Just curious. How many people have been involved full time and/or part time in this business? Did you have a choice? Do you have a preference? Do you have a goal?

Anything to share for fulltimers or parttimers?

Depending on you aptitude and educational background the best leap-frog I know of is into the wonderful world of auditing/consulting.... like JD POWERS and such. I only mention this because I was made an offer at one time to apply to a "consulting" firm which basically just did audits...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2015 03:28PM by rasky.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

Just curious. How many people have been involved full time and/or part time in this business? Did you have a choice? Do you have a preference? Do you have a goal?

Anything to share for fulltimers or parttimers?

I have done this substantially full time and substantially part time over the years depending on goals and needs. As Independent Contractors there is always a choice. My preference is definitely the part time approach because it lets me pick and choose work rather than feel a need to try to make a 'silk purse out a sow's ear' with a lot of the jobs that are out there. I understand that some areas offer few enough jobs that to be a full timer means a lot of miles travelled and a lot of time on the road. My area offers adequate work within a 25 mile radius to reasonably consider being full time.

Much depends upon geographic area. If you are somewhere near a larger metro area it's possible to make it a full-time pursuit, however if you're out in very rural areas it's a meagre part time gig at best.

I do this as a supplement to my Social Security income. Personally I have become a very picky shopper - I would guess about 98% of my shops are with bonuses. So I had a bank shop yesterday and an apartment shop today - $90.00 for the two. Tomorrow I have two shops. One pays me $30.00 including bonus, plus the cost of valet parking for 1 hour, the tip and up to $10.00 for a drink in the hotel. Later in the Day I am doing a Bar shop- this one pays $40.00 for the shop, reimburses up to $90.00 for drinks with a friend (2 drinks each) and an appetizer. So it should be a productive day. I would never try to do this fulltime - you spend too much time getting from shop to shop. And if I wanted to work that hard, I would go back to working in the real world.

I think it all depends on your situation. I retired from my previous career and looked for a new one after a short time. The extra income is nice. I can cash a check for my expenses and pleasure without checking my bank balance or draining my savings. Full time for me is within a 30 mile radius of my home with no overnights and 4 days a week averaging 5 hours a day. I guess that is really part time. I could easily double my income if I worked 5 days/40 hours but have no desire to do so. I make much more than say, a part time job at Home Depot but would have to dramatically change my work habits if I were younger and wanted to make this a well paying career.

I only do this part time and work maybe 4 days a week. Too much driving for full time work. I would have to leave my home at 6am and not be back until 9pm on a daily basis to make enough for a full time job. My limit is now 5 shops a day. After that I am burned out with the driving and the traffic.

I'm new at this, but it will always be part time. We are retired, so this gives us a little extra money and some new experiences. I want to have time to enjoy my retirement too.

Yes, it really all does depend on your situation. Of late my goals for shopping have been fairly nebulous, which makes it much more difficult to get the rear in gear. Because I budget fairly diligently, there is money set aside to replace my vehicle if/when my truck sings her swan song or my HVAC decides to finally go terminal or some appliance decides that it needs to move beyond 'quirky' to final malfunction. But it means that shopping is a supplement to Social Security that allows a wider variety of options.

Perhaps more meaningful, however, is that shopping gets me out and about, interacting with people, learning new things, having a variety of experiences and generally feeling good about myself.

With good planning and organization, it is possible to make full-time income in part-time hours. As time goes by, you gain more wisdom and experience so you can make the most of your time. You become more selective and it just gets easier. Every time I think I have it figured out, I learn how to do it better. So, whatever your goal is, just plan smart.

I mystery shop full time, and I do alright. But I think mystery shopping part-time, with another source of income such as a regular job or Social Security, would be the ideal situation. My hat is off to those who succeed in this manner. I have found that with full-time shopping, I run into the issue of diminishing returns as I perform routes will smaller profit margins in order to fill my schedule. If I were shopping part-time, I could work two days a week and still probably make half of what I make now.

I am a part time shopper with a full time desk job. I am retiring soon, but I don't expect my shopping activity to pick up too much. I am able to be choosy about the shops I take and do either easy or lifestyle (fine dining, etc.)

Part-timer here.

I have other jobs and other interests. This leaves little time and little scheduling flexibility.

