The construction industry involves different types of professionals responsible for different tasks on a building project. When working in this industry, you can choose one of two common paths: becoming an employee or treading the self-employment path. The latter would be ideal if you want to challenge yourself to reach your full potential.
However, it’s not as easy as it sounds, and for that reason, you should equip yourself with the right tips to boost your chances of success. Here are some of those tips:
1. Get the ‘Independent Contractor’ Status
Setting yourself up for success as an independent contractor is a matter of understanding the nitty-gritty of compliance. One of the vital elements in that regard is ensuring your contract states you are an independent contractor and not an employee.
You’re probably wondering why this would be important. Well, it’s for a couple of reasons. The most important is that it will be clear to anyone interacting with you that you’re responsible for your taxes. In addition to this, your contract status will also determine how you are handled legally if any issues arise.
But that’s not all: Setting your status to ‘independent contractor’ also means you can negotiate payments differently as opposed to if you had an ’employee’ status.
2. Invest in the Right Education
One of the greatest challenges you will face when working as an independent contractor is that you’re on your own. But why should this be a problem considering you’re establishing your own house and setting your own rules? Simple: You won’t have a company to rely on to guide your career path. No one is advising your moves, and you won’t have company-sponsored courses to enhance your skills.
In short, everything is up to you. You decide what path to follow, when and how to grow, approaches to use when solving problems, and a lot more. That’s why you should invest in Tennessee Contractors License continuing education courses and other educational materials from a renowned professional education provider like RocketCert. That way, you can learn while interacting with peers and tutors in your field so you know the best paths to take.
3. Have Your Taxes in Order
Paying your taxes on time as an independent contractor is crucial to avoiding inconveniences like hefty fines, unwarranted fees, and even criminal charges depending on the situation. Understandably, you may look at the taxes as an added responsibility that’s as complicated as it is overwhelming especially since you’d be handling everything on your own.
Still, that doesn’t take away the fact that missing your tax payments or avoiding them intentionally can mean lots of trouble for you. Besides, it’s a responsibility you can’t run away from, so the best thing would be just to keep up so you can enjoy your peace of mind.
4. Cover Yourself
We can’t overemphasize the importance of having active insurance coverage when working as an independent contractor. And when we mention insurance coverage, we don’t only mean your health but also other types of insurance like liability coverage.
Covering every crucial element for businesses in this industry reduces the possibility of interruptions that can halt service provision, thus leaving you with frustrated customers. What’s more, it’s your legal obligation to insure anyone working under you, in whatever capacity, so getting your insurance packages right is one more way to avoid getting into trouble with the law.
5. Stick to Quality Business Practices
Regardless of how challenging your journey will be initially, let your main focus be on providing quality services. You’d rather move slowly initially but avoid messing up your clients. Remember these are the same clients you’ll be relying on for return business and referrals. Invest properly in the right skills and don’t forget to hone crucial soft skills like communication, reliability, active listening, conflict management, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.
With the right skills, tools, and focus, you can avoid the things that ruin business for independent contractors such as trying to balance too many projects at once despite knowing they can’t deliver the right results on time. If you deliver high-quality services, however, some clients will even choose to wait until you’ve completed your current project so you can work on theirs.
Grow Your Skills With RocketCert
There’s quite a lot you must pay attention to if you choose to work as an independent contractor if you want to succeed in your career. However, you can’t deliver great results if you don’t know what you’re doing. Remember your clients expect you to be an expert in your field and related fields in this industry.
RocketCert has a team of expert tutors who create and update courses for contractors in various locations across the United States. Taking these courses will not only help you meet your state’s educational requirements especially when renewing your licence but also give you the confidence you need to take on new challenges.
So, visit rocketcert.com today to expand your horizons.