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.
Working against your company
|
At the last company I worked for, most of the projects were Firm Fixed Price (FFP). This meant that no matter what the company spent to get the job done, they would received a fixed fee for completing the job. This is a great opportunity to increase profit margins if you're efficient. If they could complete a job that was costed out to take one year with three people but actually do it in six months with two people, their project margin has dramatically improved. The problem when I worked there was that individual employees were measured on utilization rate. Basically you had a billable target of X number of hours and if you were below that, you were less likely to get a raise. But working more hours doesn't actually help the company in a FFP scenario. In fact, it hurts efficiency! I was incentivized to take LONGER on projects to hit billable hours targets. But the company would be rewarded if they completed the project FASTER. So now the employees and the company are working at cross incentives. I understand why the company does it. It's an easy metric that SEEMs logical in some ways. They can tell how much an employee works per year. But it creates weird disincentives and it drove me crazy. That's the type of thing that made me want to go 1099. My incentives were aligned to me, not to a company metric that didn't make sense for anyone. If you keep finding yourself in similar nonsense situations and really hate it, going 1099 may be right for you. 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.
One of the reasons a company would bring on a 1099 or a sub-contractor is because bringing on a full time W2 employee would be too risky. If a contract has a limited amount of time left on it and there is a vacancy, companies may not want to hire someone because they're not sure if they'll have billable work for the employee after the contract ends. This is when hiring a 1099 would make sense, even if it reduces their margin. They're trading margin in exchange for a lower risky profile. In...
Hi all, Not returning to the newsletter just yet but thought I'd send out a link to an interview I did with Jonathan Stark on his podcast, Ditching Hourly. https://podcast.ditchinghourly.com/people/dale-davidson Jonathan advocates for getting away from hourly billing in your independent consulting practice. I agree, but I discuss why that's difficult in government contracting but why it might be okay anyway, particularly if you're jus getting started. He's a great follow for those of you who...
Hi all, I've enjoyed writing this newsletter for over a year now, but I've decided to take a hiatus for the time being. There is an extensive archive if you'd like to go back and read the previous ones. As always, if you have 1099 questions, feel free to ping me via e-mail at dale@1099fedhub.com. Good luck to you all! -Dale 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...