What are the Alternatives After a Layoff?

One option that you may not have previously considered is Independent Contracting, and there are a number of different Forms of relationship available for Independent Contracting.

In an attempt to reduce expenses and adapt to the changed business climate, businesses of all size are reducing their full-time employee head count and instead increasing their use of Independent Contractors.

Have you seen that trend?

By using Independent Contractors it gives them the flexibility to quickly ramp up staff for projects as soon as they are funded, and then just as quickly reduce that staff once the project is complete or just in a maintenance mode.

That flexibility of quickly staffing up and down gives the company the best of both worlds and is a boon for Independent Contractors like you and me.

There are a number of different Forms of relationships available to individuals that all fit under the umbrella term of Independent Contracting:

Contractor indirect with the end Client as a W-2 employee of a Staffing or Recruiting Firm
Independent Contractor indirect with the end Client as a Subcontractor of a larger Contracting and/or Recruiting firm – typically on a 1099 Corp to Corp Contract
Independent Contractor direct with the end Client on a Billable Hours Contract
Independent Contractor direct with the end Client on a Fixed Price Contract
Becoming a Contracting Company and then using Employees and/or Subcontractors (Form 2) to gear up your delivery capacity and capability

Forms 1, 2, 3 and frequently 5 are paid on an hourly basis at a fixed billable rate for each hour worked for the end Client in a given billing period. There are never any benefits available from the end Client, and any benefits available from the staffing/recruiting firm for forms 1 & 2 would be subtracted out of the gross billable hours.

Here at Independent Contracting Resources I am focused on helping out the little guy, specifically those in forms 2-4, although most of the material I present and discuss, and especially building a solid foundation, is applicable to form 5 as well. I try and avoid form 1, as that is really just becoming a temporary employee of the staffing firm, which sort of defeats the purpose of becoming an Independent Contractor to begin with.

In my Independent Contracting career, I have utilized both Forms 2 & 3, with 3 being superior in many respects, and earlier in my career when I was an employee at contracting companies, that was the employee side of Form 5.

What kind of contracting relationships have you practiced in your Independent Contracting career?