Why I love Contracting

Why I love contracting.

**Flexibility**
While I definitely taylor my hours to the clients I'm working with, the flexibility of contracts allow me to change the hours I work on a day to day basis. Maybe I'll sleep in on Monday and make up for the hours on the evening, or do some extra hours at the weekend to get a head start on the week. Some people need structure, maybe I'm just lucky that I don't and have a great drive in me to work.


**Control**
If I want a new Mac for work...I'll not only buy one, I'll buy the fastest one the software I run can make use of. I want some software to make my work easier, or at least feel easier - I'll purchase it. If I need temporary servers to make tasks easier, I get them. If I want to watch a film or write a blog post during the day, I will.


**Rate Compared with Salaried**
Contractors generally get paid more than our salaried counterparts. This is supposedly because we have to deal with being dispensible and dealing with gaps and inconsitencies in in our workload but since I started out, I've never had an issue finding a new contract. I moved straight from a full-time wage (I keep trying full-time when a job seems suitable) of £36k to what used to be my rate of £35/h with contracting takes me to around £62k, and this doesn't take into account everything brlow.


**Rate Negotiation**
I'm not greedy, my rate's always fair in that it reflects the national average, or the average of the city I'm working in for on-location contracts, but I can increase/decrease my rate as I like depending on how I rate the skills that are needed. If/when I want to increase my rate, I can, at my own discression. If clients aren't happy with it then I face the repercussions but it's my call to make. 


**More Time**
Because I don't have to spend time getting to/from work. I estimate I get around 1h more per day for either work or leasure. That's a potential 12.5% extra boost in income or 240 extra hours per year for leasure.


**Tax**
I pay less tax as a contractor using a limited company...mainly because I don't pay National Insurance. This means I need to invest more in a pension however.


**Tax Deductables**
My work is my hobby and as an iOS developer I'm able to claim significant purchases that also, in a weird way, make my happy and debatably improve my life (or at least lifestyle!) - MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, Timecapsule, Apple TV, learning materials, conferences and associated travel costs.


**Donations**
I can donate to charties through my company which is also tax deductable, this allows me to give more to charity.


**Billable Overtime**
On hourly-rated contracts at least, I'm able to bill for all the time I work. I'm not driven by money but working overtime just for the sake of a job that you know isn't paid anywhere near as much as contracting...there can definitely be resentment, especially when a lot of employers are happy for you to stay late but not so much if you arrive late or leave early.


**The Politics**
There's politics in any work place and it can often feel like people are back at school. Even as an on-site/remote contractor you often get dragged into work politics but they're much easier to stay out of and have an unbiased opinion on topics.


**Additional Work**
If I want to work 60h a week, I can - and unlike a salaried person, I don't have to tell my employer about it because they were over-controlling in the contract.


**Current Earnings**
At the moment I'm earning $75/h - around £43/h once conversion and transfer fees are taken into account. I'm working, on average, 50h/week at the moment (this can/will change but based on history and for the purpose of calculations I'll stick with it). I usually take around 20 days off per year, I work national holidays. This puts my estimated income at £103,200. I then save ~£1,000 per year due to tax deductables (including donations) and a further £14,415 in tax savings. Business fees such as insurance, accounting, contract checks, hosting fees, software come to around £4,000. If you were then to also take into account the 240 extra hours I have by not driving to work you could add a further £10,320!

That totals to a salaried equivelant of £124,935 working on-site. That's CRAZY when you compare to the jobs in York and Manchester for Senior iOS Developers at £36,000 and similar jobs in London average £60,000.

Going back to the above as if I weren't working any overtime (ha!)...to 40 hours a week (not including breaks of course!) it'd still be £101,580 if I were to be working on site.

This wouldn't all be quite so much if I didn't include things I enjoy such as conferences and the hardware but I do enjoy these things so I do factor them in.


**It's not all about the money **
A lot of the above goes into details about money, and that's mainly because there's such a vast difference between the salaried and the contracted, but it's much harder to put a price on flexibility and control.


**The Negatives of Contracting**

There are negatives of course, more so with remote contracts.

- Dealing with the accounting
- Sudden change in circumstance (though this can still happen in a salaried job). 
- Working alone / human interaction.
- Some days not leaving the house.
- Taking holidays always feels more of a challenge because you've not only got the cost of the holiday but the noticible drop in income while you're not working.
- Always feeling like you need to be their for clients, even on days off or while on holiday (more so than when salaried)


**Client Benefits**

The above is all so me, me, me. But there are quite a few benefits for clients too:

- Flexibile work-force.
- Billed only for time actually worked...lunch breaks, toilet breaks
- No National Insurance contributions...employers pay half of your national insurance contributions
- No pension plan, sick pay etc.
- Performance - people have late nights for various reasons, or maybe they're just feeling under the weather. As a contract, if I'm feeling ill or tired - I just do something else until I'm in a better position to work.