What is your Travel Radius?

How far will you travel to complete a contract?

As a mystery shopper or other field services professional, you must determine your travel radius. How far are you willing to travel to complete a contract? Now that my field services business is in full swing, I visit all parts of Los Angeles county. I've been known to complete contracts in San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and Ventura counties as well.

I began as a mystery shopper, using a list like this: The Hot New Mystery Shopping List. That was 15 years ago and I've worked my way up to contracts with the USDA, FDA, and the US Marshalls, among others. If you’d like to earn extra cash by working from home, check out mystery shops in your area and build!

When you have reached the top of your “Field Services” game, you can comfortably set your travel radius at 50 miles from your home. You should expect to have various types of contracts (commercial, mortgage foreclosure, insurance, automobiles, mystery shops, etc.) all over your city and surrounding cities. The farther your travel radius, the more options you have.  If you are a beginner, a travel radius of 10 miles or so from your home is advisable. Anything could go wrong and you want to minimize your output,  limiting your time and resources.

As a rule, I route my contracts the night before using Google maps and visually rearrange them in a circle, starting and ending with my home office.

In 2007 when I conducted 100’s of mortgage foreclosure inspections weekly, I used Microsoft Streets and Trips to route my inspections. I found Microsoft Streets and Trips very user-friendly when juggling dozens of addresses per day.

Castforce.com is a field services company that I've signed up with and looks very interesting. You should check it out in your city. Although I have not personally been awarded a contract from Castforce.com to perform field services work, I would jump at the right opportunity. As with any contract or business relationship you should always perform your own due diligence. You should also determine, upfront, how much time and energy you are willing to gamble building your own work from home business.

I've highlighted some things I found interesting about Castforce.com:

CASTFORCE HAS LIVE CHAT SUPPORT AVAILABLE

CASTFORCE DASHBOARD 

• Contractor Status
• Work Orders Awarded
• Work Orders Reported
• Invoices Received/Paid

CASTFORCE AVAILABLE PROJECTS 

• Available Projects Offered in Your Service Area
• Apply For Any Available Projects Listed
• (You are not assigned to these projects unless they move to the “Work Orders Awarded” section.)

CASTFORCE PAYMENT GUIDELINES

• Each project has a scheduled payout date.
• The invoice payout is processed once a month.
• Contractors filing as individuals will have payment credited to your Skylight card on the Friday following the 15th of each month. Contractors filing as businesses, will have checks mailed on the Friday following the 15th of each month.
• The payout schedules are shown on the calendar in green.
• Castforce does not offer direct deposit.

YOUR CASTFORCE CONTRACTOR PROFILE   

Allows you to change your:

• Profile Picture
• Address
• Phone Numbers
• Travel Radius
• Password
• Email Address
• Independent Contractor Status (Whether or not you are available for contractor work)

After many years of mystery shopping, I've segued into field services, full time. I make my own hours and I've determined my travel radius to be 50 miles from my home office. A 50 mile travel radius is optimum for field services companies looking for independent contractors. If they are willing to pay me $30 to $50 per contract, I’ll travel. Some field services companies might pay lower fees, but have a higher volume of contracts to be completed. These are some of the nuances that you must maneuver when working from home as an Independent Contractor in field services, or as a mystery shopper.

by Michelle Brown