Sole trader "employing" other sole trader

bigron20

Hi all,

Looking for advice on the following. I'm a small business owner (sole trader) and while i don't have any direct employees, i do have other sole traders who do some part time hours during the week. They also do other hours with different places. They then invoice me at the end of the month and i pay them directly. The needs of the business have changed somewhat in the last few months so i don't need one of them anymore. Is it just a case of telling them they're not needed for the next month? Should there be contracts between myself and them for a given period of time while they're doing the hours here?

Thanks for any info!

Furze99

Are these genuine sold traders? In other words, are they solely supplying services to you or do they have multiple other customers?

bigron20

Hi, yes they're genuine sole traders, they supply the same service to other customers

Gloomtastic!

As you're both genuine sole traders then you don't need contracts between you, unless you want to. You could put something in writing of what's expected from them when they're working for you but you are both on zero hours obligation.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119340658#Comment_119340658

Well then, you don't have any particular obligations to them. However if they are friends and/or people you may want to use again, then take care to explain matters well to them.

One of the things I've figured out over 30 years as a sole trader is that loyalty from business customers is rare enough. I've had contracts with certain agencies, looked after them well, only to find myself dumped without even notification sometimes.

Myself I like to treat people as I'd like to be treated myself - it's not a bad rule of thumb for the sole trader :)