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.
Option year rate escalations
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 make sure this is included. I made a mistake recently where I didn't pay attention and the escalation was excluded. Annoying! You can also try negotiating a higher rate escalation. I did this with my recent GSA MAS award and with the higher inflation rates recently, it's not unreasonable to ask for a 3% increase rather than a 1 or 2% increase. I'd also say that you can just straight up try to negotiate a new rate. If you become increasingly valuable to the government client, your prime will do what they can to keep you. This means you have leverage to get a higher rate. So no, you're not stuck. Just make sure the escalation is built in and take the opportunity to negotiate a new rate once you're more valuable. 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.
My approach to short term gigsSource One of the reasons a prime may want to bring on a 1099 is because they have a vacancy on a contract that is ending in less than six months or sooner. Taking on a full time employee may be risky if the contract doesn't get extended or if they lose the re-compete, so bringing on a 1099 is a good compromise. The question is, should you take a short term gig? Here are a few factors I'd consider: If the contract ends and you're out of a job/gig, how easily...
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...
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...