I have a dear friend that is going through a hateful, hateful divorce. Her husband was the sole provider for the household. She has a back problem and has an issue with standing for long periods of time. I was thinking maybe this was something she could do.

Tell her to sue for alimony and find a lawyer who will work on contingency. If she wants to do schedling, mercantile is hiring.

I, too, can't stand for extended periods of time (i.e., 20 minutes is my MAX!)...and I can't walk more than 2 blocks without sitting to rest. I also cannot lift more than 5 lbs.

These limitations do keep me from doing most "merchandising" assignments that involve carrying, lifting, bending, etc.

I also wrecked my car, live in a rural area, so was without any form of transportation for a year. However, my children were grown and gone, so I didn't have to worry about that. There's so MUCH your friend CAN do; she needs to assess her skills (you can't run a household without skills -- really!
It may be that she can multi-task -- what mother can't? --; pays attention to detail; is well organized).

I ended up selling on Amazon and e-bay. As soon as I made enough $$$ to buy a car (took about
8 months), I branched out to add mystery shopping to the mix. I "scout" stuff to buy to resell while
I'm mystery shopping! It's a lot of fun, too; I got 500 old magazines for $20, sold just one within
5 hours on e-bay for $99.99; sold the rest in lots of about 100 for $75 per lot. Went to a garage sale,
they had old (100+ years) postcards for 50 cents each...bought 'em all, they sold for an average of
$12 each on e-bay. I paid $2 for a 1928 Sears, Roebuck catalog (a REAL one, NOT a 1960's reprint!),
it sold within 3 days on e-bay for $100.

I had NO money to get started. I did have a computer and internet access -- that's the main thing you need.

Meanwhile, she should also contact all State agencies that might help; if she has children at home, she may get food stamps or some other assistance; she might also consider some
volunteer work if she's thinking of a blank resume holding her back!

It's really, really hard, but you can help her look at this as opening a new opportunity for her. I was absolutely devastated when my marriage broke up; but my oldest son opened my eyes when he said "mom, you're 50 years old. That means you have another entire LIFETIME to do what YOU want to do!" He was SO right!

Good luck for your friend. She's lucky to have a friend who is willing to help!

cease

I used to get $5 per shop scheduled.

Hope that helps.

Cease, my hat's off to you. What an inspirational story! Good for you for finding a way all the while enjoying the journey!

To answer the subject line of your post, schedulers are usually paid anywhere from $2 per accepted shop (accepted is the operative word here) to $6 or $7 per accepted shop. It's totally up to the discretion of the MSP or scheduling company.

Starting out from scratch is next to impossible without previous MSing experience. Most companies want a good track record of shops with them (as a reference point of a person's reliability/comprehension of the business) or prior experience in scheduling.

That being said (and speaking from experience), your friend might be better off waiting until there is a lot less drama in her life and things settle down a bit. Scheduling is a time consuming, stressful job, and it doesn't sound like your friend needs more of either in her life right now.

Got offered a scheduler position for $6 per assignment assigned.. problem is you only get paid if shoppers complete the shop and it gets approved. Also was offered an editing job for $8

I would tell your friend to wait until things simmer down for her.. last thing shoppers and MSC need is someone who doesn't have it all together.

This is a great thread! I'm happy to hear you also want to help your friend. Right now, she might do better doing online crowdsourced work. If she can write there are a number of opportunities to be found. One of my favorites is working with mTurk. They have various HITs a person can do. It adds up, slowly but surely doing the small things. The writing and transcribing work pays significantly more.

