Over the course of your project, there will times when you need your government client to contact someone else to get something you need. It could be an approval to do something, a form to fill out, or whatever. Sometimes, clients are slow about it and it's holding up your work. One technique that I have found works pretty well is to ghostwrite the e-mail for them. This means you write a draft of the e-mail to the target recipient as if you were your client. For example, if you need approval for a software license or something, you would send this e-mail to your client: -- Hi Client, I need X software to do my work. IT would need to approve it. Could you sent IT@agency.gov the below e-mail? Feel free to edit as needed. -Your 1099 IT, My contractor requires X software to perform his work. I've filled out and signed the request form (attached). Please let me know if there's anything else I need to do. Thank you. -[Client] -- This is effective because it takes all the thinking out of the task. The client just needs to copy and paste this into a new e-mail It also makes you look real good because no one else does this. So get in the habit of ghostwriting your client's e-mail. You'll get more done and your client will love you. If you're interested in learning how to get your first solo 1099 federal sub-contract, check out my book: |
Going 1099 is a book that teaches you how to become a solo federal sub-contractor and gain control of your working life, earn more money and unlock more free time. I wrote it because quite a few people have asked me how they can become a 1099. I figured it was best to write a single book that I can send them and that I can share with others who are interested. This newsletter goes out Monday - Friday and covers topics that will help you succeed in starting and maintaining successful 1099 career.
Move faster than this to impress your clientSource The government is slow. Like real slow. Its employees are slow, and so are a lot of contractors. If you can just be a little faster, you'll look impressive. For example, I just started onboarding onto a new project and the account set up process has many steps requiring annoying phone calls to the help desk and submitting various forms. A normal pace for a contractor is to stretch this out over a week. I did most of this in a day. The client...
I maybe wouldn't gift a sweater at your next meetingSource One of the unintended benefits of writing my book is that it gives me a fun talking point when I'm networking for my business. For example, I met with a couple yesterday who run a small contracting business and I gave them a copy of my book as a small gift, which led to an interesting discussion about why and how they started their own business. I'm opposed to spending too much time on formal marketing activities when you're trying to...
Government's reaction to your pitchSource I have a friend who is living in Romania and is interested in going 1099. Obviously, Romania is not a center of a US government contracting and he doesn't plan to move to DC soon, so I was not optimistic he'd be able to pull it off. But, he did mention he did have a few friends who work at the US embassy there, so here's what I advised him to do: Ask his friends if they know of any contractors working either at the embassy or on behalf of the embassy...