Become A Mystery Shopper
When You Have No Money To Invest

I became a mystery shopper when I ran out of money to support my MLM business. It is one thing you can do without having to spend a lot of money to get started. I found that mystery shopping was a real business and that there is a big demand for new people to get started. As a mystery shopper, you do have to spend your own money to make purchases during your assignments. That could be a $2 purchase for a bottled drink or $35 for a dinner at a restaurant. Once your report has been accepted, you will be reimbursed for it and paid for your service later.

Each shop will have specific instructions on what to do and look for during your visit. Some written reports will have 10 multiple-choice questions with 3 sentences to write. Others may have 40 questions and several paragraphs to write. Once you complete the shop, the mystery shop company will review it. If it’s accepted, you will get paid for it within the time frame the company sets forth. That could be anywhere from one week to two months. If the report is not accepted, you will not be paid for your efforts.

If you don’t like the thought of writing so much, there are video mystery shops that have less information to enter and pay a lot more per shop. You wear a small camera that the mystery shop company will ship you. There is more training both online and over the phone for video shops and the company will not ship equipment to you unless they feel sure you can do the work. Video mystery shopping will boost your income, but there is a little more risk with it. If the recording stops during the shop, or there were severe audio problems, or the camera was pointed to the ceiling the whole time, you may not get paid for your efforts. A written report is not acceptable for a video shop either. Once your shops are completed, you ship the equipment back on time (at company expense) or a portion of your earnings may be deducted.
Please note that mystery shoppers who hustle can make some good money, but not on a part-time basis. Far from it. Even if you have a lot of time on your hands and you apply for many different shops with many different companies. This is not residual income, where you do something once and get paid on it over and over again. To make a lot of money with mystery shopping, you really have to own your own mystery shop company.

Many shops will pay $10 to $25 per shop for places like these:

- retail stores

- check cashing stores

- grocery stores

- convenience stores

- wireless shops

- apartments

- new homebuilders

- restaurants

- and the list goes on

Most restaurants will give you a spending limit that they will reimburse you with.  Some may add additional shopper pay of $10, but most of the time it's reimbursement for the meal.  In all cases, you must follow directions or you won't get paid or reimbursed for anything.  

Some mystery shops that you apply for can also fulfill a need you have.  When I needed new glasses, I waited for a mystery shop to open up and I applied for it.  These optical shops come up all the time, so it was no problem getting assignment.  Not only did I get a new prescription and specs, I got some money back from my purchase.  These shops will pay $100 or more for reimbursement for your glasses.   

You can get paid in several different ways. Many companies will send out a check once a month. Others will do direct deposit to the account you want it sent to or to PayPal. Others will do PayPal only. If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s FREE and easy to set up. Just visit www.paypal.com

You can be eligible for more lucrative shops by getting a Gold or Silver certificate through the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association). Learn more about that by clicking here.

Why a business owner wants mystery shoppers

It's important to understand why mystery shopping exists in the first place. It takes a lot of money and effort for a business owner to get customers in their place of business. It takes very little to lose that customer forever. Mystery shopping is used primarily as a training tool for their employees, so that they can give the best service to their customers. It also helps business owners determine what is working for them and what's not. It's not intended to catch someone violating company policy, but some employees with bad reports from a mystery shopper have been reprimanded.

Click here to read the worst report I ever had on a mystery shop.

Watch out for SCAMS that claim to be mystery shopping companies

There are some popular scams about mystery shopping that you need to know about. If you receive a check in the mail from a so-called mystery shopping company or secret shopper, destroy it. No mystery shop company will pay you before you do any work for them. The check is not good and you could be taken for thousands of dollars.

Here's more on mystery shopping scams.

Becoming a mystery shopper is not as difficult as you might think. You submit an application online with several mystery shopping companies and wait for them to approve you. There is NO FEE to submit an application.

Here are some items you need to have to become a mystery shopper.

1. A computer with internet connection. You really can't do this business without one. The higher the speed the better.

2. An all-in-one printer that you can scan, FAX and print items. You will have to scan receipts and either FAX them or send them as a jpeg file in your report. Most companies prefer you do the latter.

3. A car to drive around. Most of the shops I've done were on the road within 25 miles of my home.

Telephone mystery shops can be done from the comfort of your home. Many of those calls will be long distance, so you may want to have a phone plan to accommodate that. Check with a tax advisor in your area, but you can write-off a portion of your phone bill that you use for business purposes.

