If anyone has gone down the route of becoming an independent contractor as opposed to a full time employee I would be curious to hear about your experiences.?ÿ
What is the typical expected tax liability? Health insurance is covered by spouse. Equipment would be leased (maybe purchased cash).
Also, if you have been on the other side of the fence and used independent contractors either for fieldwork or drafting I'd be interested in hearing that as well.?ÿ
Seems like everyone is hiring, but the pool of candidates is low, would the idea of being an independent contractor be good in such a market?
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You will be still working for the people you work for now?
I hire people to work for me as independent contractors, surveyors at times, engineers on a regular basis and run their time through my office, but they are their own business owners. I can't see how you can do it otherwise, you need to have a business which means all the payroll, taxes, business expenses, insurance (that can be costly so shop around), ect?????ÿ?ÿ?ÿ
Think it through carefully, it may shock you when you start getting all the bills it takes to be in business. Expect to pay on the low end 5-10k just for insurance (I'm not talking about health insurance). As a business owner your payroll tax will be 15%, every two weeks a check gets sent into the government, on top of that you will need to either set-up paying income tax, or pay quarterly taxes, also depending on your location you will have some property taxes and state income taxes to take care of, you need good software and keep lots of records. I would hire an accountant, they are huge time-savers at tax time.
Not saying don't do it, but there is a reason for the 2.5x and 3x multipliers.
I've made a great living contracting work from larger firms.?ÿ My stock-in-trade is that I either used to work with, or actually trained a number of principals of some of these firms.?ÿ The earned trust factor goes a long way when subbing work from larger firms.?ÿ It also helps to carry a butt-load of insurance... ;)?ÿ
I believe there will always be a healthy niche for this;?ÿ I call it "hired gun" work.?ÿ The down side of that is you never seem to get anything close or easy.?ÿ But then again you get to charge the 'big bucks' for that kind of work.?ÿ Establish yourself as a thorough and pragmatic professional and you'll have all the work you want.
If anyone has gone down the route of becoming an independent contractor as opposed to a full time employee I would be curious to hear about your experiences.?ÿ
What is the typical expected tax liability? Health insurance is covered by spouse. Equipment would be leased (maybe purchased cash).
Also, if you have been on the other side of the fence and used independent contractors either for fieldwork or drafting I'd be interested in hearing that as well.?ÿ
Seems like everyone is hiring, but the pool of candidates is low, would the idea of being an independent contractor be good in such a market?
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Are you talking about starting your own business or just continuing to work for your current employer? If the former, great. If thet latter why would you even consider it??ÿ ?ÿIts just a way for your employer to transfer risk to you and save money at your expense, and probably illegal.?ÿ
You're starting a land surveying business with a target market of larger surveying/engineering firms.?ÿ There's no reason to think that it is structured more simply than any other solo surveying shop just because those are your clients.?ÿ As others have said, go talk with an accountant first, especially if you will have any employees within the first year (thinking especially here of cashflow for payroll tax deposits).
If you go this route you will have to resist the temptation to poach your client's clients. Any one who hires you will already be worried about exposing his clients to another professional. One transgression will be the death of your business model.?ÿ And there are likely to be plenty of temptations.
I have used contractors. We had one go-to fellow we liked to use, and used quite a bit. We tried others and the experiences were not as good.?ÿ The fellow we liked to use was real easy going, easy to get along with, a good listener, did exactly what was asked of him, no more no less, and didn't try to inject his own preferences and attitudes into things.?ÿ He never ran around with his hair on fire but he always came in at the end of the day with a reasonable volume of quality data.?ÿ
Have been on both sides of the equation somewhat routinely through the years.?ÿ Work it in around the regular jobs.?ÿ But, it is a case where both sides must be able to trust the other at all times.
What exactly is going on varies, of course.?ÿ Right now I have another firm doing a bunch of drafting for me.?ÿ Sometimes they do some of the field work.?ÿ Sometimes I am the one doing the field work or the whole shebang.
Thanks for the initial input. The reason being for the post...I am currently looking at some options with employment vs. self employment vs. both. One of the situations would be an employee for the Federal Government but still work for my current employer as a contractor for a small number of high profile projects. Now before the hardliners get their panties in a knot...the position would have nothing to do with boundary work nor would I be the responsible charge. Now the other opinions would be the independent contractor role, yes, just like a solo business owner that engineering firms could hire to fill the need when large projects come across their desk and they don't have the manpower to fill, or they simply don't want to staff up temporarily.?ÿ
Now to address the idea of this being illegal? How? If I have all my own equipment and the contracts are written clearly where either I am solely in charge of all my work, or my client is solely in charge of my work? I see no gray area? If they need a PLS for a project, then you fill out Option A contract. If you need a hired gun, Option B.?ÿ
However, I am the one asking questions so if there are some experienced professionals, or I am not seeing things clearly; I am all ears.
One caveat I see to your two options is insurance. If you run purely Option B you can probably write your contracts and operate without E&O/PL insurance because you're not functioning in a professional capacity. General liability and workers comp would depend on how you setup your LLC, State laws and how you want to protect the equipment you own. I don't see how you function without auto insurance but presumably you already have that on some level. I wouldn't sticker my truck if I tried to let my personal auto cover my truck when out doing jobs. John Q sees $$ after a fender bender with an obviously marked company truck, trust me!
As soon as you sign that first Option A contract most of that changes and you're a full fledged Survey company. Deliverable is on your company title block and backed by your E&O insurance and Federal tax ID. No legit company will sign a contract with you otherwise IMHO. Once you've signed one Option A contract that might as well be all you sign because the insurance overhead is annual.
I've used both with mixed results although more good than bad.
I think you've got the legalities lined up. The key points being to make sure you are not an employee per IRS guidelines and that you/client are each in a position to exercise supervisory control on projects as needed to meet state professional regulations.
One concern for me would be to make sure that in the "Option A" circumstances you (as the professional in charge of the work) are involved from the outset in order to establish scope.
