How much do you make per minute?

If you want to start making more money as a mystery shopper, then one of the best things you can do is calculate the “earnings per minute” of the mystery shopping assignments you do.

You might be surprised at how often a company will try to give you an assignment that pays below minimum wage.

Sometimes those assignments are obvious. The $4 ones for example. Nobody should ever accept those assignments.

But sometimes it is not as obvious. As a mystery shopper, you should set a ‘minimum’ for yourself. And then either reject any assignments that fall below that minimum, or ask for more money. And be sure to tell the company why! They will sometimes be willing to negotiate a better price — or give you a group of assignments in the same area.

But only if you ask.

Here’s Why You Should Carefully Manage Your Time

There is a lot more that goes into a mystery shopping assignment than just shopping at a store and fillling out a report. Many of these things take time. If you are doing mystery shopping as a business, then you should keep careful track of all of your time.

This is for two main reasons:

• You know how much you earn ‘per hour.’ This gives you an easy way to filter through assignments. It also gives you a reason to ask for more money. If you have a minumum you are willing to make per hour — and know just about how much money you will make for a given assignment, then you can tell your scheduler ‘I can’t do the assignment at the price you are asking, but I can do it at this price.’ Very often, they will be willing to give you more money. And if they don’t — the better for it, because nobody should work for less than minimum wage!
• You can manage your time better. Keeping careful track of your time gives you objective measurements that you can strive to improve. Spending a half hour a day looking for assignments? Why not try to get that time down to 15 minutes, while still getting the same results. Finish a report in half an hour? The next time you do the assignment, aim for 20 minutes — while maintaining the same quality. You don’t even need to push yourself too hard — simply measuring how fast you work almost ‘magically’ helps you get things done faster.

Do You Know How Much You “Profit” From Each Asssignment?

Just as you should keep careful track of your time — you also should keep careful track of your expenses. This is an important part of your calculating your earnings per hour.

The biggest expense you will want to keep track of is your driving cost. There are a couple of ways to do that. The first is to do it on a straight forward ‘mile-per-gallon basis.’ For example, if you need to drive 30 miles round trip, and your car gets thirty miles a gallon, and a gallon costs you around $3.25, then you your driving expense was $3.25 for the trip. Which you would then subtract from your earnings.

Another way to do it, is the way the IRS does. For 2008, the IRS allows you to deduct 50.5 cents for every mile driven as part of your business. That deduction will be subtracted from your ‘revenue,’ as part of the process of determining your ‘net’ profit. You can do the same thing with each individual assignment. For example, multiply that 30 mile round trip by 50.5 cents a mile, and you get $15.15.

Kind of changes how you look at things, doesn’t it?

Suddenly, a $15 assignment thats 15 miles away will result in NO profit at all. Now tell that to the mystery shopping company. They just might decide to give you a little more money. You might be surprised at how often they do.

Communicate with Your Scheduler

There are a lot of wonderful people in the mystery shopping world. Scheduling mystery shopping assignments is a difficult job — but you might be surprised at how much schedulers are willing to work with you and help you out.

That is why you it is very important to simply communicate with them honestly and openly. If you can’t do an assignment because it pays to low, tell them. And tell them why. The good schedulers will work with you. And when you find one that does, value that relationship! It will be worth it.