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.
Rate chasing
One of the fun parts about going 1099 is find opportunities to increase your billable rate. My own billable rate progress sent from something like $85 -> $100 -> $110 -> $115 -> $160 ->$180 per hour over an eight year period. Those early rate increases made a big differences. Actually all of them made a big financial difference. But the thrill of bumping up your rate wears off quickly, and then you're left with figuring out how to make your work life more interesting. So here's my recommendation for rate chasing: get to a point where you're billing enough to live a fun life and still have a good enough savings rate (maybe 20 to 30% of your take home) and then optimize for other factors. I suspect for most people this would cap out at about $200/hour on the high end. Find more interesting projects, reduce the commute, reduce your overall work hours, start a business, read more books, or do whatever it is that you find enjoyable. Start thinking about it now, because otherwise you'll keep playing a rate chasing game that's no longer fun. 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.
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...