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You have decided you want to either earn some extra income or go in a completely new career direction. You can do what you normally do, shop and dine, for a living. The formal name for this enterprise is mystery shopping or secret shopping.
Stores and restaurants hire companies to send secret shoppers into their establishments so they can see their operation through the eyes of their customers. You can earn some extra income as one of these shoppers, or you can start your own mystery shopping service, and make lots of money.
Why is mystery shopping important?
Especially in today's economic climate, it's absolutely vital to the health of a business to have loyal customers. Customers who continually shop or dine at a store or restaurant are the "bread and butter" that keeps a business thriving.
Through use of mystery shopper reports, a store operator can see how their customers are being treated. They can see what is preventing someone from becoming a repeat customer. Then they can take action on the findings of a report to improve their operation and bottom line.
A business can additionally hire a mystery shopping company to send shoppers into their competitors. This tells them how they stack up against the competition.
So, how do you get in on the action as either a shopper or mystery shopping company owner?
To become a shopper, you can apply for jobs at jobslinger or shadowshopper. Both services are job boards where mystery shopping companies post their available jobs. Shadowshopper has a free and a reasonable fee service to hook shoppers up with jobs. Jobslinger is free, though an upgraded service for shoppers is now available for a small fee.
As a company owner, you can do well financially.
I have for the last 25 years. To start your own company, it's best to start as a shopper. This will give you needed experience and knowledge. From there it's a matter opening your mystery shopping company and mingling with your local business community to get clients. The good news is a mystery shopping business ultimately has no geographical limits on where it can service clients. This business can start by serving businesses in your local area, and build up from there to service national chains.
You might be asking how much money can be made.
There are two possible avenues for sales, as mentioned, local and national. Let's just take local. I'll give you an exercise. Get out your phone book's yellow pages. Look through them to get an idea of the number of businesses that deal with the public. All of these are potential clients for your business. And usually businesses that contract for this type of service want ongoing monthly reports. The numbers can add up nicely. Going for national accounts, you'll probably find yourself in a competitive bidding situation, but just one of these chains would set you up nicely.
About this Author
For more information about this business, please visit http://www.mystery-shopper-business.com
The author, Shari Joseph, has been in the business since 1985, as a mystery shopping company owner, then author, consultant, and workshop leader. She has helped people all over the world to start and run their own mystery shopping company, and helped to introduce this industry to several countries.
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