I am satisfied. I gain experience and awareness of how to make more of this business. Perhaps someday life will permit or demand more from this business. If not, I can do part-time shopping indefinitely.

It is very, very good.

@mystery2me wrote:

I have found that with full-time shopping, I run into the issue of diminishing returns as I perform routes will smaller profit margins in order to fill my schedule. If I were shopping part-time, I could work two days a week and still probably make half of what I make now.

This is certainly what I have experienced. As a part timer I have no aspiration of making the equivalent of a living wage from this. When I was a full timer the reimbursements were more a 'bonus' while the fees were wanted to pay the bills. A route that yielded $100 in fees for a day was nice, a route with some bonuses that got it to a $150 fee day was great, but a day that yielded only $35 in fees still needed to be done. As a part timer I can work for the reimbursements to replace money I would otherwise want/need to spend. (Nobody NEEDS to go to the movies, but it fulfills a 'want' that can be covered by a shop.) In reality for me, fees come into play mostly to make sure my business shows at least a small profit each year so that it will continue to be considered a 'business' by IRS.

I am also a part time shopper. I work full time and use the mystery shopping money to afford the extras. I took a break when I started working full time but recently became a single mom and decided to use mystery shopping as a side income. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of shops in my city so I don't have to travel past a 20 mile radius. I shop 2 days during the week and on the weekends.

I have a part time job about 15 miles from my home. I do this part time, not with a particular goal or hours in mind. There are alot of suburban towns on that ride and I can easily do 2 or 3 a day (banks, business verification, occasional grocery shop)and barely go out of my way. I usually don't do too much more than that.
I think the most I ever do is 4 in one day.

If I have an errand/dentist appointment on the way home, I check out the towns in that direction.

I have been doing this about 1 1/2 years and noticed I am getting pickier or lazier, but I am grateful to have the freedom to do that.

I have noticed that a number of shops are decreasing their fees, One particular bank shop that used to pay bonuses by the 3rd week of the month no longer does. The September jobs have been posted and the fee has dropped again from 12.00 to $10.50.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2015 09:03PM by december baby.

Full-time teacher here so I shop part time. I do at least one shop 5-6 days a week. It's rare I have an entire 24 hours off from shopping or reporting however. But that's because I'm addicted. I don't go full-time in the summer, as I have kids to care for but do have the ability to fit in more shops when time allows as well as pick up shops in states/ cities where we travel to.

I honestly don't know how many hours it would take to make the money I make teaching (I know, I know... People think teaching pays peanuts) but I'm shopping to enhance our lifestyle and stretch our budget, not really to make income. When it does happen, it just goes towards overages somewhere else.

Another part-timer here. I also sell Medicare supplements and Advantage plans, but that is concentrated in the fall. I'm a suburban mom and I like big reimbursdements to upgrade my lifestyle and take care of needs like carpet cleaning and oil changes. I think I would go nuts doing this full-time, and admire the "road warriors" that somehow keep the details straight-- well, most of the time, anyway!

I have been shopping full-time for almost a year now. I did it part-time before that. I will agree that part-time is preferable, since you get to be pickier, but full-time has been working well for me. I have always needed variety in work (always had multiple part-time jobs rather than one full-time one), and MSing provides that within itself because of the different shop types, MSPs, etc. I also don't mind being on the road (other than traffic- ick!) and doing routes because I love traveling, and the scenery around here (mountains! Eep!) is gorgeous. I love the flexibility of course, since I need to support myself but also have multiple health problems. I wouldn't mind going back to doing this part-time, but I don't hate doing it full-time. It is working for now.

I've started doing restaurant reviews for realsies after doing high end restaurant mystery shops for Coyle. My first article for that job is due very soon.

I have a good full-time job and do this to fill in the holes in the budget and get some great meals and groceries for free. I probably only average about four shops a week, but on a day off where I hit it hard it's not uncommon to make about $150-200. Really helps out with the monthly bills, which have been on the rise...

Ive gotten to the point where my work is actually getting the way of my shops. The shopper pay daily equals my pay at work almost every day. When i take a lot of weekend shops, it even goes up. Im going to be quitting my full time job soon to do shopping full time. 60 hours per week is killing me.

