by Valerie L.

I began working as a professional mystery shopper in January of 2010. Since that time, I have established my own business with very little financial investment, and now I make a good income for part- time work that is completely flexible. I work as much or as little as I want to.

I started mystery shopping after retiring from the corporate world in which I’d worked for almost 30 years. My husband and I moved to an area where we could live a slower and simpler life, yet I still wanted to earn money to help pay for the fun things we like to do, such as camping, cruising, and riding motorcycles. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be tied down with a regular schedule or commitment; I’d had enough of that after years working for a large corporation!

After doing some research on the internet, I found that professional mystery shopping is a legitimate profession. My first stop was the MSPA website, where I learned more about mystery shopping, and found leads to different shopping companies that I knew would be legitimate. I also began receiving an email newsletter that provided leads to more than 200 shopping companies. Armed with this information, I set a goal to register with as many shopping companies as I could. Every day I would register with at least 10 different companies. I eventually made my way through that entire list of more than 200 companies, and soon I began receiving email notifications about possible jobs.

The first jobs I chose were primarily in the retail and fast food areas. Most of these were fairly simple and straight-forward; however they usually did not pay much. Eventually I also began doing mystery shops for financial institutions, car dealerships, apartments, hotels, and restaurants. In the beginning, I did a lot of work and did not necessarily receive good compensation for the time I was spending. However, it did give me the chance to learn the ropes. I also established myself as a reliable shopper with a lot of different shopping companies. I also decided to investment the money and time to earn MSPA certification, first Silver and then Gold.

Mystery shopping is perfect for me for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons are practical, such as being able to choose my own schedule and who I want to work with. I am also fairly computer-savvy and have good planning and organizing skills. These skills have proven to be critical to efficiently managing my time and keeping track of my jobs. Also, most of the shopping companies require that all of your work be done on-line. This includes signing up for jobs, downloading paperwork, filing reports, and uploading photos and receipts. Fortunately, I also already had the tools I needed: a good computer, scanner, and digital camera.

But perhaps most importantly, mystery shopping has been great for me because it is enjoyable and challenging. I actually like having the chance to “role play”. I remember that when I was in high school, I loved performing in plays. Now, I get to have some of that fun again while I earn money as I role play for my mystery shops. It is also exciting because I know I have to “think on my feet” to handle some unexpected situations that may arise.

Now that I have been doing this work for almost a year, I have learned what kinds of jobs I like to do, and which are most profitable for me. I am fortunate because I am able to pick and choose the work I want, depending on how much money I want or need to make in a particular month. I’ve also begun to expand my business into other areas such as auditing and merchandising.

Mystery shopping provides a flexible schedule, a variety of work, and the ability to choose the work you want to do. Sometimes it can be a challenge to deal with a lot of different companies, and the income is not predictable. However, for me it has become the perfect home-based business.