Prepared to give Mystery Shopping a serious try? Do not pay for a directory of mystery shopping companies rather than pay to do a shop!

To begin with, set up a free email account specialized in your mystery shopping endeavor. I suggest Gmail but you can find others. It is a 1st step in enabling organized.

Before you begin the application form process with all the shopping companies, I suggest a good investment within a good form filler program. This can be a lesson I learned the difficult way – Now i use RoboForm and it will save you precious time. Build a good strong password and then use it for all of your mystery shopping logins. If you KISS (make it simple, stupid) this project, life is going to be far easier!

Next, see how you want to track your applications. This is as elementary as a spiral notebook or an Excel spreadsheet. Your headers ought to include: application date, mystery shopping company, and any notes you’re feeling important. Most mystery shopping companies require a completely independent Contractor’s Agreement signed on your side and, obviously, you need to keep a copy of these contracts. Obtain a box of manila folders (they are cheap at stores like Walmart) and develop a folder for every company while you apply. This is a great location to keep login information, the organization address, phone and fax numbers. When you begin for shops, you will want to make a copy from the final report along with your handwritten notes taken before a shop most companies require which you keep reports for 3-6 months. After that period of time, you’ll be able to safely shred them.

You are now ready to begin the application form process, and also this represents a real investment of your time. So how does one apply? There are websites which provides hundreds of mystery shopping companies with links to the companies.