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SERVICE BUSINESS |
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NOTICE:This web site is under construction. Please come back often as all sections will be UPDATED on a timely schedule
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There are all kinds of service businesses that can be run from the home, thanks to the Internet. Accountants have handled small business accounts, persons trained in medical processing are working via the web for doctors and small clinics, etc. Our experience is that the most promoted businesses on the Web are Mystery Shopping, Survey Taking and Field Inspections. We have done mystery shopping and survey taking ourselves, and were on the e-mail lists for all kinds of field inspections. What we have learned is pesented in The following paragraphs.In the Mystery Shopping and Survey-Taking area, there are many,many outfits who want you to pay hard money to be on their list of workers. Our experience is that the companies who do this are not the ones you want to work for. We found that we received less offers from those firms, and the offers paid less. Our advice, don’t bother with them, even if you are told “reviewers” highly recommended them. The truly big boys don’t need your $20 to $50 application fee.
Mystery Shopping.Mystery shopping can be fun. We shopped our local Staples store and Hometown Buffet for awhile. Armed with a voice-activated mini-recorder in our shirt pockets, we were able to record our conversations with the staff, get their names, etc. Later at home, we’d prepare a detailed report (which only took 20 minutes or so), e-mailed the report in and received payment shortly thereafter. In the case of Hometown Buffet, all we got was free meals.By just searching the web for Mystery Shopping, you will see several pages of companies looking for mystery shoppers. These “shopping” companies have contracts with several businesses. Seldom will you find a major company doing their own hiring of shoppers. Because there are so many, it will take some time to weed-out the ones you don’t want to do business with. Of course, while you are doing the weeding-out, you will be doing shopping and either getting free oil changes, cash, clothes, other merchandise or meals - so the process is not all that painful. When starting, many companies will have you fill out data on yourself and look for past experience. A big help is to go to the accrediting organization, MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association), pay them $15 and take their brief course. When finished, you will have an “Online Silver Certification.” With that, you can start with virtually all companies, so it is worth the process. You are not likely to do well financially in this business. Most jobs pay rather poorly, like refunding the cost of merchandise bought during the shop or $10 to spend time at a bank pretending you are interested in a new home loan, etc. We dropped the business because we were not in a large-enough city to make the time, effort and gasoline costs worth the effort to go 20 to 50 miles away to do a job that paid only $10 or $15. On the other hand, those living in large metropolitan areas can have so many jobs they can plan a whole day, and do several jobs, accumulating half-way decent pay and merchandise. This business should be considered a hobby that could become a real business over time as you narrowed your company contracts with top-paying and professional firms.
Survey TakingFrankly, survey-taking is a “pain in the A**”. Simply because it seems most companies you work with are presenting you with surveys with a hook before you can get paid. They tell you you can make anywhere from $1 up to say $50 for taking a survey - but you won’t get paid unless you accepted two or more offers they present you, after you’ve done the survey. What we are saying here is, it is going to take three-times as long to weed-out the “so-called” survey companies as compared to mystery shopping firms to get to the very few that run a professional service. So, if you have the time, you can eventually find yourself staying at home making money, but it is going to take a long time and effort unless you happen to luck-out). Some of the companies assemble focus groups, where you do more and get paid more for testing products or advertising programs. It might be a good way to start this business by only signing up with firms that have focus groups in addition to surveys. So far, we did find one survey company that is quite professional, and may provide good income. That one is Vindale Research (www.vindale.com).
Field InspectionsThis is an interesting business for those who like to do physical part-time and sometimes interesting work. A friend of ours had a part-time job testing for leaks in underground gasoline tanks. The job was simple, it was done with equipment supplied, and not dangerous at all. Plus, it paid very well, and his schedule was quite flexible.How does this business fit into the home-online business category? Only because the job opportunities are posted on the Internet. With this business, you will normally be working with several firms doing jobs, such as visiting a business and taking pictures for an insurance company who wants to know if there really is a business there that they are insuring, doing tasks very similar to mystery shopping, etc. There are schools that give courses in special fields of field inspecting qualifying you for certain jobs that are technically involved (like complete building and building systems inspecting). Most offers do not require any special education.
Here’s a list of some examples (other than those already mentioned) of inspections that you could end up doing: A Reference on the left side of this page called,“Field Inspectors Training Course” gives you all you need to know to get going in this field, and find yourself listed on the Internet, receiving daily opportunities for field inspection jobs.The twenty-page course costs $44, which is steep, but well worth it, because the author has spent several years doing the business, and is still doing it. He doesn’t leave anything out!
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