UTILITY AUDITING BUSINESS

UTILITY AUDITING BUSINESS

Minimum Start-Up: $500

Average Start-Up: 15,000

Revenue: $35,000 - $1 Mil+

Profits: $20,000 - $500,000

One Person Business: Yes

Auditing is not a matter of magic. If you have the

patience to sort through regulatory tariff and have a keen

eye to spot billing inconsistencies, you can conduct an

audit.

UTILITY BILLS

Auditing utility bills has become one of the most popular

areas of concentration for auditors because of the inherent

complexity of billing for utilities. Utility rates are

highly confusing because they differ depending on type of

service, volume of useeage, and promotional packages

offered at the time of installation.

GETTING PAID

Utility Auditors earn commissions, usually around 50% of

any overcharge they uncover. And this is where you may

need to exercise more of your patience. Although utility

companies would gladly settle a verifiable overcharge

(relatively quickly out of court), it may ake them up to

six months to issue any refund. This is particularly true

with larger utility firms.

COMMISSION WORKS

Most clients prefer to pay auditors on commission basis for

two reasons: No upfront cash outlay, and no risk if the

auditor comes back empty-handed. For the auditor, working

on commission offers distinct advantages: It makes it

easier for them to land clients, and it usually enables hem

to earn more than if they would take a basic fee.

MAKING THE SALE

The biggest challenge facing auditors is to get a poteneial

client to admit that "there is a high probability that they

(the client) overpaid for their utilities without knowing

it". This issue is usually not a problem if the client is

a small business where the owner makes all the decisions.

However, the executive committee of a major corporation may

feel threatened that they"ll be held accountable for

irresponsibly overpaying for utility.

Your job is to convince your potential client that

overcharging does happen and that it is the job of an

outsider auditor, and not people from within the company,

to "fix" the problem.