Hi,

I wanted to share something that helped me make more money cleaning out my mystery shopping company list. I was registered with about 120 companies. I usually checked about 40 companies twice weekly. I check the boards of the companies I actually make money with. I infrequently checked the other companies. I decided to clean up this list. It was useless to me in this state. Spread over time I methodically visited, updated and search for shops on the MSC sites.

When I could not find the type of shops I wanted I contacted them directly and asked if they offered them. I do phone shops. You could ask for shops in your geographical area, if a route scheduler exists in their company, or video shopping. Whatever you do (or make the most money in) focus on that. After going through all these companies I have 23 I check with twice weekly and another 20 that offer phone shops but never hired me for one. I check this backup list if I ever do not have enough work for the week. This happened at Christmas time for me.

I gained relationships with 7 new companies. More than half that offers me shops at a higher than normal rate. Higher not gigantic. Also the work is in line for the rate meaning you work harder for the higher pay. My work schedule is more streamlined and predictable.

I share this because most people sign up with as many companies as they can. Some people even search all those companies. I save time searching for jobs. I am also working with companies who work with me. It also helps you build the relationship with the MSC and scheduler naturally. Schedulers offering jobs via email make it easier to get the jobs you want before checking the MSC job boards. More money is made because you optimized your asset (MSC list).

Hope this helps someone.

By cleaning up do you mean just organizing the list or actually removing yourself from companies?

About twice a year I go through the entire list I'm registered with just to see if they might have picked up anything new in my area. I never deactivate myself because clients change companies occasionally.

That's what I do as well, except maybe 3-4 times a year. I also look at what they have in the entire US just for general knowledge. I've found it comes in handy to know what an MSC is up to.