Food safety and quality audit proposal to client
I have been given a opportunity to check vendors for an international chocolate company. They are asking for a proposal to check vendors weekly for compliance to corporate rules, regulatory rules, conduct training and document findings if vendor is non compliant.
They are asking for my BEST rate per hour. They want a 3 month commitment.
Does anyone have a Proposal I can look at and what rate of pay would be appropriate. I said $55/Hr and they asked if it is negtiable.
Most auditing companies will charge between 1300 - 1800 per day with the auditor getting about 600 - 1000.
Some are lower, some are higher.
Normally when a company says they want your best rate per hour that means they want your cheapest rate.
We actually charge on a project basis and stay away from per hour as it can cause all sorts of problems.
But if you have to go with hourly I think 55 is very low - I'd offer 75 and play from there.
Tell them you want the money up front, they can pay in blocks that you sap off of and then bill them for more blocks as the $$ go down.
I learned a kong time ago to never bill in arrears.
I started at 60/hr. They asked for a lower rate so I went to $55. They now asked for a written proposal of my work and my best rate and can it be done by Tuesday. I could use a good vendor auditor proposal. They said I could start on the 19th if we can come to an agreement.
Your thoughts
If you have an idea of how big this job will be for you, you might consider offering a fixed price for the entire project. This is how a consultant I work with sells his services, a fixed price for pre-audit assistance or FS-QMS review. When clients have pushed back for a fixed hourly rate, his defense to the fixed pricing is that our contract specifies end results of his services, and he essentially acts on retainer to perform what is needed to meet the contract goals. It gets away from the client wanting to track his hours or wanting to mandate x amount of hours on site under their watching eyes.