Contractor guidance can help streamline agency contractor management

At a time when clients and agencies are using every trick in the book to cut overheads and increase efficiency, fielding basic questions from contractors on low rates about basic issues increases costs and wastes time.

But since the publication of the Contractorsí Handbook, a comprehensive resource to enhance the career of every contractor, agencies and clients who directly manage contractors have another string to their bow.

Published by leading UK website for contractors and freelancers, ContractorCalculator.co.uk, and written by CEO Dave Chaplin (a former City IT contractor himself), the Contractorsí Handbook is full of hints and tips to ensure contractors gain the skills to win more and better-paid contracts.

It also helps contractors take greater ownership of their contracting business, placing considerably less burdens on their agency or client.

What are contractor skills?

Contractors typically have two skill sets; their core technical skills – be they in IT, engineering or another discipline – and their ëcontractor skillsí, which is what differentiates them from regular, permanent employees.

And, as Chaplin explains, itís not necessarily the contractors with the best core technical skills who win all the prize contracts: ìIts those contractors with the best contracting skills, who can market and sell themselves effectively, who win more contracts, stay in contract for longer and negotiate higher rates.î

Contractor skills also equip contractors to more efficiently deal with understanding contracts and the legal process, to spot issues before they become problems for their recruitment agents, and to have a better grasp of the commercial elements of what they do.

Contractor skills can directly benefit agencies and clients

Agencies can clearly benefit in two ways from maximising the contractor skills of the contractors and freelancers on their books:

ï Increased, longer term and sustainable margins
ï Improved operational efficiency.

Chaplin explains: ìClearly, a contractor who is contracting at higher average rates with a greater percentage of time in contract, is going to earn their agency much more in margin than one who is on lower rates and regularly out of work.î

In addition, contractors who have a good grasp of business, how to sell themselves, plus negotiation techniques and contract law are going to require significantly less hand-holding by their agent than a classic techie only interested in the small world they inhabit!

According to Chaplin, clients can benefit too: ìItís a mixture of understanding the basics, such as who not to chase for payment, combined with a higher level of commercial awareness that often results in project outcomes that can significantly improve the performance of the client organisation,î says Chaplin. ìIn other words, itís all about the client and agent enjoying a better return on investment.î

The Contractorsí Handbook

Chaplin continues: ìWith readily accessible high quality guidance available in the Contractorsí Handbook for experienced contractors to learn to up their game, and for newcomers to hit the group running, agents and clients would clearly be improving their day-to-day activities and even bottom line by recommending the book.î

With nearly 500 pages packed full of practical and easy to follow advice, the Contractorsí Handbook is essential for successful, enjoyable and profitable contracting. ìIíve included every winning strategy I developed during my successful career as a contractor,î explains Chaplin, ìplus added the wealth of unique reference material and FAQs from a decade of running ContractorCalculator.co.uk.î

Agents and clients can also gain valuable insights into how contractors operate, what a new contractor needs to know when starting out and how to motivate contractors to improve their knowledge and win more business.

Those agents and clients who want to streamline their contractor management, should refer their contractors to:

Contractorsí Handbook: the expert guide for UK contractors and freelancers
482pp, paperback
ISBN 9780956074508
Published by ContractorCalculator.co.uk

Copies now available from www.contractorshandbook.co.uk.

Internet references

www.contractorcalculator.co.uk
www.contractorshandbook.co.uk

Who We Are

ContractorCalculator is a leading independent website for the UK contracting industry – most of whom are highly skilled workers in information technology, engineering, electronics, and construction. Independently audited by ABCe, its last audit, in March 2009 showed the site was visited by 113,827 unique users/browsers.

There are 1.4 million such workers in the UK today who prefer to run their own businesses and work under contract rather than become employees of specific companies. Their contribution to the economy is crucial to keeping UK businesses competitive.