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.
Will you age out of technical work?
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I never cared all that much about analytics. I just happened to stumble on it and had a moderate interest in automating tedious stuff in Excel. Turns out this was valuable to my company and government clients, so I was able to use these skills to become a 1099. But because I am not super interested, I don't care to keep improving my skills beyond necessity. The problem is, there are people (many of whom are younger) who are SUPER interested in this stuff! They just live and breathe it. The thing is they're also cheaper too, so in a head to head competition on technical skills, a potential client would and should choose these younger technical guys to work with it over me, an "old" dude at 36. So should I motivate myself to master the latest data engineering and analysis techniques? Naw. You can't motivate yourself to do stuff you don't intrinsically want to do. So instead, I'm focusing on getting better at understanding client problems, building relationships, and as a longer term project, growing a business. If you're like me and are not interesting in increasing your technical competence forever, you should come up with something else to do that that can make you valuable on the 1099 market (or whatever is you choose to do). If you're a W2 employee, the default path is management, but most people aren't naturally interested in that either. Be a little thoughtful about what you want to do once you start "aging out" of technical work. Getting ahead on your own terms is better than falling behind someone else's. 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.
This doesn't workSource In Chris Voss' book about negotiation, Never Split the Difference, he writes about a technique to help get people to respond to e-mails. -- "There’s nothing more irritating than being ignored. Being turned down is bad, but getting no response at all is the pits. It makes you feel invisible, as if you don’t exist. And it’s a waste of your time. We’ve all been through it: You send an email to someone you’re trying to do business with and they ignore you. Then you send a...
This is a 1099 who maximizes billable hoursSource I'm currently in Portland, OR for a little over two weeks. Taking long vacations is one of those great perks about going 1099. But people who go 1099 can get a little antsy about planning vacations, because every hour they're on vacation is an hour they're not billing. You are "losing money" As a 1099 in the government space, you have the benefit of getting longer term, stable contracts while also having flexibility in terms of how much...
I had to leave Dunder Mifflin and go 1099Source I recently joined the board of my daughter's Co-Op pre-school as the treasurer. I attended my first informal board meeting as the member and gave a short update about finances. Then, I listened to the other members' updates and the various complaints they had and I was...so bored! The feeling was familiar to me. It was the same feeling I've had at most work meetings I've participated in, particularly as a W2 employee. The company wants me to...