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.
Same skills, better pay
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A friend of mine works for a US tech company that hires a decent number of Canadian software engineers. They make about 60% of what the US based software engineers make. For that reason, it's not uncommon for the Canadian engineers to move to the US to make more money at the same company for doing the exact same job. Similarly, as a 1099, you can switch contracts, maybe even at the same government agency, do essentially the same job, and get a dramatic rate increase. This is possible because government contracting is not an efficient marketplace. There is lots of variation in pay for different skill sets. Some times it's a time thing. Contracts that last for five or more years are baselined on lower bill rates. A 2015 contract may pay a data analyst $100/hour. A 2020 contract may pay $120/hour. A 2024 contract may pay $150/hour. If you join the newer contract, you can get a pay bump. Some times it's a contract structure that allows you to increase your rate. I once had a firm fixed price contract that was priced out at $130/hour for a full time person. However, I did the job in a third of the time, making my effective rate something closer to $400/hour. I also jumped to a contract that was a cost + fee structure for the prime. This means they didn't have set bill rates for different positions, they just had to manage to the overall budget. They were desperate for someone with my skill set so I could set a higher price. So you don't always need to up skill to get paid more. Some times the same skills in a different environment can get you a dramatic pay bump. 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.
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...