Create a Simple Independent Contractor Invoice Example for Public Relations

Independent contractor invoice example for Public Relations

[Music] hello everybody and welcome back this is geralyn thomas with metropolitan organizing today's question is one i get asked a lot and it comes from a person named suzette suzette asks if i come across a large-scale project that i know i won't be able to do on my own do i refer it to someone else or do i hire other organizers and how do i go about doing that thanks okay let me begin by saying you're welcome to do it either way it's your business and it depends on what you're most comfortable with so i guess what makes sense to me is to be begin by explaining there are a lot of differences between employees and hiring subcontractors or independent contractors is what we refer to them as you it sounds like are trying to do temporary employment freelancers that's independent contractors so the big difference is you cannot treat an in uh excuse me an independent contractor as if they were an employee and there are ways to go about this that you want to make sure you are doing them ing to the law because you can be penalized financially for this so the first thing that i would suggest is that you have your independent contractor sign an independent contractor agreement right if they were an employee they'd be signing an employee employment contract the second is i like to tell i i myself and my business have used teams of organizers for years and years you will tell the independent contractors that they will be invoicing you the business owner because you are their client so in other words i'm the organizer metropolitan organizing i'm hiring let's say suzette to be an independent contractor i expect suzette to invoice me because i am now her client my client that i'm sending to suzette to work for is not suzette's client she is technically my client so that's important to understand suzette as we're going to keep this uh going we're going to pretend you're the organizer and i'm the business owner you will need to own all of your own tools as an independent contractor that's part of the agreement if you were an employee i would provide the tools for you but independent contractors must have their own tools and that could mean you know a step stool a measuring tape sharpies hooks hangers boxes bins and then you will invoice me your client for the materials used on that job you will have a personal investment in contracting businesses and may incur a profit and loss and what that means is i'm not guaranteeing you business if you were my employee i would be guaranteeing you or we'd have some type of agreement made i will be paying you x amount per month per year annually something like that but as an independent contractor i am not guaranteeing anything except that job and that might sound like suzette this job is going to last 10 hours at the end of the 10 hours invoice me for this amount or it could sound like geralyn i'm going to charge you x amount as an independent contractor and i will work for 10 hours for that amount of money so it kind of works both ways i hope that makes sense the organizer you're contracting for should not be telling you how to do a job and this is really important so as an independent contractor you can ask how you know different systems different ways that business owner works but that business owner cannot dictate to you how to do a job if they're going to dictate they're treating you as an employee i want the sheets folded this way i want things stacked this way i want you to look a certain way i want you to use certain language that is off limits is for an independent contractor and of course you will not receive employee benefits and you will not have to attend meetings and you will not be reviewed annually as an independent contractor so those are some of the things there's a lot of legal stuff i have a blog post written about this i'll link to it in the show notes all right so heads up the big takeaway from this is that the irs uses three categories to determine whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee and those three categories are behavioral financial and type of relationship and i'm not going to get into the details again read the blog post suzette let's pretend that you wanted to work for me as an independent contractor here are six things i would want you to know you are invited to work for me only if you have a bank account in your business name and the reason i'm doing that is because i do not want to write you know suzette brown a check every time she writes every time she organizes for me instead i want to write suzette's organizing you know abc company a check and the reason for that is because if i were to be audited as a small business i it helps prove that you are an independent contractor and i'm not treating you as an employee if i'm writing it to your business account and your business bank account it looks a little more legit you must invoice me if you're working for me i don't want an email saying you know recap we we worked 12 hours together last week and you owe me this it has to be a professional invoice remember i'm your client and you want to keep working for me i'm assuming invoice is also part of your branding it's a really important thing to remember and i think a lot of new organizers who are contracting don't remember that so you want to leave a good impression on the person you're contracting for i would also want you to have your own insurance this isn't always a deal breaker when the organizer is brand new and doesn't have experience i have brought on occasionally organizers that are so new that they don't have insurance but my preference is to bring on independent contractors who have sent me or had their insurance agents send me proof that they're insured i also want you to track your own time it's not my responsibility when you're working for me to track your time especially if i'm managing a large crew and you know somebody's over here for 10 hours somebody's over here 16 hours in a week somebody here is 40 hours i'm not going to keep up with that but until you invoice me and tell me what you're working i won't be paying you and then the other thing i would want you to know mentioned a minute ago is i would expect you to have all of your own tools and your own tool kit it doesn't mean that you can't borrow my trash bags or file folders or something like that especially if you run out but you should show up for the job prepared with your own tool kit okay so one of the things that i would want you to know as an independent contractor is let's give a case scenario i'm going to give you a few things to think about let's pretend you are organizing for my clients wilma and fred wilma and fred are really happy with the job you're doing and in the middle of an organizing job betty and barney come over betty and barney say holy cow the house looks great who's this organizer and you say my name is suzette and i'm with whatever organizing company the name of your business and then i want you to think about whose branding got you in the door you're on the clock for who right this is a very important question because you need to have this all worked out in advance with the person you're contracting with are you going to be able to give your own name and refer your own business or are you expected to give the name of the person you're contracting for and a lot of new organizers would say of course i'm going to give my own name and my business name because betty and barney are over there looking at the work i'm doing but as a business owner i could tell you there's a flip side to that story you wouldn't be organizing fred and wilma you would not have met barney and betty if it if on your own someone else's marketing got you in the door so that's the first thing i would say you know a discussion that you'll need to have with the business owner the second question i want you to think about is what if the client tips you it's not unusual at all many of my subcontractors independent contractors have been asked do they accept a tip at the end so that's something that you would want to think about on your own and have the business owner think about if if it's okay for you to accept tips and then the final thing i would say that you need to consider and possibly discuss that the person you're contracting for is let's say the person the client is absolutely delighted with your services suzette and they say i'd love to write a google review for you or a yelp review or whatever and you say that's fantastic so she gets out her computer and she starts typing up what a fabulous job suzette did my pantries never looked better it's a very affordable thing to do i highly recommend suzette the question that i would have for you is what is your policy regarding that client using your name or would it be expected that she would use the business owner's name so if suzette was contracting for metropolitan organizing is it suzette did a great job or metropolitan organizing did a great job again no right or wrong answer but those are three things for you to think about and discuss ahead of time i hope these tips are really helpful for you as you move forward subcontracting i have several blog posts i'll link to i have articles i have more advice on this so just keep sending me your questions and thanks suzette fabulous topic