The Contracting Thing

I landed another contract position this week, this time before my old one ran out, so I will go from one to the next without any time off.  Since May, I have worked all but a few weeks, and those were around the time of my vacation to Alaska.

The secret has been working with Kristy, the owner of a recruiting agency that seems to consist of her and an assistant.  She has kept me busy and has also come up with several possibilities that didn't work out, so she always has something in the pipeline.  This is a big contrast to the other firms I have worked with, who couldn't keep me working even half the time and generally paid less.

I feel lucky to have gotten in touch with Kristy, but I almost blew the chance.  She contacted me right when I was interviewing with Symetra, and all my energies were focused on that, so I put her off (I hear from a lot of recruiters.)  When the Symetra possibility flamed out, it had been two weeks, and I contacted her again.  When we finally met, it had been a month since she first emailed me, but she was very upbeat and found me work within a few weeks, and she seems to be able to keep me busy.  As long as that keeps up, I can keep contracting indefinitely.

I try to think of contracting as running a small business; I kind of like that idea.  Particularly working with Kristy, I either bill her or the client directly, so I am not technically employed by anyone..  My product is accounting services, my salespeople are the recruiters who find work for me, and my marketing efforts amount to keeping up with recruiters and using LinkedIn.

Like a lot of small businesses, mine started out kind of slowly.  During the first year or so that I put myself into the contracting market, I worked only 3.5 months.  However, in my second year, I have worked 4 months, have worked lined up for 3 more, and then have four months left to go.  So business is looking up.

There are some definite downsides to this business.  One is the uncertainty; no job is ever certain, but this kind of work is inherently unsteady.  Another is pay.  As a contractor working for most recruiters, say Robert Half, you get no holidays or vacation, so those days are just unpaid.  I figure you have to subtract 10% for that.  Working for Kristy as a 1099 contractor, subtract another 10% (sticking with round numbers) for self-employment taxes.  (I do make at least 10% more working for her.)  I don't make enough to make up for all that, let alone medical benefits (I'm going to use Jackie's) or a 401K.  Still, it's not too much less.  Also, I can add back 10% because I work less, or if they want me to work more, I get paid for it.  That helps.

So it looks like I am busy through December at least.  This is great news.