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.
Growing a GovCon Biz: You need to work after hours
|
I'm trying to grow my business and it's tough. One of the tougher challenges is recruiting (in large part due to being in the cleared space) and is, in fact, probably the main challenge. I have tried using ClearedJobs before but the results were meh. You don't get much inbound interest because you compete with other postings, and cold e-mailing candidates has a very low response rate. Candidates get bombarded with e-mails from recruiters so you just don't stand out. So the way I have to recruit now is through my network. I ask my employees, friends, and acquaintances to let me know if they know of anyone that would be interested in X role, and if so, I ask for an introduction. Once I get the intro, I then set up an in-person coffee or HH if they're in the DC area. I do the casual in-person meet up because both parties are able to relax a bit in an informal setting. This also helps separate me from the other companies who aren't doing this (because it doesn't scale). At this point in my life, doing this work is pretty difficult because I have a toddler at home, a near full time billable gig, and candidates I try to recruit can really only meet in person outside of business hours, because they also have day jobs. So, I have to find time outside of work to grow, and it's tiring. I share this not to discourage you, but to make sure you know going from being a solo 1099 to a company with employees is a significant jump in effort. There may be other things that you'd rather do with your time (like spend time with family) or maybe even easier ways to make extra money. I heard becoming a TikTok star is more fun and can make you rich ;). If you have other questions about growing a small govcon business feel free to e-mail me. If you're interested in learning how to get your first solo 1099 federal sub-contract, check out my book: |
I'm Dale, the author of Going 1099
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.
This negotiation went very wrong... A bunch of people ask me what they think they should charge for a billable rate if they go 1099. Their thought process is usually "Well I make $100,000 and it probably costs my company 30% more in benefits so that's $130,000, and they're probably making 20% profit so that means they bill out $162,500/year which comes out to a billable rate of $87/hour if there are 1860 billable hours per year. This means I should charge them $80/hour so they make a small...
Your client (left) is overwhelmed by new tech On my current project, we had a problem where access requests to our dashboards were getting lost. Basically, the owner of the dashboard would get the e-mail, and then it would get lost in his inbox. This means that the customer would get delayed access. So I set up a simple system for the data visualization team using Outlook rules that would forward all permissions requests to a shared inbox, and then another rule that would send it to a...
Don't get suckered into doing admin stuff too early I spoke with a company called BD Squared that a friend referred me too. BD Squared LLC One of the services they offer is helping GovCon companies get on different contract vehicles, includes the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). GSA MAS The MAS basically allows GSA to pre-screen government contracting businesses so that other government agencies can purchase products and services from those companies with less administrative headache. It's...