Becoming a mystery shopper - By Pamela White

Part time employment idea: Mystery shopping is a real job. Learn how to get started in this lucrative part or even full time home-based business.

You’ve seen the ads - Be a Mystery Shopper, call 1-800-something. They usually promise the opportunity to earn money while shopping, eating free dinners, recieving free merchandise, staying free at motels, hotels, resorts, and spas.

As ludicrous as it sounds to the uninitiated, the concept of mystery shoppers is a valid one. During times of economic boom, businesses want to make sure their customer service beats out their growing competitions’. During downturns in the economy, savvy store and restaurant owners understand that good customer service is what makes the difference between a regular influx of customers, and a drought.

How can a company make sure that customer service standards are upheld? Let’s face it, everybody puts on their best face when the boss is around. Managers and owners need to know how customers are dealt with when staff is not under management’s watchful eye. This is where 'mystery shoppers' are useful.

Mystery shoppers are just average customers ordering an average meal, keeping track of the time between ordering and serving, looking at the presentation of the food, and its taste and temperature. Does the service make you want to come back time and again? Overall, would you recommend this place to your friends? Knowing this information, in order to use it to reward good employees and retrain struggling ones, is well worth the monthly free dinner and a fee.

The general idea behind mystery shopping is to improve customer relations, determine staff training needs, look at phone answer skills, and gain and keep business. Each business is likely to have similar but individual concerns. Some are looking to stop shoplifting or pilfering from the cash register. Some recognize that there are a dozen fast food places up and down Main Street, and want theirs to stand out in a positive way.

So now that you know it’s a legitimate job, should you call that 1-800 number in the classified ads? You could call, but don’t fall for anything that requires any money from you - you need no training other than what the firms who hire shoppers provide for free.

A better bet is to go for a ride on the internet. Use your favorite search engine and try different combinations of words like mystery shopping, secret shopping, secret shopper. The results of these searches will provide you with firms that hire mystery shoppers, mystery shopping mailing lists that bring job listings straight to your emaill address and websites that offer tips and advice on how to get started all the way through how to land a mystery shopping job eating, gambling and staying free at a casino, relaxing at a resort, or dining at fine restaurants without a cost to you.

Sign up online with as many firms as possible, remembering that even if a firm doesn’t have a client in your area today, they may next month. Buy a notebook and dedicate it to mystery shopping. Start writing down the names and URL’s of the firms you’ve signed with. Make notes as to whether they will call you for shops, wether you are to check back on the sites jobs available boards, or you are to call the firm on a particular day to get your assignments.

Once you get shopping, you’ll want to include information on how to get paid. One firm I work for does everything online - sign up for jobs, fill in the surveys and, once the surveys are complete, automatically invoices for the job. They state clearly when they pay and the check arrives right on schedule. Other firms require you to fax a copy of your report, and any receipts, immediately after shopping. Then you must mail the originals to them with an invoice for the job. Keep track of how often they pay as well.

I have list some firms as paying the month following completion of the job. Others will send the check for each job within two weeks. Yet others take a month. Some take eight weeks. If you object to waiting eight weeks, you can refuse jobs from that firm, but once you start your mystery shopping, either as a supplemental income or full time, you likely won’t notice the lag time between jobs and pay.

Keeping track of who pays when, alerts you to the deadbeats. There are some firms that don’t pay unless you remind them repeatedly. Some won’t pay at all. How do you avoid them? Anything that sounds too good probably is. Another way is to sign up for the mailing lists and pay attention to the questions posted along with the jobs. Every once in a while, someone will ask “Has such and such a firm ever paid for a job?” The answers will flow in.

Sometimes a firm has trouble adjusting to a new website and loses records of invoices for a few months. Other times, the negative stories pile up. Make a note of the negative shopping firms, if you find any. Rest assured, the vast majority really do want to hire reliable shoppers and will pay to keep them on their list of contractors.

Which brings me to reliablity. Just as you want to work for a reliable firm or firms, the firms or schedulers want reliable contractors (that’s you!). Even if you can turn mystery shopping into a full time job, you will not work for one firm full time. Depending on where you live - the size and location of your nearest city - you may be inundated with offers of shopping jobs or search extensively to find six shops a month. As such, you will be considered a contractor, not an employee. You will be responsible for your own taxes, and record keeping. Not only that, you will be the sole person reliable for your schedule - finding and completing jobs.

Being reliable is the fastest way to find shopping jobs or rather to have the jobs find you. Get started by taking any and all jobs you can finish. Karen started shopping for fun; she hoped to spend very little time at it with the goal of earning $50 a month. She signed up with only one firm. Her first month she made $145 doing shops locally at the rate of $7 per hour. How did the money add up? There were bonuses attached to a number of the jobs that tripled the fee, due to the immediacy of the due date. Others were in rural areas that were only 20 minutes away for Karen, but no one else wanted the jobs. More bonuses.

Her second month she signed up for a mystery shopping mailing list online. When a job in her location showed up in her email box, she applied for it. She only got one shop out of every four she applied for, but by the third month the schedulers from the other three jobs (she didn’t get) started calling. Six months later, she now looks forward to her many small checks per month. Total earnings for an average six hours a week? At least $400 per month.

Is it easy money? For some people it is. You do have to keep mental notes on the names and physical descriptions of the employees, the appearance of the establishments, and remember the list of specific questions you are to ask for each individual job and write up the shop in detail. If you look at it as a job though, it could be the easiest, most flexible job you’ve ever had.

