Re: How to become a "Contractor" not a "Sub-Contractor"

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Bruce Byfield" wrote

> >>It isn't easy. If 60+ hour work weeks are not appealing to you, I
wouldn't
> >>recommend going at it alone. Stick with agencies.
> 
> Before anyone is scared away from contracting by this comment, let me 
> point out that this work week is only necessary if you are interested in

> your corporation being a success as opposed simply to earning a living.


Well, let's remember Bruce that you and I (and some others on the board)
already have established businesses and clients. My work weeks are getting
shorter as well, but that's merely because I now can hire other people to
do things like process payroll, market our services, and setup servers. 

When you first start out, it can be a bit rougher.  I experienced a lot of
"feast or famine".  One week I was bored out of my skull with no work,
then a week later I was working 15 hours a day. 

I guess the point is: when you independent contract you have to be good,
fast AND cheap until you build a stable set of clients who respect your
work.  I have probably 10 firms or so that are pretty much always going to
use my services (when they can).  But, getting there was a long hard
struggle. I had to prove to them that working with me was a safe bet.
Thats very had to do. 

My warning to all considering contracting is: don't do it for the money. 
If money is the critical factor, stick with full-time employment. Do it
because you want freedom and the satisfaction of pleasing clients. If you
stick with it, eventually you will make more money. But you'll also give
up a lot in the process.

I basically had to abandon any notion of having a family for my business.
That may horrify some of you, but if I was ever going to compete against
rich kids who could build companies off daddy's money, I had to work a lot
harder. 

While there may be books and tv shows about how "you can have it all" note
that most of those books are written by people who come from well-to-do
families where money was never really an issue. 

Andrew Plato 

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