Category: Tips

Performing a couple of hours each month as a mystery shopper can earn you a couple of hundred of dollars each month. However, in any work environment, you need to remember to take precautions for safety and protect your well being.

Taking a few minutes to learn how to adjust to a good ergonomics work station can help protect strained muscle pain in your hands, neck, or back. Since typing on the computer comprises of a high percentage of time for mystery shoppers, there are several ergonomic tips from experts that a worker can utilize to prevent strain.

First tip is to remember to take several breaks away from the computer regularly to allow your hands, neck, and back to relax. Also remember to do hand stretches when typing for long periods of time and apply a soft touch to the computer keyboard. There are also numerous computer hand rests for your computer that you can purchase to prevent any unnecessary bent wrists or awkward positions of your hands which will support your arms while typing your reports.

For preventative back and neck strains, you can invest in padded seats or backrests for chairs. Ensure you find a comfortable chair that allows your legs to rest comfortably and is lower than your desk. In addition, take a few minutes daily to adjust your computer screen monitor and place it directly in front of your body, and ensure the height of the screen is at your eye level so that neck strains do not occur.

These simple preventative ergonomic tips will help you reduce any wrist, eye strain, neck or back neck pain and allow you to earn that extra cash!

2016 has begun and if you work as a mystery shopper, you will discover that most employers classify you as an independent contractor. An independent contractor is considered self-employed and requires you to keep track of all your paperwork like your income, expenses, and taxes.

Hopefully during the year, you organized all your paperwork for easy tax filing. If you did not organize your files during the year, there is no need to panic or feel overwhelmed with finding all the paperwork in time for tax season.

If you start taking small steps between now and April, you should be well prepared to file your taxes on time. You should remember that not every mystery shopper site may send you an end of the year W-4 tax form, especially if you only work a couple of times for an employer. If you take note of all your present employers or print out your work histories during the last year, then you are almost done with your paperwork. If you want to keep this filing system simple, then one or two file folders should suffice.

You can also insert a separate colored sheet or tab between each job within your file folder, or notebook, or use a ledger to record the employers, amounts earned, and expenses incurred. Be sure you save your receipts and place them in the notebook pocket or somewhere where you can readily find them. If you are more computer literate, there are many software systems that can be used to record amounts earned and employer names, but you still would need a file to save all expenses. In just a couple of hours or so, you can be tax ready for the April filing deadline.

There are several negotiation tips that can help you on your mystery shopping jobs. Learning some basic negotiating skills not only helps you to get that mystery shop done quickly and completely, they can also be useful when you go on your own shopping sprees to save money.

One of these negotiating tips to remember is that everything in mystery shopping shops and buying regular store items is open to negotiation! If you have a negotiation shop where the target person refuses to reduce their price or terms, a good tip is to use Competition Pricing.

When you state that another store has the same item at the same price elsewhere, most mystery shopping employees or regular merchants will try to match the same price. Competition pricing is one of the more popular negotiation tips that is used to lower a price.

Another tip is stating that there is only a certain monetary amount you are allowed to spend and always provide the merchant with a lower figure than the allotted money. Most merchants and mystery shopper targets are usually willing to negotiate with you if you truly insist that you want to purchase an item immediately while you are there at their store, but can only afford a lower amount.

When you are at regular shopping outlets, salespeople can sometimes authorize a lower price or they can ask their supervisor to lower the price. Even if the employee states they can not match the price, ask them when the next sale is so you can come on that day to obtain a lower price. Most sales occur at the end of the month or during a holiday season. So choose your negotiation tip, shop. and save!