Well, coming up on the end of my first month as a Shopper. I have completed 22 shops with 7 MSC's and have $227 in fees coming, beginning (I think) about July 10th. Unfortunately, I have also spent about $200 in gas and over spent my <client> reimbursement by about $12! So, I'm in break even territory, with maybe $20 net for the month so far.

With gas prices going up, what on earth am I going to do!? I can't seem to get enough shops in one small town or on my route to give me a net profit. Yesterday I drove to South Carolina for $40, and spent $40 on gas. When scheduling for the day, I thought I had another shop (I had 3, needed 4) but the 4th shop didn't use me at the last minute. There were no other shops on the route or in the town. That's happened to me twice now. How do I book the shops early enough, that I can safely back out if I don't get the number of shops I need to justify the trip?

I'm enjoying working with Confero, Sinclair, and Marketforce but the clients I'm shopping pay so little, I don't know if I can continue doing them, except as add-ons to larger paying shops. The reports for each one takes me about an hour each, so by the time I do the shop and the report I'm getting about $5 an hour.

Loving the work, but I need to do better with the earnings. Any tips for me?

Tracey

Have I read this somewhere before?

How many MSCs are you signed up with? Until you are searching the jobs of about 75 MSCs you are not going to see a lot of shops. Also, wait for end-of-month bonuses which can be very large in sparsely populated areas.

Welcome to the wild and crazy world of mystery shopping Tracey.

One tip I can give you is, if you are in North Carolina, try to arrive in South Carolina with an almost empty gas tank. Prices in SC are 15-20 cents a gallon cheaper in SC. Likewise, top your tank off before you leave SC. I think Georgia is a bit more expensive than SC, but not as high as NC, so I would offer the same advice.

>>How do I book the shops early enough, that I can safely back out if I don't get the number of shops I need to justify the trip?

I would counsel you to not back out. While it may hurt in the short run, not flaking on jobs has long-term benefits. I had a route fall apart on me last year, 20 shops in a two day period became 5 shops in one, very long day. Earlier this year I got a call from the same scheduler that I did the 5 shops for...I got 15 shops, again a very long day, but there was a very nice bonus added. She remembered that I did what I had committed to do.

Another thing, add to your list of companies you're signed up with. I'm signed up with 200 companies although I actively work for 15-20. Clients will change the companies that do their shops so, while I may not have any shops with "Joe's MSC" this year, it's possible that I will next year.

Lastly, and a piece of shameless self-promotion, subscribe to Mystery Shopper Magazine, www.mysteryshoppermagazine.com. It's free and contains 3-4 articles per issue that can help give you insight into the world of shopping.

LOL, yes, I confess, I reposted! :-)

Thanks 007.5! I do get the magazine, and I continue to sign up for more companies every day. Two hundred!? Wow! Thanks for the advice on "flaking." I kinda already figured that one out, but geeze it hurts to know I might not even break even those days.

I am also a "free" subscriber to Shadow Shopper. One day I'll actually have the money to upgrade! One of my schedulers gave me some great advice. She said that when she was a shopper, she wouldn't do shops unless she was guaranteed a buck a mile.

Tracey

It looks like you're doing shops at $10 a piece. Personally I wouldn't even look at a shop that paid that little even if I was driving past. I think therein lies your problem. Yes you need to sign up with MANY companies so that you can pick and choose the better paying assignments. I shop NC and SC and also make sure I fill up my gas tank in SC.

The biggest thing you can do is take a day off shopping and apply apply apply to all the MSPs. Sites that will help you are jobslinger.com voltion.com and msjobboard.com. As you gain more experience you will know what jobs to hold off for bonuses on. Which jobs to take right away. You will learn schedulers and make relationships with them. You can then ask for bonuses before the shops get a bonus. Sometimes you will be able to sometimes you won't. Use the zip code of one shop when traveling to find others in the area. As you do some shops over and over the reports time it takes you will shorten as well as the time to do the shop. To be in the positive your first month is a plus.

JP, I think maybe we need to see about meeting Hymnsinger for lunch one day.

Can I meet too? I shop the same area.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2014 02:16AM by gogogirl.

Sometimes it's better to NOT go out the front door, if you are going to be at a "loss" with gas and reimbursements

Unless your shops make sense and you are profiting, you might want to re-route your day.

it would be great to meet y'all for lunch since we're all shopping around the same area! Y'all organize it and I'll turn up!!

As you get more experience, you may get better offers, too. I've only been MSing for three months, and each month I get better offers for the same assignments I did for less previously. I did a FF for $9 the first time, now I get calls to do it for $15. Same with theater checks. I did two for the low base fee because the theater is only 4 miles away. Now I get calls almost every weekend to do them with a $5-$10 bonus.

Also, if you can, make nice with your schedulers. With every communication, I make sure to say thank you for the opportunity. After just three months, I already have a scheduler who calls me first when there is a bonused assignment in my area, and last week offered me an upcoming project that hadn't been posted yet! In return, he knows he can count on me to take some of those lower fee or need-it-done-today assignments.

Great advice here. Hang in there, you might not see much of a profit the first couple of months but that will turn around once the paychecks start coming in. I avoid companies that pay in 90 days because it is just too long to be out of the cash.

As you get more experienced at shopping, I would be ok with adding maybe up to 5 companies that pay in 90 days. While it is a long time to be "out of pocket", the advantage is if you have a slow month, you still have the potential of a positive cash flow.

Because of bad weather, February was terrible for me, yet I didn't notice it that much because I had 60 and 90 day shops coming due in March and April.

If you plan to do this on a full time basis, speak with a qualified tax consultant re: how to report your income v. expenses.