Idea

Stheno

I thought I had posted here before but can't find the thread.

Anyway, I'm currently working in a permanent job in a very specialised area and am considering contracting to increase my income.

It's an opportunity for me, as it provides me with the opportunity to look upon the contract which covers me year on year, but requires me to work less than a full year (min. six week holidays, I'm used to four max.), as core income, but gives me a huge amount of free time due to lack of travel, extra holidays which my partner does not have and exploiting my skills.

I've identified four areas in which I believe I can do so, and potentially increase my income by 50% on top of the contract which will provide my core income.

Two of those four areas require investment in terms of time and knowledge, and a small amount of professional accreditation, then will provide a regular but small source of income. (10 - 20%)

The other two involve building upon existing relationships with people in my network and how they see my knowledge as an SME as something they can leverage, which leads to a potential fifth opportunity in that regard, that they can market their services on the basis that I will deliver them. (10% income, potentially rising by another 30% of total income)

My plan is as follows:

1. Follow up on previous enquiries I have made in relation to all four opportunities to validate that they exist.
2. Do an ROI on those that require investment (I'd expect to see a positive ROI in year one as most of the investment is time/knowledge)
3. Gain any qualifications accreditations to achieve that ROI (Including the cost in my ROI calculations)
4. Looking to expand into alternative markets e.g. online/virtual
5. Develop a five year plan, with year one broken into quarters, year two into halves, and years three to five on an annual basis.
6. Investigate any initiatives that I can to support costs.

Does this seem a sound approach?

Any suggestions on organisations to approach in relation to this?

TIA

ETA: My financial plan would include the cost of employing a full time admin person after year two who would deal with invoicing, payroll, sales queries, basic office work etc

pedroeibar1

TBH Stheno, your post is not very clear. Trying to understand you correctly - you are a fulltime employee in a niche business and now wish to set up on you own as a contractor? Or you are an employee with lots of free time and want to do more work in the same field outside of employer and as a contractor? Relinquishing role as employee and converting to contractor?

Stheno

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

TBH Stheno, your post is not very clear. Trying to understand you correctly - you are a fulltime employee in a niche business and now wish to set up on you own as a contractor? Or you are an employee with lots of free time and want to do more work in the same field outside of employer and as a contractor? Relinquishing role as employee and converting to contractor?

Sorry, and thanks for your reply.

I'm currently a permanent employee in an area short of specialists.

I've been offered a contract which is almost full time.

I think there are lots of opportunities to exploit given I am not full time, e.g. developing ip, part time consulting, and back office knowledge consulting support

that's the basis upon which I am basing my post.

Does that make more sense?

pedroeibar1

OK, I think I have it.
You are an employee that is being offered or wants to switch to a contract role. Negatives - as an employee you have a number of existing benefits that you will lose should you decide to switch (e.g. security of tenure, sick pay, pension rights, redundancy entitlement, etc.) Positives – this is an opportunity to be your own boss and to build something for yourself. Question – is this your idea or is it from the employer? If it is the latter, why?

The most important issue you need to address is to quantify your ‘core income’ from the former employer both in terms of amount and in terms of continuation. You do not want to find yourself quitting employment only to find that the former employer weasels out of the contract. Also, you need to realistically assess the time to be dedicated to the core work – it needs to be defined clearly, as you do not want to be walking the Camino when the core job has a meltdown and needs you asap. As a person who outsources everything I want people available when I need them, and will not be tied to a service contract that suits the provider.

Qualifications – these are a given, r o i is not appropriate if they are key in your sector. You must have them and it is best to gain them while working for somebody else (because as a s/e person you will have many more demands on your time; also, most fees are offsetable against income tax and usually as a start-up you do not have huge income.) While you might be a leading expert in your field, you need the quals to ’get in the door’ for many jobs and for all jobs with bigger companies. (My profile (also in a specialized sector) was a cert for a consultancy job, 100% industry experience, reputation, background, skills, profile, contacts, etc., but the final tender document required that the consultant be an accountant which ruled me out. I ended up being approached by a ‘Big 4’ firm to work for them on the contract.)

Your business plan numbered 1 to 6 is appropriate in theory but practice is quite different. Business plans are a necessity, a good ‘guide’ to have a benchmark on which to focus, but do not put too much faith in them. I have yet to see one that was accurate after a year, and I would ignore anything beyond 3 years as futile.

The key issue is to tie down the ‘core’ income/work/availability ; everything else has to follow that because for the first few years that is your lifeblood.

pedronomix

Be aware Revenue have a serious crackdown currently underway at present targeting one man band "contractors" and "umbrella" companies. Search this forum for more info and be sure to get proper professional advice.

The second big issue that faces many making this move is that they fail to tuck away sufficient cash to discharge their tax/PRSI/levy liabilities and they do not realise the scale of the cash lump that suddenly becomes due to Revenue on Oct 30th next year!! Get professional help to set up a proper system and scope out the kind of provisions you will need to make.