If you have taken some time to write out your New Years resolutions, you may have written down something along the lines of “make more money” or another financial-related goal. To achieve these goals for the New Year, you likely have grand plans to work more as a mystery shopper in 2011.The truth is, though, that if you want to make more money mystery shopping in 2011, you should also consider ways to work smarter. When you work smarter, you can make more money with less time and effort. And this will free up some extra time to pick up more assignments! Here’s what you need to know to both work smarter AND work more in the New Year:
A Relationship Business. Mystery shopping may seem like a fairly isolated business, but the fact is that it is actually a pretty relationship-oriented business. Mystery shoppers who develop great relationships with their providers often are hand-picked to do high-paying assignments that are never even posted on job boards. If you are not on a first-name basis with at least a couple of your schedulers, you should make a goal in the coming year to develop a closer relationship with a few schedulers. You want to be one of the mystery shoppers they think about when hot assignments cross their desk, and the first step to doing this is making sure they know your name.
Pull the Weeds. You can waste a lot of time working with bad providers. You may spend far longer than necessary reviewing some providers’ job boards, and then when you do assignments for certain providers, you may find that they take up more time than assignments with other providers do. Spend some time this year weeding out your less profitable relationships and nurturing better relationships. Over the long run, this can really pay off big for you.
The Best Assignments. How many times have you clicked on an email announcing new posted in your area only to find that most – if not all – of those assignments have already been taken? Checking the time stamp on the email, that email may have only hit your in box ten or twenty minutes beforehand! The best way you can get your hands on the best assignments is to be the first one checking your email throughout the day. This may mean investing in a phone that offers internet access, setting up email alerts on your phone or computer, or something else similar. When you do find that you are one of the first to see those available jobs, jump at the opportunity to do these jobs by selecting several of them right away.
The Right Kind of Scrutiny. Being choosy about which assignments you pick is good if you are basing the decision to select or not select on assignment only on financial factors. However, if you are passing up perfectly good assignments simply because they don’t appeal to you, you are losing money. Mystery shopping is a fun job, but it is still a job. If you want to make the most money possible, you need to be open to doing assignments that may not be your favorite from time to time provided they are financial worthwhile.
Following some of these tips will help you to earn more money in 2011, so take time to put them into action for you today!
Thanks! These are all good reminders to improve the mystery shopping experience.
You are right about getting to know the persons name that is sending you work because they will call and get you first that to me is looking out for you because you are doing a fantastic job for them and they are giving you the opportunity to make more money. I had stopped for awhile doing MS but now I am back into it. I guess like anyone else you want to really be good at this because pay wise it is worth it.