Obtaining contracts

[Sharon Burton]

Hey, Jim!

Have you thought of the recruiter as a marketing company? In my own
business, I often paid several thousand dollars a year in marketing costs to
let companies know we existed. I paid a marketing company who found out how
companies decided to hire companies to do the docs.

Plus they do the legal stuff like contracts and NDAs, which, until you
understand enough about business law to do yourself with your attorney
backing you up, can and does cost several thousand a year. Then there's the
accounting, which you should do thru a CPA and making businesses pay, which
can take a lot of time, too, but the recruiters also deal with. These are
all billable hours that you spend running your business in a non-billable
way.

Or go completely solo and learn to do these issues yourself. Learn how to
position your company, negotiate the deals, get contracts, force payment
from dicey clients, process invoices, etc. It's all your call. What do you
want to do and how do you want your business structured?

You're not going to get the large corporations because they often have to go
thru agencies to protect themselves from the impact of the Microsoft
decision. That means your market is typically the small companies, who have
less money and shorter projects. And you often work 2 or 3 clients at the
same time because you don't want to turn work down. Who knows what's coming?

What would it cost you in otherwise billable hours to find work?
Advertising? Accounting? Business law? When you think of recruiters as your
marketing/billing/legal group, then what they make isn't quite so much.

Sort of incoherent but I need more coffee.

sharon

Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Immediate Past President of IESTC

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes.com at lists.techwr-l.com]On
Behalf Of James Barrow
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 6:08 AM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Obtaining contracts


As a contractor, I have obtained several jobs with well known companies.
All of these jobs were obtained through sites like Dice and, subsequently,
through a recruiter.

The only downside to this being that when I negotiate my contract, I know
that the recruiter is getting a cut of the money that the client company is
offering.

Before I landed a job with a large company, I contacted them directly.
They're IT Hiring Manager acted as if I had peeked behind the curtain to
look at the great Oz.  She insisted that I go through a recruiter.

How do tech writers find and submit themselves to companies/contracts
directly?

- Jim