9th March 2010, 09:19 PM
Lots of interesting comments: what do I do? I'm in a similair situation to Unit. To me, the overiding benefit of freelancing is the independance and control over what I do and for me the disadvantages are out-weighed by it. I tend to specialise in all things buildings orientated but will also undertake most small scale works so, like Unit, tend to avoid large scale evaluations or exacavtions. In terms of capacity and staffing, on large projects I would tend to act as a commissioing agant or sub-contract depending on the circumstances. When I do need staff I tend to rely on other freelancers: therre is the benefit Unit has already alluded to in reduced administration, but also because I don't see the point of taking on an employee if you can't offer them a reasonable length of contract. For clarity -the freelancers I use come to me as freelancers rather than me playing the capitalist enabler!!
In terms of my estimate about what percentage should be expected by a diiger, this was an intuative guestimate at the time of writing and I take Chiz's point that it may be too low; that said I was thinking in terms of a self-employed excavator whoose overheads in terms of equipment and resources would be less than say a freelance field officer or project manager which leads us back to the age-old central question of what is a reasonable wage or rate -perhaps a union could help?????????
In terms of my estimate about what percentage should be expected by a diiger, this was an intuative guestimate at the time of writing and I take Chiz's point that it may be too low; that said I was thinking in terms of a self-employed excavator whoose overheads in terms of equipment and resources would be less than say a freelance field officer or project manager which leads us back to the age-old central question of what is a reasonable wage or rate -perhaps a union could help?????????