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I'm Dale, the author of Going 1099

Tech = Magic to your clients

Published 14 days ago • 1 min read

When I automated some data analysis in Excel for one of my earlier projects, my client thought it was magic.

They didn't care about the actual calculations or VBA code.

They cared that a report that took a few days could be done in a few minutes.

This made the client look good to her boss.

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One of my employees is using ChatGPT to write some code for his work.

This has increased his output dramatically, and the team lead has noticed.

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Many government employees and contractors are not interested in learning new things to help them be better at their job.

If you're willing to do that, you can separate yourself from the pack and make yourself valuable to go 1099 (or get better 1099 projects.


If you're interested in learning how to get your first solo 1099 federal sub-contract, check out my book:

Going 1099: How to become a solo federal sub-contractor and gain control of your working life, earn more money and unlock more free time

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.

Read more from I'm Dale, the author of Going 1099

This negotiation went very wrong... A bunch of people ask me what they think they should charge for a billable rate if they go 1099. Their thought process is usually "Well I make $100,000 and it probably costs my company 30% more in benefits so that's $130,000, and they're probably making 20% profit so that means they bill out $162,500/year which comes out to a billable rate of $87/hour if there are 1860 billable hours per year. This means I should charge them $80/hour so they make a small...

about 2 hours ago • 1 min read

Your client (left) is overwhelmed by new tech On my current project, we had a problem where access requests to our dashboards were getting lost. Basically, the owner of the dashboard would get the e-mail, and then it would get lost in his inbox. This means that the customer would get delayed access. So I set up a simple system for the data visualization team using Outlook rules that would forward all permissions requests to a shared inbox, and then another rule that would send it to a...

3 days ago • 1 min read

Don't get suckered into doing admin stuff too early I spoke with a company called BD Squared that a friend referred me too. BD Squared LLC One of the services they offer is helping GovCon companies get on different contract vehicles, includes the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). GSA MAS The MAS basically allows GSA to pre-screen government contracting businesses so that other government agencies can purchase products and services from those companies with less administrative headache. It's...

4 days ago • 1 min read
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