Part time contracting

[john_p]

Is there a market for this? I am a director of my own company but it's getting a bit dull and I find myself with not enough work to fill the day sometimes. I would love to be able to work elsewhere 2 days a week, as I feel a bit stuck in a rut atm and would love to work elsewhere for a change.

Before I go looking at recruitment agencies etc, are there jobs out there? Or is it basically full-time or nothing..

[abels]

It is possible as I have done it in the past. Unfortunately it is not that common. The best way is to approach small companies that can not afford to take someone on 5 days a week.

[JonRB]

abels said:

It is possible as I have done it in the past. Unfortunately it is not that common. The best way is to approach small companies that can not afford to take someone on 5 days a week.

Indeed. That's probably your only option.

Most clients who make use of contractors expect to have them full-time.

[Eric Mc]

What type of skills would you (or your company) be able to offer?

[ATG]

Depends on the skills you have to offer/want to use, but consultancy roles sound like an option. If you're offering guidance and not doing the grunt work yourself, a partime presence makes perfect sense.

[john_p]

Sorry, should have clarified, my company would stay separate to this.

The role I'd do is another difficult area as I'd guess my specialisation is in PHP/MySQL/web applications.

However in my current company I have for the last 5 yrs+ been the technical director and as such have a good knowledge of most things needed for a small company's IT requirements.

Consultancy .. hmm there's an idea.. which fields of expertise do companies need .. and where are they going to advertise them.. *dons thinking cap*

>> Edited by john_p on Monday 6th June 14:47

[aspender]

If money isn't a motivating factor, and your coding skills are good then why not contribute to an open source project. If you make enough of a splash the visibility will increase and so the speaking oppotunities/ways to make money out of it will as well.

[vixpy1]

PART TIME CONTRACTING?

What Mrs F wants to be doing now.

[Eric Mc]

Why does your company have to be kept separate?

[john_p]

Eric Mc said:

Why does your company have to be kept separate?

Current company wouldn't be a part of this - as I'm doing it on a personal level. I'd need to keep the two separate wouldn't I? For Paye/NI purposes etc.

[TeamD]

But why would you want to?

Surely your current company would contract you out on an ad-hoc basis?

I contract, ad-hoc contract and supply wholly owned software out of the same company, it sure helps if you want to thumb your nose at the taxman re: IR35.

[ATG]

john_p said:

5 yrs+ been the technical director and as such have a good knowledge of most things needed for a small company's IT requirements.

I would have thought that is a pretty damn good start. I have a couple of friends who rent themselves out to help small companies with specific IT problems that the company has already identified, but what the usually discover as soon as they get a foot in the door is that the company has no real plan for their IT, nor understanding of what it might or might not do for them. There is plenty of scope for them to benefit from your type of experience. Getting them to realise this might be more of a struggle. Contacts through a local chambers of commerce or business association? Maybe offer to give a talk using your current firm as a case study?

[Eric Mc]

There are no specific tax reasons why you couldn't operate your "consultancy" role through your already existing limited company. Obviously, you would need to be aware of potential tax pitfalls regarding the nature of contracts between your company and the businesses your company is dealing with but your accountant should be able to sort you out on that score (I'm thinking IR35 here).

There could be non-tax reasons why you might not want to use your company - commercial, legal etc etc.