My name is Chloe Carmichael and I live in Glasgow, Scotland.I’m the founder of Chloe’s Deal Club, where I help women save money on beauty and home items by sharing amazing deals with my community of 30,000+ women.
So how did it all start? Throughout my childhood, my Dad would always be looking for ways to save money with vouchers or asking for discounts. When I look back now it’s funny because I’d always be mortified when we’re at the checkout in a high street shop and my Dad would ask for a discount. I never understood why he couldn’t just pay full price and leave.
That was until I had my first full-time job working 12 hour shifts in a call centre and something clicked one day, “I work hard for my money and I want to be able to make it stretch as far as possible so I have more for the things I love in life.”. This is exactly what I help women do too because why would you pay 100% when you can get the same item for 50%?
It became a running joke in my family that I never pay full price and my family and friends would then come to me to find them deals for years. That’s what sparked the idea for Chloe’s Deal Club.
Fast forward to now, I have two memberships (free and paid) to help women save money and time by emailing them amazing deals and freebies.
No, it wasn’t planned at all. I studied Product Design at University but decided not to follow that path and somehow found a career in e-commerce and digital marketing instead.
I’ve always loved creating content on social media and one random Sunday in May 2019, I decided to set up an Instagram to share the deals that I find and word started to spread from there.
From the start, I was hooked on helping my community save money whilst doing something I love – combining deal hunting and social media. It’s the most rewarding and fulfilling job I’ve ever had knowing I’m making a positive impact on people’s lives.
Yes, there’s been a lot of learning curves along the way! I used to spend too much time worrying about mistakes I’ve made or poor business investments, but I now try to see them as something to learn and grow from. One of my biggest challenges has been something all business owners experience – wearing multiple hats and learning to do everything. From technical support and business finances to web design and running a membership, it’s been a journey but I’ve received great support… and spent a lot of time Googling!
Transitioning from an Instagram hobby to a membership business.
I’d been running Chloe’s Deal Club for free for about 18 months, sharing deals on Instagram before launching my VIP Membership, where members can get extra deals each week for a small annual fee. I set myself a goal of 50 VIP Members within 1 week of launching and almost 250 people joined in that time. It was an amazing and humbling feeling having people support my business and vision.
Being myself, which helped build a community of like-minded people. It sounds cliché but showing up as myself daily on social media helped build trust and connection with my audience – my members often say they feel like ‘I’m the friend who helps them save money’, which is so lovely to have created that connection and loyalty over social media.
Mentoring will help you achieve success. I’d love to find a mentor with membership experience as the guidance and support would be invaluable.
I’m currently working with a business and mindset coach. It was a scary investment but it’s been amazing having someone on my side who believes in my business, helps me with perspective and challenges my doubts. As business owners, especially if you’re a solo entrepreneur, it can be really lonely and you can get too consumed with the day-to-day running of your business that you sometimes forget to take a step back to see the bigger picture so a coach or mentor helps this.
Through my platform, I’m lucky to have also found a group of inspiring women who are at similar stages of their journey and we support each other from ideas and advice to pricing and growth.
I would love to help mentor other founders of service-based, online business – especially around social media and community.
Closing the gender pension gap. On average, women who are in their 20s today are on track to retire with £100,000 less in their pension pot than a man the same age. This is due to women being paid less than men, working part-time or taking time out to manage family commitments or caring responsibilities. Accelerating this would have a direct impact on closing the overall gender pay gap as well as increased representation of women in senior, leadership and board-level roles.
“You’re exactly where you’re meant to be right now.”
It’s easy to compare yourself to others but trust that you’re meant to be where you are at this moment because you’re going to learn and grow from every situation.
The next challenge is to scale Chloe’s Deal Club and help more people to stop paying full price and start saving money. My members have saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in total already and I’m excited to keep increasing this – £1 million+ in member savings is the goal!
On the creative side, I’d also love to launch a blog and YouTube channel to share more content with my community… but I need to find a few more hours in the day first.
