Get Paid to Shop

Mystery shopping is a great way to get paid to work from home and to go shopping as well. The concept of mystery shopping or secret shopping is simple. You get assignments to visit a business place, make a purchase and then fill out a form to evaluate your customer service experience, quality of your purchase and other things about your shopping experience.

Secret shopping is done by ordinary people who provide a company with feedback about their service. Companies hire mystery shoppers for a wide variety of reasons. Some want to investigate the quality of their employees. Others may want to find out how their locations do with stocking items. There are many different reasons that a company looks to hire mystery shoppers.

Although companies can hire mystery shoppers directly, most of your mystery shopping jobs as a work at home entrepreneur will come through a secret shopping company. As a mystery shopper, you’ll be asked to visit a wide variety of stores and businesses in your area. Sometimes you’ll be assigned to purchase clothing from a store in your local mall. Other times you’ll have to visit a coffee shop and rate the friendliness of the wait staff. After you gain experience with mystery shopping, you can receive assignments to eat at restaurants and stay at hotels.

As a secret shopper, you will not only get the chance to try out products and services for free, but you will also get paid. You can get paid in several different ways depending on the mystery shopping company. You can get paid a flat fee for completing the job, or sometimes you are just paid with the free product or service. Obviously, the jobs that are paid a flat fee are more desirable. But when you are first starting out, you may need to take some of the other types of job just for the experience.

Most mystery shopping companies pay by check on a monthly or biweekly basis. You’ll get paid for a shopping assignment when you complete the necessary paperwork on your shopping experience. Your paperwork can normally be filed electronically, although some companies require you to mail in your reviews. This can slow down the payment process.

To get started with mystery shopping, you’ll need to find a mystery shopping company to work for. Unfortunately, many of the companies that offer mystery shoppers assignments are frauds. Many will ask you to pay them for a list of mystery shopping opportunities. You should never, ever have to pay for someone to hire you and this is no different for mystery shopping. Becoming a mystery shopper is totally free when you find a reputable company.

When you start doing assignments, you will be asked to pay for the services or products that you will be trying. Although this may sound like a bad deal, the mystery shopping company will reimburse you for your purchase. The reason that they require you to pay upfront for your purchase is that because the mystery shopping company doesn’t want to take the chance of your getting a product for free and then not turning in a review.

Although being a secret shopper can be rewarding, it’s not something that can be relied on for consistent monthly income. You’ll never make enough money as a mystery shopper to live on each month. However, you may get enough to pay your phone bill or electricity bill. Mystery shopping is not going to make you rich but you can make enough to help out with the household budget.

What Work at Home Business is right for you?

So you think you might like to try actually working at home, that makes the first thing you need to do is first decide whether or not working at home is right for you. Is there space for any kind of inventory? Can you find enough workspace at home to conduct your work at home business? Next, you need to consider what type of work at home job, you will be doing. There are many opportunities for work-at-homer these days both online and off. Having a successful work-at-home career starts with evaluating your own skills and requirements in a job and then finding the right match.

Sometimes the best place to start with your work at home career is where your out of the home career ended. Many women find that they can become independent contractors in the field that they previously worked in. You can use your previous work experience as a launching pad for your work-at-home career. Some of the ways to use your experience to your advantage are: finding a company that hires people in your field to work from home, using your previous experience to become an “expert” writer in your field or starting a business related to your previous field.

However, some women look at their work at home careers as a way to break out of their old job. If you’d like to try something completely different, there are plenty of opportunities for entry-level work as an independent contractor. Many of these jobs deal with telephone or online customer service. When you work as a customer service agent from your home, you just need a reliable Internet connection and a working phone. Companies also hire medical transcriptionists, data entry professionals and virtual personal assistants to telecommute.

If you want to start your own business, opportunities are plentiful. You can start with a direct sales company and sell products from an established brand to friends and neighbors. You’ll make commissions through your sales and also off of recruiting other people to sell the products. There are hundreds of direct sales companies that offer everything from aromatherapy products to candles to cooking supplies.

Another option for starting your own business is offering a service in your community. Daycare center operators, florists, professional organizers and hairdressers all have the option of working at home, among many other professions. Of course, starting a business in your community normally means that you’ve had some experience in that field. However, there are some small business ideas that can be started without much experience at all.

Many women turn to the Internet for a source of work-at-home income. The World Wide Web offers plenty of online job opportunities. You can offer your services online as a freelance web designer, writer or virtual assistant. You can also start an online store that sells products that you make yourself or have the rights to resell. Many work-at-homers establish their businesses online by using one of the popular auction sites, like eBay. Others find a home in Internet marketing, by directing web traffic to a website and then recommending certain products and services.

Decide first what type of job you’d like to do and then work from there. If you are truly a people person and need to get out each day, direct sales or a local service business might be right for you. If you are the type of mom who lives online and is comfortable with the Internet, try finding a job or starting your own business on the web. If you like the comfort of having a weekly paycheck, look into telecommuting positions.

Once you’ve decided what category of job you’d like, do some research on what it takes to be successful at that type of business. If you feel like you are drawn to one particular business or company, then sit on your decision for a week and see how it feels. Imagine what your life will be like as you take on the duties of that job. Most importantly, be realistic with yourself about how much time you can devote to your business. Make sure you are passionate about whatever you do.

The next best thing you can do to help in your make money working at home job search is to check this blog out often so that you won't miss any job opportunities related news or articles to help you unlock the secrets to making money working online.