I too have often wondered about the pay rate for schedulers and how to be one. In all honesty, I would not want to be one for a few years because I KNOW my home life gets hectic with four kids and it can be difficult for me to have more than 3 minutes on the laptop at a time before a kid interupts me. And, if I'm on the phone? Geez, my kids are ring magnets. As soon as that phone rings they come running to pester me. And, that's not even including all of the disruptions we have from appointments and activities. So, as nice as it would be for your friend, or some of us with kids, to be a scheduler, working from home doing some mystery shopping or other type of low-stress work might be better. (not that mystery shopping is totally relaxing, but there is a bit of stress even though it is fun and interesting)

ceasesmith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I, too, can't stand for extended periods of time
> (i.e., 20 minutes is my MAX!)...and I can't walk
> more than 2 blocks without sitting to rest. I
> also cannot lift more than 5 lbs.
>
> These limitations do keep me from doing most
> "merchandising" assignments that involve carrying,
> lifting, bending, etc.
>
> I also wrecked my car, live in a rural area, so
> was without any form of transportation for a year.
> However, my children were grown and gone, so I
> didn't have to worry about that. There's so MUCH
> your friend CAN do; she needs to assess her skills
> (you can't run a household without skills --
> really!
> It may be that she can multi-task -- what mother
> can't? --; pays attention to detail; is well
> organized).
>
> I ended up selling on Amazon and e-bay. As soon
> as I made enough $$$ to buy a car (took about
> 8 months), I branched out to add mystery shopping
> to the mix. I "scout" stuff to buy to resell
> while
> I'm mystery shopping! It's a lot of fun, too; I
> got 500 old magazines for $20, sold just one
> within
> 5 hours on e-bay for $99.99; sold the rest in lots
> of about 100 for $75 per lot. Went to a garage
> sale,
> they had old (100+ years) postcards for 50 cents
> each...bought 'em all, they sold for an average
> of
> $12 each on e-bay. I paid $2 for a 1928 Sears,
> Roebuck catalog (a REAL one, NOT a 1960's
> reprint!),
> it sold within 3 days on e-bay for $100.
>
> I had NO money to get started. I did have a
> computer and internet access -- that's the main
> thing you need.
>
> Meanwhile, she should also contact all State
> agencies that might help; if she has children at
> home, she may get food stamps or some other
> assistance; she might also consider some
> volunteer work if she's thinking of a blank resume
> holding her back!
>
> It's really, really hard, but you can help her
> look at this as opening a new opportunity for her.
> I was absolutely devastated when my marriage
> broke up; but my oldest son opened my eyes when he
> said "mom, you're 50 years old. That means you
> have another entire LIFETIME to do what YOU want
> to do!" He was SO right!
>
> Good luck for your friend. She's lucky to have a
> friend who is willing to help!
>
> cease


I just wanted to say, I really respect your pluck. It's a great thing to have these days as very little seems secure to me.

Some people who have good English speaking and writing skills tutor people who are trying to learn English.

Thanks guys for your posts. Right, she does not need that kind of job. She also just had neck surgery. DMV employees sit on their ass, maybe she can work for them.

Editing is a much better way to go in the MS world when you are challanged by physical limitations, or family demands. Your schedule is your own, you can work any time of day or night (yes, even middle of night when you can't sleep!)

There is not the stress the schedulers have, and you are paid for each shop you edit. The pay can vary from a few $$ apiece to $5.00, $10.00, $12.00 or whatever is going on at the time where you are working. When there are deadlines to meet, the rate can increase!

You can work for more than one company at a time - but be careful about that! It can get stressful if they all have the same deadlines to meet! It is best to be paid by the edit, rather than by the hour, because by the hour, there are sometimes unrealistic expectations of your productivity. Now there is some stress!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2013 09:30PM by Jazzgirl.

how to apply for schedulling job? can I do it together with mystery shops assignments I have?

If your friend doesn't mind writing, she should look for telephone shops. The beauty of those is that you can sit in front of the computer and phone and do them. No car or car expenses involved, nor driving time.

I actually have the same problem physically as stated above so I kind of specialize in dining out (not FF) and extend my grocery allowance quite a bit by doing so. Generally, I can almost always get a meal where I can take 1/2 home which means two meals and both paid for by the reimbursement fee.

I also can do shops where I know I won't have to stand more than the 20 min. or so needed. Fortunately, I live in an area where almost any store (other than the mall) has parking directly In front of them and I don't have to walk from a huge parking lot to the store or the mall.

I think doing it this way beats the heck out of being a scheduler. I think scheduling would be much more stressful than being the shopper.