What's that? You don't have a home office?

You work, instead, on kitchen table or computer station in family room or--much to your spouse's dismay--on cluttered desk in corner of bedroom (clickety-clackity, clickety-clackity go keys until wee hours of morning).

Get a room already! Preferably one you can claim and make your own. Concentration, focus and productivity will improve--and so will your peace of mind.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! Being a home office, by definition, space you choose as your own actually has to be in your home--so right away you're constrained to a certain, fixed location. Your "home office" can't be in building down street.

That said, here are five items that mattered most to me when I chose location for my home office:

1. My office space needed to be physically practical while also being good for my psyche--no stark four walls, cramped space, or gloom for me.

2. I needed a space into which I could literally disappear for hours--away from hubbub of family activity, noisy children, cooking smells, and errant pets.

3. The space needed to work for me in physical terms, with adequate room for a desk, work area, reading nook, printer stand, fax machine, storage of office supplies, etc.

4. I needed a room that afforded me a view of outdoors--a room that provided me something to look at other than my computer screen.

5. The space could serve no dual purposes. This had to be my office with my "stuff" in it, from pictures on walls to books on shelves.

CREATING THE SPACE Fortunately when we built our home over a decade ago, I imagined that I would someday want a home office. During construction I had a spare 10-foot by 13-foot bedroom on top floor wired for an additional phone line and electrical outlets in room equipped with surge protection. I also placed sound deadening board in walls, six inches of fiberglass insulation in floor, and topped it off with a heavy six-panel solid wood door--complete with lock and key--making for a very cozy and quiet setting.

Mystery shopping has become a very lucrative home business for some. With good reason - reasonable hourly pay, free products/services and gas reimbursement! For those that are serious about mystery shopping, there is good money to be made.

As with all things though, some jobs are better than others. Not all companies will pay you for everything I've outlined above. However, you get to choose which jobs you'd like to do and which ones you'd rather pass on. It's entirely in your hands how much or how little you make.

What is Mystery Shopping?

Well, it's quite simple, really. Companies use mystery shoppers to help them rate their customer service, overall appearance and product placement. You are simply informing company as to whether they are meeting their customer's expectations.

Mystery shoppers apply to different companies and when a placement is available for you area, you are contacted via email, generally. Upon receiving details of job, you decide whether or not to accept it.

Upon accepting a job, you print out instructions for that job. Generally, those instructions will pertain to store's overall appearance and cleanliness, level of customer service, speed in which is required to make a purchase, whether specific product displays are available, etc. All instructions are provided to you ahead of time. You simply make mental notes while inside store and afterwards fill out appropriate online reports.

Can I be a Mystery Shopper?

Different companies have different age requirements. However, if you are over age of 21 with a good grasp of English language, you can be a mystery shopper. With that said, you must also be reliable, detail oriented, and dependable. Schedulers (people that offer you jobs) are much more likely to continually provide you with choice assignments if you are someone they can rely on and someone who provides them with good quality written reports in a timely manner.

I Thought Mystery Shopping is a Scam?

No, it isn't. You hear that from people who were not committed, reliable, detail oriented or were otherwise just plain lazy. The fact is that if you do not produce what is required of you - you don't get paid. It's really that simple. Everything is laid out for you ahead of time. You choose whether to commit to what is required or not. If you work at a typical 9-5 job and don't produce work you know is required of you, you'll get fired. Mystery shopping is no different.