The UGLY !!!

During my IT career, I owned an IT consulting company that lasted about 5 years. 5 years is the normal for a small business before folding. And the company did fold! Good, bad and ugly times for sure. Sometimes it was good, bad and ugly on the same day or the same week.

Make no mistake, SQL Server database consulting and database GIG work is BIG business

Here’s a list of some of the UGLY things about being a database gig worker, consultant, 1099 worker,  freelancer, contractor, etc.

• Double taxation
  • You pay employer and employee Social security  taxes
  • Always consultant your accountant to make sure you comply with all current laws
• Quarterly tax payments
  • You must pay quarterly Federal and State taxes or risk penalties
• Personal liability issues
  • You will need some personal liability insurance and possibly errors and omission insurance to cover any issues with your work
• Business debts
  • You need to pay all the bills related to having your own office
• Contracts and Lawsuits
  • Be prepared to use a lawyer to create or review contracts
  • Review any lawsuits clients may initiate
• Deadbeat clients must be handled
  • Be prepared to use a lawyer to start the process to collect from deadbeat clients
  • As a last resort, you may need a collection agency to get the contract payment but at a steep discount
• Where’s the next gig contract gonna come from?
  • You will always be looking for next GIG
  • You might overbook yourself if a project runs too long and you already have the next gig lined up

While all this sounds like a horrible career path to make great money fast, read the GOOD and BAD posts about being a Database Gig Worker from the past couple of weeks.