I'm new at the whole mystery shopping game, but I am enjoying it a lot. I'm facing the initial hurdles many of you had to overcome when you first started and I'm seeking some guidance. My questions here will be directed more towards those who do this full time than those who just like to dabble or get a free meal every now and then.

The first thing I'm wondering about is how to be successful at scheduling. I've signed up with enough companies to see a good amount of opportunites and now I need to figure out how to best go taking advantage of them. Right now I see three different approaches I could take, but I'm not sure which is best.

1 - Schedule myself on a day-to-day basis. Start by finding out which shops that are dependant on a target being at the location (eg, apartment shops), and see if they are available to be done that day. Then once I know about where I'll be driving too, search the boards the other companies have with shops that are more flexible for scheduling and pick up the ones which will be enroute to the initial shop location.

2 - Take the best paying shops while they are available. Focus on scheduling to try to get the high paying stuff before anyone else beats me to it and plan out my month according. Avoid apartment shops or anything else I can't schedule on a strict date unless I have some gaps in my month I can try to do them in.

3 - Try to setup a regular schedule of repeating jobs, (such as merchandising), to cover as much of my monthly schedule as possible. Then find shops to fill in the gaps.

So... what do you all think? Any of those approaches similar to what you do? Do you do a combination of some of them or something completely different? Thanks in advance for your replies.

I do all three.

I mostly schedule my higher-paying jobs first, then look for others nearby from other MSCs. They may pay lower, sure... but they sweeten the deal.

I'll schedule my first two weeks that way.

The last two weeks... I schedule myself to, at most, 50% full. That way I can take on a good amount of bonused shops before deadlines.

Like B-Bird I do a mixture of the three. What I do is what makes best sense for me at the time. Consider your business an evolving one. As new and different opportunities come available to you, they may displace some of those you already have. Some times are different than others. For example, the end of the month is different as bonuses are offered to get the shops done. Also shopping in November and December is different because of the holidays.

Work on building your relationships with MSPs and schedulers to get more and better opportunities.

You seem to be making a good effort. Keep working on it and it will fall into place.

thanks! I had the same questions.