For those with little children who they want to bring along on shops, it can be a tough juggling act. Children require so much attention; pick your shops where you take your family with care. Have you been hired to go to the grocery store and check that certain items are being displayed in a certain way, or to ask at the customer service desk if they have a particular item? Do you need to audit the post office by buying stamps and counting how long it took to get served? You’ve probably already done those things with your children, so why not take them along.

Other times you may be offered a high-paying ($50 - $75) car shop where you go in and pretend you are interested in buying a car. If you’ve ever done that for real, you know it’s no place for children. Heck, it’s probably no place for rational grown-ups!

Now you’ve got the real information on those mystery shopping jobs and that they are real, fun and profitable. Happy Shopping!

Written by Pamela White - © 2002 Pagewise

Ways for Kids to Make Money

I saw this article on how kids can make money and had to post it even though it isn't about making money online. Still, kids want to make money too so you parents out there, show this one to your kids:

Money making ideas for kids!

By Christina VanGinkel

Money making ideas for kids, such as clown, party helper, vegetable sales, pet walker and washer, computer guru, tutor, even farm hand.

So, you are the proud parent of a wannabe entrepreneur! What, they want to make money, but have no idea where to start? Brainstorm with them, offer them some of these ideas to get them started, and before you know it, your little Bill Gates will soon be making more money than you! Not really, but they will make some extra cash on their own, and that means that much less green leaving your own wallet.

Kids of varying ages can do many of these businesses, but you know your child best, so keep in mind age restrictions concerning your particular child as you explore these job ideas. Also, make sure that any local or state laws governing small businesses are abided by.

Neighborhood Party Helper

Help harried parents set up, decorate, supervise, and clean up before, during, and after children's birthday parties and other social events.

Clown

Kids make great clowns and can hire themselves out to birthday parties, senior citizen groups, nursing homes, and other community gatherings.

Face Painting, (Fake) Tattoo Artists, and Hair Color Designs

Also a great opportunity for younger kids birthday parties and small community fairs. This makes a great business for two kids to do together. One child can do the face while the other does the tattoos. Popular also are washable hair sprays in bright colors. Kids can spray stripes, stars, rainbow designs, etc., onto hair of young customers.

Art Designer/Crafter

If your child is artistic, let them create! Markets include selling designs to magazines, finished products at craft shows, church bazaars, etc. Do not overlook original ideas along this line either, as one mother told me of her oldest child who drew original comics in the third grade. While this may not have made the child rich, who knows what type of future job ideas may spring from this early venture into marketing his artwork!

Vegetable Sales

If your family has a garden each year that provides tons more than your family ever uses, trade gardening help with your child for the excess produce. Your child can then sell these at a roadside stand for good old-fashioned greenery!

Pet Walker/Washer

This is not a new idea, but still a good one, especially if you live in an area or neighborhood that has pet owning couples, and both work outside the home. Make sure to meet with both pet owner and pet beforehand, so that you know your child will be capable of handling the animal. Business can offer one or both services. Bathing pets is a service often overlooked as too difficult for kids, and many pets may be too hard for kids to bathe easily and safely. Often though, an older person may own a small breed dog that just needs a bath now and then, and the owner can no longer get down on his or her knees comfortably and do the job themselves. Summer time, kids may handle larger dogs by offering one afternoon a week to wash the pets outside. Think of a ‘car wash’ setup for dogs! Don’t let them forget they should offer a good brushing (Pet owners must provide brushes so fleas and other parasites are not transferred!) after the wash and dry.

Tutor

Is your child very bright in a school subject, such as math or history? Have them offer their services as a tutor to younger children. Teachers may even be able to suggest possible clients.

Cleaning Help

Everywhere, in every neighborhood, is someone willing to pay good money for cleaning help. Garages, basements, and attics are all areas that occasionally need some down to the bottom cleaning. These are also areas that people just seem to hate to clean. Children can offer to clean on their own, or as an aide to the homeowner.

Grass Cutting/Leaf Raking/Snow Removal

Whether summer, fall, winter, or spring, there is always something that needs to be raked or shoveled. This is another excellent opportunity for two kids to work together. While one child rakes, the other one can bag leaves, while one shovels, the other one can scatter sidewalk salt, etc.

Computer Tutor

Kids are naturals at computers, and many know more, and always will, over the adults in their lives. Kids can offer computer services such as cleaning, software installation, routine maintenance, and basic instruction on how to use a computer. Don’t overlook setting up newly purchased computers and attaching peripherals, such as scanners and printers. Believe it or not, many people buying computers for the first time do not even know how to turn one on and off. While those familiar with a computer know not to turn off the power while the windows screen is on, others do not know that you have to go to the start button and ‘shut down’ the computer from there. Kids can offer mini courses in computer do and don’ts. Also along these lines, they can offer their services as buying gurus for what software is popular, what a basic system should consist of, etc.

Miss or Mr. Fixit

If your child is good at fixing things, or assembling things, this is a great opportunity to make good money. Many people do not have time to assemble things such as bikes and swing sets.

Farm Help

While this is not technically a business, for those kids that live rurally, hiring themselves out as farm hands is a good way to make extra cash. Many farms need help that do not require kids to be by machinery. Stacking hay bales, picking rocks, cleaning barns, grooming animals, picking vegetables, all seem like hard work, but many kids like to work at these jobs. Older teenagers often enjoy the work, as it is mostly outside and peaceful.

Whatever jobs your child decides to try make sure that safety is a top priority. Making a profit is also at the top of the list, and while these are jobs, they should still be fun for them. Remember that they are kids!

Written by Christina VanGinkel - © 2002 Pagewise