4. You don’t need to be a novelist, but you need to be able to write complete sentences with correct punctuation, spelling and good grammar.

The first thing to do

When I decided to try mystery shopping, I applied with 5 different mystery shop companies right away. I logged on to their websites and filled out an application for each. It cost nothing to do that. Three of the applications requested a sample of my writing. I just wrote a short narrative from the last restaurant I visited.

I received approval from 4 companies immediately and the other within 10 days. Once approved, I clicked on a Job Board where I could apply for assignments at locations near me. I signed up for seven of them and received approval on three. I completed those assignments over the next few days and submitted them online.

Most reports are submitted online with a place to attach a receipt. If you have assignments that require digital photos, there will be a place for them to be entered as well. The only other way reports would be sent to a company would be through a FAX machine. There are very few of those. I have never mailed a report to a company.

The Job Board will include what is expected of you, the location and the time frame to complete the assignment. Some requests may take a couple of days before someone responds to them. If you get accepted, you will be given an email with instructions on what to do next. You must complete the assignment or you won't receive any more from that company.

I'll give you a list of companies that you can apply to for FREE. Submit this form for that information.

Here are some advantages of mystery shopping:

1. You can make some money without committing to a job.

2. You can do these shops to fit your busy schedule.

3. There are tax advantages, like writing off the mileage that you drive. Again, check with your tax advisor in your area about this one, because the laws do vary. You have to keep your receipts and track your mileage as you would any business opportunity.

My son had a baseball game in a town that was 50 miles away. I normally would never schedule anything in that area, but one of my companies needed a shopper for a video rental store in that area. I signed up for the shop and was able to do it after the game. It was only an extra 15 minutes out of my day and I spent 20 minutes to submit the report from home. The big thing about the assignment was that now, this was a business trip. I could now use some of this mileage as a tax write-off.

Other Assignments

Not all mystery shopping is all unrevealed. There are audits, and surveys that mystery shop companies will accept where you go to a location and record information for a client. I’ve done quite a few audits on computers, printers, ink and toner cartridges for several different companies. The client wants to know how these items are displayed in certain stores and how many displays there are. I do some business verifications where a client for a business must show they are a real business. They need this verification to get credit reports. Digital photos are required for this assignment.

I’ve also done assignments where I walk in as a mystery, but can reveal myself at the end as a shopper. One was an apartment where I had to answer questions about why I was looking for an apartment, what I need for an apartment, how many people will live there and many other questions. The sales agent had to give me three different closes to be awarded a $100 certificate from the company. Things like “Would you like to put down a deposit?” or “Would you like me to hold the room for you?” were two examples of trying to get me to lease an apartment. I had to make the decision after the visit and decide in my car if this person deserved the award. If they didn’t, I could drive away and remain a mystery. If they did, I could go back in with a printed certificate from the mystery shop company and reveal who I was.

The only thing to be careful about here is if you say the person did not give three closing remarks and you gave them the certificate, you could be liable for the money you awarded. The only way it would be an issue is if your report was written wrong.

Some phone calls are to check cashing companies who started doing auto title loans. The main reason for the call is to see if the employee says the name of the company and the title loan promotion when they pick up the phone. I asked them 4 other questions to see if they answer them to the company’s specifications. The call takes about 2 minutes and putting in the computer takes another 2 minutes. The company may give you 60 phone numbers to call across the country, you get $1 per call, that’s an easy $60. Other phone surveys include customer satisfaction with a medical clinic. That paid $2 per completed survey.

Some mystery shops require you to have a story ready in case to complete your shop. I’ve had some retail stores where I had to be a business owner of a small company and needed to ask some questions to a sales agent to get a recommendation for a specific printer. When you visit a new homebuilder, you have to be prepared to give a different name, address, and line of work for every different location you visit. This is actually a good place for an aspiring actor to practice their craft.

The Main Objective

Mystery shopping is a way to make some money when you don't have anything to invest. Some people are happy with the incomes that earn from mystery shopping. There is nothing wrong with that. I hope to help you as much as possible with your endeavors.

However, if you want to make residual income, you will want to take the money you earn from mystery shopping and invest it in other high-paying business opportunities. My business strategy changed when I read the FREE eBook The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing. Earning residual income is a great way to make money when you have little to invest. But, you have to be smart about it and do a little bit of research before you dive into something.