Ideas from recent threads and a question

The ideas: You may know, from experience or reading here, that some asignments have been here one moment and gone the next. Some of you are route shoppers or can fathom the planning that is needed for lucrative work days.

The question: How do you salvage your profitability when your carefully planned work evaporates? Do you (gasp!) fill in with something low-paying that you can add on the fly? Do you have some tax-time benefit for when this happens? ??? ?????

The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope. (Henry Ward Beecher)

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From my engineering / business degrees, I rely on Return On Investment (ROI) knowledge to to make these decisions. I CAN'T make the numbers work for route shopping; taking into account the planning, the vehicle mileage, maintenance, and low shop fees / reimbursements. I CAN make shops work where I normally drive by on a periodic basis and where I might use a particular product or service.

For me, mystery shopping isn't a real profitable endeavor. It is a cost avoidance activity like using digital coupons. I'm in it for the low effort reward, not earned income.

I guess it's like marriage. There's an economy of scale for two people living in the same household along with benefits. Of course, like selecting mystery shops, not selecting an appropriate housemate can lead to a costly separation / divorce.

It pays to select and plan accordingly!

I've had this happen very rarely. Fortunately, it was always cancelled before I performed the shop. Maybe once, if I recall correctly, I did do a shop, but after the shop, I received an email that the client wanted to reschedule it. I let the MSC know. The report was accepted and paid, though.

If the shops are being canceled on the same day as the shop or within 24 hours, I think the MSC and the client need to be held accountable, to some extent. If the shops were already performed, then it potentially needs to be accepted. If the shops weren't performed, maybe partial pay? It's not the shopper's fault for the MSC/client's lack of planning, timeliness, and resources.

Emergencies do happen, so maybe it can be a wash if the shopper hasn't done the shops yet?

Please don't feed the MSF trolls!

Feeding the MSF trolls bread or other human food is detrimental to their health and the environment. It can lead to malnutrition, disease, and behavioral problems in trolls, as well as water pollution and the spread of pests. Trolls are capable of finding their own food sources and don't require human assistance.

First, never plan a route that you can't at least break even on if some of the anticipated work doesn't pan out. Second, if the work you rely on in general goes away indefinitely, a combination of some lower paying stuff to fill in the gaps, concentrating more heavily on the projects still available to you, and maybe looking for a different line of work.

Never had jobs fall out with no notice on a road trip before. I have had jobs I missed and did not realize until I was too far away to be able to backtrack.

I know if I set up a multi day road trip and stuff started disappearing, I would be pissed and certainly hold that against the MSC.

I usually have one or two of the jobs I am routing with that mostly pays for the route fully. Then, I will add as many quick and simple jobs everywhere I can pack them in. If one big job drops, I still have the little jobs that will fill in. I love jobs that give me free gas. Free gas is like gold to me. Free gas, free food, snacks, etc. helps pays the route, too.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

When Maritz was an MSC, routing was profitable for me, with all of the jobs completed in category 1: Money. As the yrs. have rolled by and the business, for me, has significantly changed, the overwhelming number of shops are category 3: The defrayment of travel expenses. If a cancellation were to occur, I can not conceive how it would have any effect upon my business.

Well, I think it's fair to go back to the company to try and negotiate a higher rate for the locations you still have.

Depending on where I'm heading, I may pick up some quick/easy things to keep the route profitable.

If I still wouldn't be able to wrangle a profit, I may be inclined to cancel the whole route, but that depends on my financial situation as well. I would be leery to plan a route with that company again and pursue work with other companies.

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Ideas from recent threads and a question

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