You work with one person.
When you hire an agency, you talk to an account manager about your project. The account manager gives your request and job requirements to a recruiter, who matches candidates from the agency’s database and presents the resumes to you for review. Then you choose the best candidate, and work begins.
Unfortunately, several things can and do go wrong:
- Miscommunication—As in a game of “telephone,” your project gets interpreted differently each time it crosses another person’s desk. So when the request reaches the recruiter, they select candidates based on inaccurate information.
- Misunderstanding—The account manager or recruiter doesn’t understand your project requirements, because they don’t have experience doing the work. You get a mismatched candidate.
- Eagerness and willingness to land the project—If you have unrealistic deadlines and expectations, the agencies won’t warn you or work with you to set realistic schedules and project scope. Or maybe you’re headed down the wrong path, and you don’t need to embark on the project. Either way, the agencies invariably give a green light to your initial project plan, and you’ve wasted precious time and money.
However, when you contact Tabby Cat Communications about a project, you’re contacting Cheryl. She talks to you about your project and your needs. She gives you guidance and helps you set realistic deadlines and expectations. She does the work. And she doesn’t accept any jobs unless she’s both qualified and available.
You get more value for the price.
Agency contractors tend to work on site, meaning that you must provide and pay for a cubicle, computer equipment and software, and phone. If there’s a work stoppage or slowdown, the contractors are often sitting around with little or nothing to do for hours, days, or sometimes weeks. You pay for their time, whether they’re productive or not.
When you work with Cheryl, though, she bills for the actual hours she works, and she pays for her own office and equipment overhead. This arrangement is much more efficient and cost-effective for you. As for Cheryl’s rates, they’re the same or less than an agency’s.
She’s an independent contractor.
Many companies worry about hiring independent contractors directly because of lawsuits and fines over whether contractors were classified correctly. So, to protect themselves, companies may hire contractors through agencies, believing that the contractors are employees of the agencies and that the agencies handle tax reporting and benefits. But because of their working conditions, not all of these contractors are agency employees in the eyes of the government.
When you hire Cheryl, there’s no question that you’re hiring an independent contractor. Her business activities meet the Internal Revenue Service’s requirements defining independent contractors, which fall into these three categories:
- Behavioral—Cheryl sets her own hours and working conditions.
- Financial—Cheryl controls all financial aspects of her business. She’s responsible for invoicing, setting pay terms, negotiating expense coverage and reimbursements as part of her contracts, and providing the equipment and tools to do the job.
- Type of relationship—Cheryl is responsible for covering all of her benefits—insurance, retirement savings, vacation, etc.—and works on projects simultaneously for multiple clients.
In addition, Cheryl has been a licensed sole proprietor through the State of Washington since 1995, and a state certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) since 1996.