Finding contracts

Having engrossed yourself in the legwork involved in becoming a first-time contractor, it is easy to forget that the purpose of all this effort is to find and secure work.

Marketing yourself

As an independent IT contractor, you must have the skills to market yourself. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it is not necessarily the best or most experienced contractors that get the most lucrative contracts. You could be the world expert in your IT field, but unless you know how to translate that expertise and knowledge into something that potential clients will understand and appreciate, you will not fulfil your earning potential.

You must learn how to sell yourself.

Ultimately, you need to persuade a potential client that they are better off giving their cash to you than to anyone else. In order to achieve this, you may find it useful to look at some of the tricks used by professional salespeople. Primary among these is an ability to focus on the needs of the client. They are interested not in you, but in what you can do for them. This should be the strongest thread running through your sales pitch.

Many contractors find that professional sales training is beneficial. There are numerous courses available that should equip you with the skills you need to sell yourself. These courses can be particularly beneficial if you have no previous sales experience.

Writing an IT contractors' CV

Writing an effective CV is amongst the most important elements of your marketing effort. If you are the product, then your CV is the initial pitch. Most potential clients will spend less than a minute looking at your CV, and you will not be invited in for an interview unless it impresses immediately.

As a result, ‘narrative’ CVs – those that describe your career path in a linear way - tend not to be successful for contractors. Rather than a timeline, your CV should read like an explanation of your key skills and qualifications, with evidence and information about where and how you have demonstrated them.

It is also vitally important that you tailor your CV to the specific contract for which you are applying. A generic CV sent out to every potential client is easily spotted, and is likely to be discarded out of hand. Furthermore, a generic document will not demonstrate your suitability for each specific job for which you apply. The extra few minutes that it will take you to write a ‘targeted’ CV may well make the difference a successful application and a wasted stamp.

Using an agent

Finding IT contracts to apply for can be difficult task, especially in a field where the competition is fierce. A trawl around the regular job search websites is unlikely to yield anything other than full-time employment, and many contractors simply don’t know where to find the contracts they need. This is where agents come into their own.

Many IT contractors use agencies to find them potential clients. This has some clear benefits; agencies specialising in IT should have advance information about available jobs, and will be the first to know when new contracts arise. Indeed, many companies have exclusive deals with agents, meaning that they will only take on contractors who come through their specific agency partner.

Agents will generally charge the client at last 12 per cent more than your actual fee. In theory, use of an agency should not result in a reduction of your pay. In reality, however, agents will pressure you into negotiating a rate that is mutually acceptable. The key thing to remember is that agents have no interest in your career past their commission. As such, your negotiation skills will need to be sharp.

There are a number of tips to remember when negotiating your rate. To begin with, it is important to understand that you are in the best bargaining position after an interview – providing, of course, that the interview went well. Your agent will suggest a rate prior to the interview. Even if you have agreed to this rate in principle, you should insist on more afterwards.

If you have been offered the contract, the agent will be more interested in bringing in at least some income than to risk losing the commission completely. A particularly effective technique is to suggest that, having attended the interview, you have realised that the position is more labour-intensive than you had previously thought, and that you should therefore increase your rate.

While this may seem combative, it is important to remember that both you and the agent are out to make as much from each contract as possible. In this way, contractor and agent should have a symbiotic relationship – albeit one in which you are not afraid to stand your ground.

Finding public sector contracts

Many contractors concentrate all their efforts on seeking out private sector contracts. While this does constitute the bulk of most contractors’ work, the public sector contracts should not be underestimated. They represent a significant source of revenue, and one that is generally unaffected by the economic pressures that may reduce the volume of work available in the private sector.

Public sector contracts can seem out of the reach of most independent IT contractors. However, it is important to note that the government and its various agencies put jobs of all sizes out to tender.

The government has recently taken steps to ensure that applying for public sector contracts is as easy as possible. The new Supply2 website acts as a directory through which IT contractors can find vacancies for which they might be suitable. It lists “lower-value contract opportunities”; that is, contracts with a value of
£100,000 or less. Contracts of a higher value will be virtually impossible for an independent contractor to carry out.

The public sector procurement process requires the government to ensure that they are getting the best possible value for money from their contracts. As a result, the process of applying for public sector contracts is rather more drawn out than the equivalent process in the private sector.

Some contracts will require ‘pre-qualification’, whereby the buyer will determine whether or not you are broadly suitable for the position. This will generally involve you providing details of your past work and financial situation. If this is successful, you will be sent an Invitation to Tender (ITT). Your reply should include a realistic bid that you think the buyer is likely to accept; there is no guarantee of any further negotiation after this point, particularly in the case of very low value contracts.

If you are unsuccessful in your bid, you should always seek feedback from the buyer. The buyer’s acceptance of a bid is always followed by a ‘standstill period’ during which unsuccessful applicants can get information on why their bids failed. This is particularly useful for first-time contractors and those who are just moving into the public sector; the new process can be confusing, and feedback from the relevant parties should be valuable.

Insurance for public sector contracts

Most public sector buyers require their contractors to have a higher level of public liability insurance than is expected in the private sector. While most private sector companies will expect cover of £2 million, public sector contracts frequently require cover up to £10 million. Simply Business provides high-cover public liability insurance designed with public sector contracts in mind.

Page 6 of 8

• Previous
• Next