Dealing with Day Rate disclosure requests.

[oscarose]

My last 5 roles have been through large agencies who have been sole supplier to the client (all Banks, bar one.) All other agencies have had to go through them. The agency margin has varied between 8 and 12 percent when I've worked for these sole suppliers. All have been terrific to work for and paid on time. Two of them have brought in repeat business.

So, to me, 17.5% or more is you lining your pockets.

NB. I can't help it that you are small fry and/or run you business badly.

Any agency can run their business as they choose.

Your sole suppliers are fortunate to have clients propped up by state aid and tax payers money.

[nomadd]

Any agency can run their business as they choose.

Exactly. And if they choose to run their agency badly, not my problem.

Your sole suppliers are fortunate to have clients propped up by state aid and tax payers money.

That makes no sense whatsoever, as it's not the agency that's being propped-up. The agency has to make the call as to whether they can survive on the rate the client is prepared to pay. Well run agencies can easily survive on less than 17.5% commission - the last 5 years of my career proves that.

[oscarose]

That makes no sense whatsoever, as it's not the agency that's being propped-up. The agency has to make the call as to whether they can survive on the rate the client is prepared to pay. Well run agencies can easily survive on less than 17.5% commission - the last 5 years of my career proves that.

It makes sense to me.

[norrahe]

That makes no sense whatsoever, as it's not the agency that's being propped-up. The agency has to make the call as to whether they can survive on the rate the client is prepared to pay. Well run agencies can easily survive on less than 17.5% commission - the last 5 years of my career proves that.

WNS

Most well run agencies especially those with repeat business with a regular supplier will run at a lower percentage. I know of a couple of agencies that I used to recruit people through and their markup was 9% The larger agencies do not need to take a huge percentage. These were also an agencies that dealt with a global clientco so we're not talking small fish here.

[colinrobinson]

Rate disclosure

I think youl find they are agents and will do their thing, ring your last company that they have on your cv and offer to supply contractors at a lower rate! and lowering future rates for all of us in the process.

don't do it the only rates you should be discussing is what you want and the commission they want

[The Agents View]

My last 5 roles have been through large agencies who have been sole supplier to the client (all Banks, bar one.) All other agencies have had to go through them. The agency margin has varied between 8 and 12 percent when I've worked for these sole suppliers. All have been terrific to work for and paid on time. Two of them have brought in repeat business.

And this is where your lack of understanding comes in. That's called a Managed Service (and sometimes, dependant on the way the account is structured, Neutral vendor). In this situation, what you don't realise, is that the margin is much higher for the "Other agents". You can take out the 5% for factoring - that's dealt with my the neutral vendor....magically, that leaves, 12%...which is what the agency is charging. I can work at 8-12% if the financial risk level is changed. Also, FYI the managed service ALWAYS charges a retention fee to the client - I've worked for two organisations who have specialised in this type of account. This is generally a lump sum, in my experience dependant on the scale of the client, that can range from £10,000, to many hundreds of thousands (the clearest example I can quote is that of a major airport operator, who are charged in the hundreds of thousands). Now, you think this is not your problem - but do you really think the client doesn't factor that into the rates it pays its contractors?

As for "surviving" on 17.5% margin. I'm not here to survive. I'm here to make as much money as I can - that's how business works. I daresay you could 'survive' on £200 per day - but you don't take it, because you believe you are worth more than that. That's why I would tell you where to stick your 8%.

So, to me, 17.5% or more is you lining your pockets

As I say, you could "survive" on £200 per day, so to me, charging the insane rates you no doubt try and tout yourself out at, is lining your pockets. It works both ways.

NB. I can't help it that you are small fry and/or run you business badly.

Nothing badly run about my business..... if you had to pay out an average of £40,000 before you start to see the money come back, whilst also paying all of your other bills, you would think 17.5% was a pretty tight margin to be running it on as well!

[The Agents View]

WNS

Most well run agencies especially those with repeat business with a regular supplier will run at a lower percentage. I know of a couple of agencies that I used to recruit people through and their markup was 9% The larger agencies do not need to take a huge percentage. These were also an agencies that dealt with a global clientco so we're not talking small fish here.

Lets be honest, as a general rule, the big agencies are more likely to commoditise the contractor. You're just a number to them. You lot seem to want all of the attention that working for a boutique agency brings, but get naffed off the moment they want to be paid for the extra attention - you simply can't have it both ways.

Of course, if you have have large, regularly repeating clients, then your margins start to go down, but that's not because it becomes all that much cheaper to run the contractors, it's more because you want to add financial incentive to the client to keep you at the forefront of their thoughts.

And FYI, using a bank in the same discussion as one about well run businesses, is COMPLETELY inadmissable. They are the entire reason this country is in pieces right now - making massive profits whilst claiming government aid - whilst their over paid contractors line their pockets.

[norrahe]

And FYI, using a bank in the same discussion as one about well run businesses, is COMPLETELY inadmissable. They are the entire reason this country is in pieces right now - making massive profits whilst claiming government aid - whilst their over paid contractors line their pockets.

Who said it was a bank, not even in the same industry???

Agency in question have made good inroads into certain industries ( not banking, just to confirm) and therefore charge a reasonable rate as a mark up.

[The Agents View]

Who said it was a bank, not even in the same industry???

Agency in question have made good inroads into certain industries ( not banking, just to confirm) and therefore charge a reasonable rate as a mark up.

Sorry norrahe - I read your response as being from nomadd, who had previously spouted about working for banks.....

Just to correct you - there's not an agency in the country who works on a mark up - we all work in margins. It's a subtle difference, but an absolute PITA when it gets mixed up!

[nomadd]

Lets be honest, as a general rule, the big agencies are more likely to commoditise the contractor. You're just a number to them.

Utter nonsense.

Lets be honest, as a general rule, the bigger agencies are "in" with the bigger clients so have a far better chance of getting you a gig and charging a lower commission. And if you are good, they will find you future roles: that's business.

Also, the larger agencies tend to have better payment terms and are far less likely to go bust - just have a read of some of the threads on here from contractors who lost a fortune to small-fry agencies when they crashed without a trace.

You lot seem to want all of the attention that working for a boutique agency brings, but get naffed off the moment they want to be paid for the extra attention - you simply can't have it both ways.

Again, utter nonsense.

All your posts seem to be your personal interpretation of what you think everyone else wants. It's an arrogance that pervades all your posts. And addressing all Contractors as "you lot" or "jumped-up coders" (and the multitude of other personal slurs in your posts) doesn't exactly leave you looking professional, does it.

As I say, I'll continue to stick with well regarded agencies who use professional staff. And I'll leave the small-fry like yourself well alone. That way everyone's happy.