Multiple Contracts From Home

dranzer01

Anyone here fully remote working from home?

Anyone taking on more than one contract? (Day rate roles?)

How are you finding it?

(job titles in the arena of project management/business analyst)

I’ve been thinking about taking on another day rate contract role from home, but on the flip side , was thinking about what that would entail/the workload/hours/what type of project etc 

I was having this discussion with a few friends and since people are working from home , they are taking on 2/3/4 remote role contracts making anything from 20-50k a month

SensibleSarah

Slightly different, in that I'm a freelance marketer/copywriter rather than a 'contractor' as such. The way I work is that I have ongoing work with several clients at once - based on a day rate - but they get either specific days of my time (i.e. my two biggest clients get me 9-5 on Mon-Wed and 9-5 on Thurs-Fri every week respectively) or just a monthly agreed amount of work, that I fit around the other stuff when I can during the given month. The clients are all aware that I work this way and don't contact me (or don't expect a response if they do) on days I'm not working for them. Obviously, it means that my income is limited by my time available to 'sell', but it works well for me and means I'm not burning myself out by having no work/life balance. I'd much rather work sustainably like that than knowingly take on more than I can deliver. I see the appeal with the money on offer, but there is more to life. 

I know others who take on multiple contracts and then outsource the work they can't physically do themselves, while taking a chunk off the top. That's super-risky and unethical IMO (unless the client knows and is happy with the situation of course) as well as being a stress to manage - so definitely not something I would do. 

DullGreyGuy

dranzer01 said:

Anyone here fully remote working from home?

Anyone taking on more than one contract? (Day rate roles?)

How are you finding it?

(job titles in the arena of project management/business analyst)

I’ve been thinking about taking on another day rate contract role from home, but on the flip side , was thinking about what that would entail/the workload/hours/what type of project etc 

I was having this discussion with a few friends and since people are working from home , they are taking on 2/3/4 remote role contracts making anything from 20-50k a month

Know 1 DA/Migration chap that does it but has been doing so since before Covid. He's public sector and says they always give him far too much time to do the tasks and when he's highlighted it to the PM he'd been told to keep quiet about it. So he can bill 8 days a week across the two clients and still work a 40-50 hour week.

Personally 90% of the time I am working a 50 hour week with a single client and so couldn't realistically take on another gig... diary management would equally be terrible unless you can pick up an overseas project (eg in the US) so front end meetings for your UK based project and backend the meetings for the US project. 

At some point someone should spot you are grossly under utilised if you're able to do 4 contracts that are supposed to be 40hrs a week each and you're not working 160hr weeks with 1hr sleep a day.

Wyndham

I'm a contract BA and work 99% remotely (occasional on site visits for very specific events).

If you are expected to be available from 9-5 Monday to Friday, then people will want to meet with you etc within those hours and questions will be raised if you're never around. So if you are actually doing 2 or 3 roles in that time, then it will show. On my last contract someone was fired for doing that.

You may be able to do an overseas role in a different time zone of course, so there is less overlap?

Personally, I'd rather have a decent work/life balance!

Grumpy_chap

dranzer01 said:

Anyone here fully remote working from home?

Anyone taking on more than one contract? (Day rate roles?)

How are you finding it?

(job titles in the arena of project management/business analyst)

I’ve been thinking about taking on another day rate contract role from home, but on the flip side , was thinking about what that would entail/the workload/hours/what type of project etc 

I was having this discussion with a few friends and since people are working from home , they are taking on 2/3/4 remote role contracts making anything from 20-50k a month

Are you doing contracts that require you to do the work, or are you taking the contracts, keeping some back and then engaging others to do the work?

If the former, you are limited by the amount of hours you have available.

4 contracts per months means 1.25 days per contract per week.  
£50k per month means £12.5k per contract per month.  Full time per one contract means a day rate around £600
So, your effective day rate is in the region of £2.5k per day.
If you are trying to do this and deliver the work yourself, you either need to be offering some very exclusive service that demand this level of chargeable rate or your Clients are eventually going to reach the conclusion that your outputs do not meet their expectations and you will be released from the contracts.

The risk of this approach is not only burning bridges with the end Clients that will be reluctant to re-engage but also sour relationships with any agencies that have secured the various contracts.
It does depend what the type of the work is but there is the potential to make a lot of money very quickly only to then be "blacklisted" from a whole range of agencies and Clients.  The impact to life-earnings could be severely negative.

Is this still the Business Analyst type work that was rather new to you earlier in the year?  
How do these contracts relate to IR35?

dranzer01

Nope , was just conducting research on this forum to see where people who are doing this stand. 

Im on an outside IR35 contract, so even if I was looking to do this, I wouldnt do this whilst being on an inside IR35.

Everything said in this thread is quite true and the burnout will be quite intense (unless its a different time zone work)

Wyndham

dranzer01 said:

Nope , was just conducting research on this forum to see where people who are doing this stand. 

I would imagine anyone actually doing this doesn't have time to read forums like this....

dranzer01

Wyndham said:

dranzer01 said:

Nope , was just conducting research on this forum to see where people who are doing this stand. 

I would imagine anyone actually doing this doesn't have time to read forums like this....

ok sounds like a good analysis

Grumpy_chap

dranzer01 said:

Nope , was just conducting research on this forum to see where people who are doing this stand. 

Im on an outside IR35 contract, so even if I was looking to do this, I wouldnt do this whilst being on an inside IR35.

Everything said in this thread is quite true and the burnout will be quite intense (unless its a different time zone work)

If you are just doing "research", it would be polite and courteous to make that clear in the OP.

People give their time freely to support people who need it in the forums and may choose to prioritise that input to those with genuine matters of concern.

Where necessary, the appropriate place for non-specific "research" questions would be DT (which is closed):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6160122/money-savers-arms-including-discussion-time-statement

dranzer01

Grumpy_chap said:

dranzer01 said:

Nope , was just conducting research on this forum to see where people who are doing this stand. 

Im on an outside IR35 contract, so even if I was looking to do this, I wouldnt do this whilst being on an inside IR35.

Everything said in this thread is quite true and the burnout will be quite intense (unless its a different time zone work)

If you are just doing "research", it would be polite and courteous to make that clear in the OP.

People give their time freely to support people who need it in the forums and may choose to prioritise that input to those with genuine matters of concern.

Where necessary, the appropriate place for non-specific "research" questions would be DT (which is closed):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6160122/money-savers-arms-including-discussion-time-statement

Thanks for the insight

isplumm

you could look at contractor uk -https://forums.contractoruk.com - there are people on there who do want you want to do.