So You Want To Be A Contractor

I’ve finally gotten around to generalizing our contract to share with our community. Please be advised that if you use this template, you are using it at your own risk and that we are not responsible for your use of our contract. Also please take it to your lawyer and have it reviewed before you use it (and feel free to let us know if you have any suggestions for improving ours)

Download the Shane & Peter Client Contract…

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A lot of freelancers have been asking us if we use a standard contract, what issues we address and the verbiage we worked out with our laywer. Since our contract was hard-earned, I thought it would be worth sharing. This is lawyer ratified, but if you choose to use it, neither Peter or I, nor our lawyer will be standing next to you in court when things blow up. Please, please, please sit down with your lawyer and make sure to get the odds and ends in place to fit your business.

All our contracts have a cover page, then the revised proposal followed by the terms and conditions and signature. I might be willing to create a template for the entire proposal / contract document if we get enough requests in the comments.
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Do you know a good project when you see it? I find that choosing a project is much like dating. You are looking for a project you will enjoy spending time on, that won’t drain all your resources, and will leave you feeling better after the date than you did before it started. When I’m out mixing it up and have my sales hat on though, I tend to chase everything and have to fight the scarcity thinking that often plagues all contractors from time to time. So, as a result, Peter & I put together a new project score card we use to quickly measure whether or not we should pursue an opportunity.
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The government is amazingly succinct in their vaguery. And of course, make sure you guess right because nothing is more expensive than paying someone as a contractor that the government declares an employee (you get to pay all their back taxes + a fine). The key: if you can control exactly what will be done, when and how it will be done, then the IRS categorizes them as an employee.

Our accountant provided us with a list of 20 questions to help measure the proper placement of an individual. We also have an independent contractor agreement which requires the person to submit proof of contractor status. As our lawyer told me: definitely not a get-out-of-jail-free-card but certainly shows good will on our part. I am going to list both the questions and the proof of contractor status (and link to our ICA agreement) below for those of you who are working through the same issues.
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You are deciding to become (or currently are) an independent contractor. In part III we will cover forms you will need to be familiar with. Part IV will go through the basics of being in business. If you missed parts I & II, the covered the why of being in business and a business setup checklist.
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You are deciding to become (or currently are) an independent contractor. In part II, we are going to provide a checklist to help you get started. In part III we will cover forms you will need to be familiar with. Part IV goes through the basics of being in business.
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The following is a brief summary of each of the various entity choices for a operating a business in California:

Make sure you check with a lawyer as you consider the proper solution for your particular case. This was put together on Jan 2007 for a California business (us) as we were deciding to change from a general partnership to an s corporation. Things always change. Make sure you get the most current information you can.
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When considering the possibilities for your life and your career, I recommend stopping and asking yourself some questions.
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When I first started contracting, I was amazed at the amount of paperwork stuff I had to figure out. Frankly, I just wanted to get paid. So in that vein, for those of you have sent the following type of message:

Dear Client,
Where is my money - its been over a month?
- xoxo Contractor

and recieved the following in response

Dear Contractor,
Upon reviewing your invoice, we noticed you are missing everything except for the amount. Please send us a revised invoice and we will place you back in the payment queue for next month.
-xoxox Your every loving AP department representative

I highly recommend getting a proper invoice figure out.
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