Work-at-Home Saturday — Focus Groups

Today’s Work-at-Home Saturday is brought to you by Lili, who shares her experience with focus groups, as well as ideas for anyone looking for these types of opportunities.

What do YOU do to work at home or earn money on the side? Would you like your story featured in Work-at-Home Saturday? Please drop me a line at [email protected].

Lili’s focus group story

Some moms might not be aware of money-making opportunities through focus groups advertised on Craigslist and other sources. While most of Craigslist’s advertised focus groups are at on-site facilities, some are for in-home interviews, journaling with photos of your grocery or retail shopping, or some other daily activity that you forward online at completion.

The only drawbacks for some may be that on-site focus groups don’t offer childcare services during your group, and don’t reimburse for your travel. For any downtown Chicago focus groups, parking is your responsibility. But whether you go to a facility or meet in your own home, I haven’t seen a difference in reimbursement.

Since I first began looking into focus groups over eight years ago, the trend has moved toward in-home interviews or online interactive groups, reflecting a falling economy. But there still are far more money-making opportunities to be had at on-site facilities. For my schedule, focus groups at facilities are more convenient, as I’m either downtown or on the move during the day and can’t stay home to wait for an interviewer.

What can you earn?

Over a period of 5 years, the lowest-paying groups I’ve applied for paid $75 for 1-2 hours of my time. The majority pay $85-$100, usually in cash. The most I’ve earned in one group — over 2 years ago — was for the only mock juries I’ve ever participated in. Oddly, I participated in 2 mock juries within 30 days through different survey houses. One paid $250, and the other $225, for about 4 hours of time each. (P.S. — neither advertised “Mock Jury participants wanted,” and I can’t remember ever seeing any ads for one in all these years.) Except for being asked if I ever heard of a small company (which I hadn’t), one screener’s questions were so deliberately vague I only knew after I walked in what I was there for. That happens from time to time. Following those mock juries, I wasn’t contacted for any groups for well over a year, and that’s just how it works.

Occasionally, extra incentives are offered. For example, a group might offer an extra $25 for completed homework assignments you bring into your group, or an extra payment gets forwarded to you for post-group homework assignments.  I even won an extra $50 in a raffle once, just for showing up 30 minutes earlier than my scheduled group.

Besides snacks and beverages, sessions are often preceded by catered box lunches or suppers for downtown lunch-hour or after-work groups (suburbs, too!). These focus groups are a great way to expand your social connectedness, and I often find it affirming, even exhilarating when strangers brainstorm together or disagree with one another during a session. Sometimes you’ll be flattened by an over-aggressive participant, other times you’ll find yourself driving the discussion. Whatever the group dynamics, people are always in an upbeat mood, for sure, as we pick up our cash lump sum exiting the building.

If your spouse or significant other, your children and/or their friends take part, the amount you receive goes up exponentially. The big money-makers are men’s beer/alcohol preference groups, potential car buyers, mock juries, or kids’ in-home focus groups.

Finding focus group opportunities

See if you can register online with Fieldwork Chicago or Focus Pointe Chicago; both are large survey houses. Fieldwork sends me emails about upcoming focus groups based on my profile and past focus group participation. Be aware that with these larger (Fieldwork-type) survey recruiters, their database tracks your activity with them. If you have exceeded their client’s specs of doing a focus group within the last 3 or 6 months, you’ll automatically be excluded from notification. For smaller survey houses, self-reporting that you’ve done more than 3 groups (ever!) can disqualify you from some of their upcoming groups as well, and they tend to offer a lot less for your time.

If you’d like to go further, go here to view an extensive list of Chicagoland recruiters {link no longer valid as of 2016} — some sorted by specialties. This allows you to register online for specific companies through the provided links, whenever you have time on your hands to do so. Also, at the bottom of the “Jobs” column on Craigslist, click on <ETC> to view focus groups currently available. You can select the tab on top to view your preferred area, “Chicago” only, West Suburbs, Northwest Suburbs, etc. I’ve also recently learned that you can download the Craigslist app to your phone and get a notification whenever a new ad is posted.

Diverse opportunities

I’ve had diverse opportunities in large groups, such as: To critique Toyota TV ads following its recent publicized recalls; to offer viewpoints on religion and philanthropy;  to express concern about healthcare or health insurance; to talk about political trends; to brainstorm on women’s fashion catalog mockups, Dove’s branding; and to express preferences in healthcare products like contact lens solutions or even asthma inhalers. One quirky incubator group wanted ideas for what seemed were products as-yet-undeveloped, giving us only the letter, let’s say, “Q,” to come up with ideas on what products, services and businesses they might develop with only that letter for us to work with.

About a year ago, I did a 30-minute session to tweak new washer/dryer models, simply because I’d been looking at new washer/dryers anyway, and earned $75 cash. Another group brought together a diverse group of women to talk about our families’ meals and needs, then wanted feedback for a famous chicken company’s plans for healthy frozen meals and projected freestanding restaurants. I’ve done a 30-minute individual assessment of Sara Lee’s packaging for fresh deli sections, and participated in a large group to critique new Kraft cheese lines. Note: Participants never receive samples to take home (lol).

Next week, during lunch, I’ll be in a 30 min. individual session at a State Street store to evaluate their website. The reward?  A $100 store card at the conclusion. Note: This opportunity came from answering a Craigslist ad posted by an outside group, who’s conducting the evaluation, not through the store itself.

Overall, I’ve sought focus groups that were most interesting to me or outside the box, and highest-paying for my time. I’ve had broad exposure to upcoming products, themes, advertising, and new packaging, and given up a modest amount of time to receive a huge leg-up toward expenses on the household “wish list.” Because the focus group experience has been overwhelmingly positive for me on a lot of different levels, whenever an offer is made to participate, I jump at it — not knowing when the next opportunity will come up again.