Future Career Planning Update, Part II (or, “Long Live SSDD”)
October 30, 2007 by John in Career, Of a Personal Nature, SSDD, Web Design
(Update and disclaimer: I’ve spoken to my boss about this situation, so it’s not a secret. I wouldn’t have posted anything about it if it was a secret.)
Now that I’ve calmed down from my previous diatribe on the topic, and I’ve read all the Nerds On Site documentation and contracts, I’m 90% sure I’m not going to do it. They exercise a lot more (read: nigh-total) control over how the so-called independent contractors operate. And you’re screwed if you leave them. You might be able to take some of your customers with you (or not, but I didn’t see any specific non-compete language), but you lose all the benefits of building their brand up in your community. You even lose the cell number you use while conducting business under their banner. In part they justify this by paying for part of your cell service.
I haven’t taken the documents to a lawyer yet and I don’t know if I’ll take it that far (I certainly would before I signed on the dotted line), but my-mom-the-para-legal thinks that it is a employee-employer arrangement that is masquerading as an independent contractor setup and that there could be serious tax implications in the future. If there are problems with the IRS, well they’re all yours — NOS HQ is in Canada. And I can’t get around the fact that I’d have to give such a healthy cut of the revenue to them with virtually no received benefit for web design work. I know myself well enough to know that I’ll grind my teeth every time I see them taking sixty-three cents on the dollar on those projects.
But the experience thus far has given me a lot to think about with regards to how I operate SSDD and where I take it.
- Branding is important, especially getting it out there and visible in the community.
- I don’t really have to worry about print advertising or yellow page ads as they are generally ineffective and don’t generate the kind of business you want anyway (read: cheap ass customers who don’t respect you or the product).
- I’m charging way too little for web design work, but I already knew that based on what my so-called competition charges. I’m bumping my rates at the first of the year.
- I also learned that I really need to have errors and omissions insurance, I didn’t even know there was such a thing, but I’ve heard that it only costs a couple hundred a year. Now I just have to figure out where to get it.
- I don’t know that I want to embrace fixed price work, but I might be a little more open to it. I’ve done one such project and I came out ahead on that one (assuming I get paid someday).
I really wish there was a limited plan with Nerds On Site. I don’t need access to their “University of Nerdology” or knowledgebase for web design. I don’t need their billing and admin services. I’d just like to be a resource for the eNerds to subcontract web work to, but ultimately I suppose they’d favor fellow eNerds over an interloper like me. Oh well, I’ll generate my own business, thankyewverymuch, and keep all the profit.