Everyone will get sick and miss work. It's a fact of life. As a 1099, you likely get paid hourly, which means you don't get paid when you stay home and stop working. Then your check is smaller than you expected, which is never fun. So what should you do? Simple: bake it into your billable hours projection. If you worked every business day, you'd bill something like 2000 hours per year. If you know you'll take vacation, subtract that estimated amount. Say 160 hours (4 weeks). You're down to 1840 billable hours. Now, say you expect to miss at least two weeks of work due to various sicknesses, doctors' appointments etc, subtract 80 hours. Now you're down to 1760 hours per year. Plan your income and personal finances around only billing 1760 hours. If you happen to work more, save that extra money as a sick day fund. If you find that that's not enough money, you need to work more hours (i.e. reduce vacation time) or get a higher billable rate. By planning on an annual cycle, you won't worry when your paycheck varies by $3,000 - $5,000 on a monthly basis. You'll know on average, it will be fairly predictable. 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.
No risk, no reward!Source On occasion, a prime will have a vacancy on a contract that is ending in a relatively short time frame (under six months). These are opportunities for you if you're interested in going 1099. Many W2 employees are reluctant to join a contract at the end of its lifecycle because it means they may get laid off if the prime can't find another position for them. The prime may also be reluctant because they might not be confident in being able to place an employee if the...
An angry sub-contractor when his employee gets poachedSource On one of the sub-contracts my company is on, I learned an interesting detail about how the prime handles candidate submissions from companies that are teammates on the same contract. Say my company, Custom Analysis, is on the contract and Raytheon is on the contract. We are both subs to Booz Allen (these are all hypothetical). I find a great person for the position who is a current Raytheon employee and submit him for an open...
ConsultingHumor @ConsultingHumor when the deliverable has no real analysis but is very well formatted 12:0 PM • May 9, 2024 59 Retweets 397 Likes Read 13 replies There's a joke about consulting that goes "50% of the work we do as consultants is useful. We just don't know which 50%." As an aspiring 1099, you may be wondering what work you can do that will help you get your first gig. In my book, I tell you that working on a nice website is a waste of time. So are most big networking...