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.
Subtracting unhappiness matters more
There's a truism about employee attrition that says employees don't leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses. Basically, a bad boss is a push factor, something negative that makes you want to change. A pull factor, is something positive that attracts you to leave. You may have a good boss, but an even better boss with better money is available to you at another company. My path to going 1099 was mostly motivated by push factors. I wanted to get out of the nonsense of employee life. I didn't perform well in hierarchical organizations, or just in organizations generally. I didn't like doing performance reviews. I also wanted more control over my time. The quickest path to getting away from these problems was to go 1099. Getting another job would have given me more of the same, but perhaps with more money. Your motivations for wanting to go 1099 may be different than mine, but I'd pay special attention to the push factors. It may give you more options or eliminate certain possibilities. If your only push factor is you feel you're getting underpaid, you can simply get another job. If your primary push factor is a bad boss, you could just switch teams. You don't have to go 1099. Generally speaking, reducing sources of unhappiness matters more than adding new types happiness. Going 1099 addressed a bunch of push factors for me, which is what made it attractive. It was probably the best career move I've made to date. But if there were other paths to getting more autonomy and money, I don't think 1099'ing on federal government projects would have been my first pick. So focus on coming up with ways to address your push factors or reduce the things that make you unhappy, this will impact your quality of life far more than adding new things that you want. 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...