Landing Festival Lisbon 2019 Contracting Workshop
Autonomy, money and career freedom. Three things many people wish they had more of. It’s a common belief that you can only have one or the other and that the only way to have all of them is to have a trust fund. But we’re happy to tell you that it is possible to have them by moving into the world of independent contracting.
Here at Landing.work, we’re actively engaged with tech professionals who have successfully transitioned into independent contracting. We’ve been learning what they find to be the key benefits of contracting. We’ve also been learning about the issues inherent amongst Contractors.
A (kind of) tag cloud of contractor benefits (ok, not really)
While everyone interested in becoming a contractor will have their own list of “why’s”, five reasons rose to the top from our conversations with current Contractors-
1. Autonomy: When working as a Contractor, you have a level of autonomy that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain while working as a company employee.
2. Money: When approached correctly, you can be paid 30% to 50% more as a Contractor for doing the same job as a company employee. This is usually the primary reason professionals consider contracting in the first place.
3. Diversity: Contracting increases your options which enables you to diversify the types of projects and technologies with which you work. This significantly increases your marketability. Additionally, working with different people in different companies significantly expands your professional network.
4. Freedom: Quite simply, contracting gives you more control over both your time and career. The natural by-product of this is more freedom.
5. Remote Working: Even though it’s not always the case, it may also give you the opportunity of working remotely.
Considerations before making the leap
As with most things that have great rewards, contracting is not a bed of roses. The contractors we spoke with also gave us insight into the difficulties and issues.
1. Setting up and establishing your business: There will be a learning curve as you navigate your way through the legal and administrative processes of setting up your company. After the business is established, you’ll be ready to work. This will be your next step: looking for and finding clients.
2. Plans, taxes, and contingency plans: After some time, your business will begin to move forward as you land your first projects. But what happens if your clients don’t pay you on time and in full? You’ll need a plan to ensure they do. And since you’ll have a plan to make sure you get paid, you’ll also need to know how to pay your business taxes. You’ll probably also wonder if you need business insurance. And what if you find yourself in a legal situation? If you do, are you prepared to deal with it?
3. Conflict management: And finally, one of the most important skills to have as a contractor is the ability to effectively and efficiently manage conflict and issues that might arise with a client. It might all sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Why? Because you don’t have to do it alone.
Landing.work as part of your plan
If becoming a contractor is your next move, Landing.work is helping tech professionals, like you, go independent and reap all the rewards. We’ll help you enjoy all the benefits we mentioned while tackling as well the issues above.
We’ve been talking with successful contractors, and we’ve also been engaged with partners in several areas such as legal, fiscal, insurance, health, and learning, among others. We’re doing this so we can help you achieve your goal of becoming a successful, independent contractor by providing the information you need to help and guide you along the way.
For instance, we have a guaranteed payment pricing option. With this, we’ll be covering your risk of not getting paid if something tricky happens with your client. We’ll also have specialized support to help you set up your own company and all the processes that come with that.
But we’re not stopping by simply providing information and giving support for specific tasks. What Landing.work is creating will be able to advocate for you, as one of our contractors, by curating the profiles and roles that are submitted to the platform and matching them to one another when the right fit is found. Now that’s a great plan!
Bonus!
Landing.work will soon be going live with a pretty sweet referral program for contractors:
€300* when you refer a friend to an open role on Landing.work (Contractors can do this by referring contractors via our open roles @ Landing.jobs).
€500* when you refer a client to Landing.work (Contractors can do this by referring a client via our email [email protected]).
- Referral fees are paid to the referrer as soon as Landing.work receives the first financial transaction from the client.
Pedro Oliveira
Co-founder at Landing
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