Budget with air quotes is how most 1099s plan their moneySource Once you go 1099, your income becomes a little more variable. I say a little more because in the federal space, your work is pretty consistent and likely near full time. But, there are months where you take a vacation and that means you'll get paid maybe 50% less than a normal full time month. If you normally get paid $20,000/month and you take a two week vacation, you'll get paid $10,000. This is not a big deal overall, but if...
1 day ago • 1 min read
A valuable new skill to add to the resumeSource If you're good at what you do, you probably realized that you can do your job in far less than forty hours per week. The problem is as a W2 employee, you probably have lots of non core tasks to do (meetings, proposal work, etc.). But when you go 1099, you're just expected to do the core job. There is no manager to hover over you and give you extra stuff, so you find yourself with all this free time, even if you still have to be on site with the...
2 days ago • 1 min read
New 1099s as they make their estimated tax paymentSource Many people are under the assumption that if they work for themselves, they can write off all their normal life expenses as "business" expenses. This is not true, and is in fact illegal. You can't write off your weekly Costco run or your kid's birthday party bounce house as a business expense just because you thought about work for a minute during those times. Really, you should have pretty minimal expenses as a 1099. Here are some...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Don't do thisSource Many of the questions I get about going 1099 concerns the administrative stuff (forming an LLC, getting insurance, etc.). While I'm happy to share that information (I include it in the book), I always emphasize that the first thing you need to do is actually get a 1099 gig, the admin stuff can come later. There are a couple of reasons people gravitate towards the admin stuff though. The first is that it is easier than doing the hard work of building skills, networking, and...
6 days ago • 1 min read
You can't go back...Source As a W2 employee, you exist in a sort of parent-child relationship with your employer. You do good work for your employer and in exchange, they are supposed to provide for your needs (salary, praise, training, etc.). Once you go 1099 though, you are out on your own with no one to look out for you. While this can be scary, it's also liberating. If you do it for more than a few years, it's nearly impossible to go back to being a W2 because you will be a different...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Don't be this guy if you want to go 1099Source In the online business advice world, there's a lot of suggestions on how to build your professional brand. Generally this involves having marketing collateral (good website, podcast, recorded talks, papers, etc.) and finding ways to get noticed online. For a solo 1099 in the government space though, this is mostly a waste of time. The most effective marketing tool for a solo 1099 is to do great work. Doing great work means your client will love...
8 days ago • 1 min read
What you look like when you do cold outreachSource If you're trying to meet potential government clients or prime program managers, it's very hard to make connections if you're just e-mailing them out of the blue (i.e. "cold outreach). They will be naturally very suspicious of you, so the barrier to getting a phone call set up is high. But if a mutual acquaintance introduces you, the chances of you being able to chat with them goes way up. This is a warm connection. This is why I recommend...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Negotiating your escalation rateSource If you negotiate a rate on a sub-contract with multiple option years, you may be wondering if you are stuck with that rate for the duration of the contract. The answer is...no. Typically, there are built in rate escalations for option years. Say your rate is $100/hour at the start. If you have a 2% rate escalation built in, the next year your rate will be $102/hour, the following year it will be $104.04, etc. Before you sign the sub-contract, you should...
12 days ago • 1 min read
When you tell the recruiter you're only interested in going 1099Source If you're looking for a 1099 gig, one of the keys to success is getting in touch with prime PMs. But it's often hard to identify them and make an introduction. One way to get to them is to simply go through the job application process. This involves applying for a job or agreeing to a phone screen with a recruiter, and then working your way through the interview process until you talk to a PM. The thing is, recruiters are...
13 days ago • 1 min read