Got approached by a strip mall owner in Phoenix with 8 small tenants. Bills range from $800-2400/month each (APS territory). Should I treat this as one big project or individual audits? The owner wants to pay for everything but I'm worried about the scope creep.
Strip mall with 8 small tenants - aggregate or individual audits?
Stuart, I'd definitely package it as one project with clear deliverables for each tenant. You'll find similar issues across multiple accounts which makes the work more efficient. Just make sure your contract is crystal clear about which accounts are included and what happens if some tenants don't cooperate.
Carla's right about packaging. I did a similar project with 6 accounts and found the same rate classification error on 4 of them. The economies of scale made it profitable even with smaller individual recoveries. Just watch out for tenant turnover during the audit period.
Great opportunity Stuart. Multi-tenant projects can be very efficient when you find systemic issues. I'd suggest a flat fee per meter rather than percentage on these smaller accounts. Also build in language about what happens if accounts close or change hands during the audit period.