could steal the idea and implement it and…

There are a lot of successful businesses today that if they would have all tried to seek public confirmation of their ideas, they probably wouldn’t have ever established their businesses.

Investing in a “new idea” is a risk, since it might be successful or not. After the due process, it’s pretty much an individual decision.

Some of us would still see this form of pairing unorthodox. 😉
 
…I want to let a man get to know me as I feel comfortable sharing things. I don’t want him to hear about it from you to help him decide if he would like to meet me…
But you have to meet him first. When I was 33, the realization struck me that I had been in mostly-male environements all the years of eligibility: engineering school, military, civilian engineering job. By that age, as you say, most women were married/divorced with children. I had to break out of my social environment if I ever hoped to meet someone. I did, and it was successful. Good luck. 🙂
 
I think that there should be a safeguard against cougars. o:
/awkward
 
Wouldn’t anyone feel kinna petty if they felt they had to get a stranger to match them up with someone else especially men as it take’s away one of our inner masculine trait’s of establishing contact and interest ourselves. I do agree thing’s like this are a good idea but i think this is the biggest turnoff for someone who uses thing’s such as this and dating site’s (desperation). This is why i’m 50/50 for and against thing’s like this
 
Wouldn’t anyone feel kinna petty if they felt they had to get a stranger to match them up with someone else especially men as it take’s away one of our inner masculine trait’s of establishing contact and interest ourselves. I do agree thing’s like this are a good idea but i think this is the biggest turnoff for someone who uses thing’s such as this and dating site’s (desperation). This is why i’m 50/50 for and against thing’s like this
No, I used dating sites not because I was desperate…but because there were more women I could potentially meet. When you live in a small town as I do currently, the market is pretty dead. Either all the women are already married or they are really not the type you would want to marry.
 
What Catholic Match has going for them are two things:

(A) They’re impersonal, so they don’t need to worry about group dynamics, like the fact that the number of good Catholic women far exceeds the number of good Catholic men. I know this because I was fighting women off with sticks on CM and I consider myself medium-rare at best.

(B) Their impersonality means they don’t have a lot of expenses, since they can just throw open the floodgates and let people come to them and do all the hard work.

You, on the other hand, WOULD have to worry about these group dynamics, and that stinks. And since you’re talking about doing stuff on a small scale, your expenses would be higher, which means you’d have to charge more. Maybe a lot more. Like maybe quadruple digits.

Tell ya what, though. Set me up with my dream woman and I’ll give you $1,000 right now!
Yeah, the cost is my biggest concern. I see people complaining about having to shell out $50 for the online dating, so I’m not sure they would ante up for this service. Then again, I would be doing this on a smaller scale and only with people who are truly invested in the idea. The question is how many of those people are there.

Send me a PM with where you live and I’ll tell you if I know any eligible ladies in your area 😉
 
I know a Christian (non-Catholic) woman who met her husband this way. She was ready for marriage, paid a reputable matchmaker a lot fo money and met a great guy. They were engaged a year after their first date and their first child is on the way. I would consider using a matchmaker but it is cost-prohibitive for me right now. I think a Catholic slant to matchmaking would be great. Other cultures have a similar service in place (ie Jewish cultures, Indians, etc). I think part of the problem that singles today face is we’re just out there on our own. In the past, people were introduced or met in appropriate social settings. Online dating has kind of filled in the gap but that is not without issues.

It’s funny you posted this thread because today I thought–if/when I get married I want hubby and I to be that couple that remembers singles and tries to keep their spirits up, invite them over for dinner, holidays, etc.
Yes, I love the way the Jewish culture does this! They have a lot of other built-in customs and support that are even more helpful that what I would be able to do (for example, how much the parent are involved). But still I would roughly be mimicking this idea.
 
But you have to meet him first.
I understand what you are getting at. However, I am of the opinion I would rather be single than have to meet someone in an akward way. I have given up but I am not complaining about it
 
Being 42, this business idea reminds me of all the dating services that existed before the on-line ones. It almost seems like a step back to a primitive business model

And personally, as a single woman who just doesn’t bother to date anyone because by the time you are my age all men are divorced or have kids and I come off as judgemental when I say that is why I am not interested. On the surface you would think I would jump at this opportunity but it is actually quite the opposite.

I want to let a man get to know me as I feel comfortable sharing things. I don’t want him to hear about it from you to help him decide if he would like to meet me

Also, I would be concerned you would be mad at me if I honestly told you how bad the date went

I would be scared you would try to convince me some guy is perfect for me when I have no interest in him.

I am not saying that is your intention, but those would be my concerns to avoid the business. That would be a hard sell to convince people otherwise
These are all fair points, cmscms. The key is that the service would really be for people who are actively seeking a spouse with a very open heart and open mind. It would definitely take a leap of faith to put your trust in us to help you find a good match. It sounds like you’ve already sort of given up on actively seeking a spouse. It’s not my place at all to judge whether you’ve made the right or wrong decision in that regard–it just means our particular business wouldn’t be helpful to you.
 
People with business plans usually try to keep it secret, because someone could steal the idea and implement it and…

There are a lot of successful businesses today that if they would have all tried to seek public confirmation of their ideas, they probably wouldn’t have ever established their businesses.

Investing in a “new idea” is a risk, since it might be successful or not. After the due process, it’s pretty much an individual decision.

Some of us would still see this form of pairing unorthodox. 😉
I completely agree with you 🙂 I do think it would be unwise to launch a new business without any sort of market research though. I need to be challenged to get those creative juices flowing and to make sure I’m not missing any obstacles that have to be dealt with in advance.
 
… However, I am of the opinion I would rather be single than have to meet someone in an akward way. …
I think you are asking for the impossible. Sounds like you want to know all about a man, and you want him to know all about you before you even meet. After all, the whole idea of “sharing”, as you put it, is to learn about the other person. But you have put the cart before the horse.
 
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