When reviewing the job boards on a regular basis, you may follow the same steps that many other mystery shoppers follow to select the best assignments. You may look at the retailer that the assignment is for, the base compensation offered or both. If the assignment is for a retailer who you normally shop with or enjoy doing business with or if the compensation is adequate, you may quickly snatch the assignment up before another mystery shopper gets the chance to. Unfortunately, however, some mystery shoppers make snap judgments on assignments and pass up on great assignments as a result. The fact is that every assignment has some hidden sources of income or some other type of financial benefit to you, and these should all be taken into consideration too.
Expense Reimbursement
First, the expense reimbursement should be reviewed. Often, you will need to actually click on the full screen view for the assignment description to view this information. If the expense reimbursement is relatively low too, there is a chance that you may have made a great decision by passing the assignment up on the first go-round. However, often, the base pay will be low, but the expense reimbursement may be much higher.
Tax Deductions
Mystery shoppers can enjoy a number of tax deductions, and this includes home office deductions as well as travel deductions. Each time you hope in your car to complete an assignment, you may be able to write off mileage expense. This deduction won’t put money in your pocket, but it can help you to keep some of your hard-earned money out of Uncle Sam’s pockets. So, consider how far you need to travel with each assignment, and take note that the entire round-trip mileage may be deductible in most cases. You may not want to travel an hour each way for a $10 assignment, but, this can help you to enjoy greater benefit from an assignment that you may be on the fence about.
Bonus Compensation
As a final point, consider if bonus compensation is available. In some cases, you can view bonus compensation on the main job board site. However, other cases, you will need to click on the link for the detailed assignment description. Keep in mind that you may consider asking for additional compensation if a bonus is not offered. This request will most likely be approved if the assignment is located in a remote or rural area, if it has been on the books for a while or both.
The fact is that some mystery shopping assignments may truly not offer adequate compensation, and you may easily consider passing up on these assignments without any remorse at all. However, other assignments that look like duds may actually be rather lucrative. You should consider reviewing the details of an assignment thoroughly to ensure that the assignments that you think are duds truly are. You may be surprised to find that many of the assignments that you may have otherwise passed over are actually rather lucrative.