I replaced a part-time job with mystery shopping in order to have a more flexible schedule, The first few months I tried to replicate the money I made at my job, but lately I've had personal things get in the way.

I have done mystery shopping for over 10 years. I tried to do this full time when I first started. I took all kinds of shops- even those with low pay. I did this to learn about mystery shopping. And I would do multiple shops that the co offered- such as bank shops. I live in a large metro area with lots of shops available. The more companies you are signed up with, the more shops you have wvailable to you. ESP since you do not always get the shop or location you wa t. It was not unusual for me to do 5-6 shops a day. But you have to do those 5-6 reports the same evening. Had a little leeway if had 24 hours. But most shops want a hem within 12 hours. Not much time if doing shops the next day.
I am doing very little now due to health issues. I am very picky about shops I do. I also won't do unless it pays a certain amount. I have mostly been doing upscale restaurants- esp restaurants that I would like to try but could never afford on my own. So reimbursement is worth it to me- even though I hate the long & detailed reports that I have to do. It still likes they are paying you.
I do not really eded the money. It does help if fee & report are worth my time. If report takes longer than fee they offering, then I won't do it.

I've been shopping for just over a year now. I originally took the smaller paying jobs since there was rotation issues that a lot of people couldn't do the shop, or a small fee that most didn't want. I now, too, have become pickier. I prefer to take the revealed audits on the last day when they require me to travel like 100 miles one way. I like to drive and can usually write my own bonus. I have made $300-400 in one day before and with audits you usually enter the report on your tablet while on site, so no reports later. Awesome! I like my steak dinners for cheap, and the occasional sloppy burger/dog for free. Enjoy when they pick me for the movies, and the free oil changes are the bomb!

I have brought in just over $2000 this year, but have only shopped 45 days. I can't say I have only worked 45 days because I must spend two-three times that watching the shop deadlines and bonuses, nit-picking to see what I actually want to leave the house to do. Once I am out, I am out for the day. Getting me out is the hard part, so it better be worth my while. I can pick up a $10p/h job anywhere, so they better be paying me much more that that. If I'm driving a lot, then they better be paying me enough to cover the always needed brake job and front end repairs on the car, as well.

That being said, I'm not sure if you would consider me pt or ft. Part time shopping full time monitoring. Hahaha.

I do this PT I have a FT job I work. I did pull 85 hours in one week between both both wound up in the hospital. Now I have stopped all shops while I recover.

My "real job" is fun. I am a drummer who is blessed to get paid enough to make a living doing what I love to do. I started messing around with apps that pay money for gigs and missions at stores. I just figured as much traveling as I do, I could make some extra change here and there. While researching some of the apps, I learned about the world of mystery shopping by accident.

I toyed with a few shops in July of this year to see how legit the companies were. I picked up a lot more shops in August. I enjoy the shops I've done. The reporting seems to be where I get bogged down. However, I am figuring that out. They are always the first few reports for an MSC or a new shop I haven't done. As I learn and understand the requirements they get easier.

I would say I'm a part- timer pushing the boundaries of full-time. It's a nice way to supplement my income no matter where the show goes. I love that I can still run my main business with my band mates throughout the week dealing with booking agents, marketing, promotion, and logistics for production and setup. I also love the fact that I can make a little extra cash whenever I want, which is about 2-4 days a week.

Heck, you could even train your band mates to help with observations and take them to dinner from time to time. You eat well, you get brownie points for feeding them and they tell you what is going on behind you, how their food is, etc.

Shopping works well for me PT right now since I have two other jobs that are flex-freelance (writing, and a surveying job for the government). I like the idea of being in it for a time when I can, if need be, increase it to FT. And none of these jobs are anything I'd need to retire from.

And I might add, having at least 3-4 meals a week from shopping is a great way to cut down the grocery bill and also get in some date nights! Tonight we have a shop that's bowling plus a meal -- a normal date night for us. How cool is that?

I was laid off a couple months ago from a full-time job. I am receiving unemployment pay currently and I do shops part-time. Although unemployment pretty much subtracts what I make from shops each week, I know I will not be able to extend the unemployment pay after my minimum is up so I figure might as well make some extra part-time money and receive the unemployment pay as long as possible while I look for full-time work. It'd be nice to do this full-time, but it's hard to schedule enough shops to make it full-time.