Office Equipment Required To Run Your Mystery Shopping Business

When you choose to become a mystery shopper, you are basically setting up your own home business. Mystery shopping requires numerous reports and the most successful shoppers know how to keep all of this information organized. This means you’ll need, at minimum, a place to work, access to a phone and access to a computer. Like any home business, you may or may not need certain office equipment, depending on the requirements of the companies for whom you work.

Some of the equipment you might need may include the following:

• Answering Machine (or voice mail system)
• Cell phone
• Scanner/Fax
• Stopwatch
• Digital Recorder
• Digital Logger
• Digital Camera
• Digital Scales/Thermometers/Other Digital Measuring Equipment

Must you run out and buy all of these items in order to get started as a mystery shopper? Certainly not. Over time, as you become more adept in the business and take on varying assignments, you will discover that each company has their own way of doing things and their own requirements. The more equipment you own, the more you can say ‘Yes’ when opportunities for assignments arise.

Mystery shoppers work as independent contractors. You will pay your own income, Social Security and Medicare taxes on the income you generate. Of course, you will be treated as a small business and can deduct regular business expenses to offset your income. Expenses such as travel expenses, office expenses (supplies, equipment, postage, etc.), business purchases, and computer usage fees may all be deductible. Expenses related to your home office may also be deductible.

Comments

[MzCerez]

I have found that having a GPS system is also a useful tool!