Reply to: Finding my own Gigs- anyone willing to pay a small fee if I pass them something

[northernladuk]

My last agency was on a fixed rate of £36/day for a contractor being paid anywhere between £300-500/day

That's interesting. Never seen that before. Not much incentive for them to peck the client for more money for better contractors though as there is nothing in it for the agent?

One of the bigger recruiters? Only agency with an onsite presence?

[gables]

My current agency are on a fixed 5% margin.

My last agency was on a fixed rate of £36/day for a contractor being paid anywhere between £300-500/day

[EDI]

My current agency are on a fixed 5% margin.

[SueEllen]

You mean after telling all the ones who opted out of the conduct regulations to stick it?

Depends if they are smart enough to negotiate in the contract or not that you have to pay them no matter what.

[SueEllen]

Hi 21 year old Sue Age is usually calculable from work / education history is it not? OK, you don't have to go back to "the beginning", but if you rock up and you're clearly over middle aged but only have ten years of work ex on your CV that may lead to questions too (which prison?)

Yeah and gender is normally worked out from someone's name, so?

However you don't need to put your date of birth on your CV to make it obvious that you are an

Let them work out for themselves that you are an (or in some cases young), as some companies discriminate no matter what while others meet the person before deciding they won't fit in.

[SeanT]

what happens when the client goes bust and they are dealing with multiple contractors who they have to pay out?

You mean after telling all the ones who opted out of the conduct regulations to stick it?

[TheFaQQer]

I'm not sure why you bothered to respond and I wont be wasting any more time on you but here goes.

Because we're trying to point that whilst it may look like a good idea, you need to make sure that you've got your pricing and contracts sorted before you waste any time on a situation that won't work out for you. We're nice like that.

If you get paid 500 a day that means the agency is getting paid around 700, maybe as low as 650 but rarely. He takes no risks at all with this and if the contract ends he will generally get paid notice and not hand it over to you.

That's a hefty margin that you think that the agencies are taking. I don't believe it's anywhere near that - may agencies that I've worked with have been on a fixed 10%, some much lower than that. If you believe that they take no risks, then your naivety is showing again - what happens when the client goes bust and they are dealing with multiple contractors who they have to pay out?

You seem very naive and you never made a single positive suggestion so I can get take a hint. but I wish you all the best

On the contrary, there are lots of positive suggestions in this thread. You just don't want to read them.

[SeanT]

Also I stopped putting my age on my CV over 10 years ago before the UK legislation came in - yep I have my old CVs. Yes they do ask for your age in Europe but in the UK they haven't been allowed to ask your age for years. There are also loads of agencies in the UK so not every single one will have your age.

Hi 21 year old Sue Age is usually calculable from work / education history is it not? OK, you don't have to go back to "the beginning", but if you rock up and you're clearly over middle aged but only have ten years of work ex on your CV that may lead to questions too (which prison?)

[Lance]

I'm not sure why you bothered to respond and I wont be wasting any more time on you but here goes.
If you get paid 500 a day that means the agency is getting paid around 700, maybe as low as 650 but rarely. He takes no risks at all with this and if the contract ends he will generally get paid notice and not hand it over to you.

You seem very naive and you never made a single positive suggestion so I can get take a hint. but I wish you all the best

Where are you getting your numbers from?
You started talking about 10-20% markup for the agencies. Now you're at 40%.
You also don't have a figure of what you'd expect a contractor to pay.
So what are you proposing? And how will it be commercially wrapped/contracted?

Enough talk. Time to tulip or get off the pot.

[amon]

It's because I suspect its the wrong way around. We don't need pseudo agents trying to work out how they can find contracts to sell to people. What is probably needed is to split the agency role into 2 distinct bits:-

1. Charging the company to find a set of suitable clients to interview
2. Potentially handling the payment side of things.

I suspect an offer to charge a fixed fee of £x000 to find a contractor would start to look good once companies knew how much the same service was currently costing them....

Reading between the lines, am I right in thinking that some of you guys are assuming I have asked the question because I think I will get rich taking a few quid for finding some one a new contract.

I asked a genuine question on this forum, this is a common that is as old as business and is the cornerstone of economics and what I got from my colleagues in the tech industry is unmasked ignorance and rudeness give or take a few pence. No wonder the agencies take the "you know what". Fair play to them, I don't blame them.
What a bunch of <fill in the missing> it's too late you already thought it and you were right for the first time this year.

[amon]

The difference here is that the money isn't coming out of my pocket - it's coming out of someone else's. If the agency keeps £10k then that's £10k of the client money, not £10k of mine.

But to be more reasonable, let's say the client is paying £600 a day and you get £450. Under your model, the contractor pays you something and (presumably?) they get the £600 a day from the client directly. Over the course of 50 days, that's £7500 and you expect someone to give you £3750 for the lead. Maybe that's fair, maybe that isn't, but what you seem to be expecting a contractor to do is to split the commission with you - the contractor bears the risk of the client not paying, and a potential cost of factoring those invoices, and you do nothing for your 5%.



Therein lies the rub - what is a reasonable fee for you finding out that there is a vacancy at a client and suggesting to someone that they apply for it?

I'm not sure why you bothered to respond and I wont be wasting any more time on you but here goes.
If you get paid 500 a day that means the agency is getting paid around 700, maybe as low as 650 but rarely. He takes no risks at all with this and if the contract ends he will generally get paid notice and not hand it over to you.

You seem very naive and you never made a single positive suggestion so I can get take a hint. but I wish you all the best

[SueEllen]

Right now I'm struggling again because I have turned 50 and my DOB is on every CV database in Europe and not even GDPR can force them to take it off. This is waiting for you too.

It is very likely your skill set and CV rather than just your age.

Some posters on here I know are much older than you think, and older than you but have no issues getting contracts where they are hands on. (BTW I'm definitely not older than you. )

Also I stopped putting my age on my CV over 10 years ago before the UK legislation came in - yep I have my old CVs. Yes they do ask for your age in Europe but in the UK they haven't been allowed to ask your age for years. There are also loads of agencies in the UK so not every single one will have your age.

[Lance]

It's because I suspect its the wrong way around. We don't need pseudo agents trying to work out how they can find contracts to sell to people. What is probably needed is to split the agency role into 2 distinct bits:-

1. Charging the company to find a set of suitable clients to interview
2. Potentially handling the payment side of things.

I suspect an offer to charge a fixed fee of £x000 to find a contractor would start to look good once companies knew how much the same service was currently costing them....

this is already how agencies find permies. It's usually more like 20% of the perm gross annual salary.

Most companies I know don't want to handle the money side of things and are happy with 6-7% for the agency for contractors.

[eek]

Always the same these threads. Someone has an idea to be an pseudo agent. Long drawn out argument between OP and a number of people and nothing changes.

It's because I suspect its the wrong way around. We don't need pseudo agents trying to work out how they can find contracts to sell to people. What is probably needed is to split the agency role into 2 distinct bits:-

1. Charging the company to find a set of suitable clients to interview
2. Potentially handling the payment side of things.

I suspect an offer to charge a fixed fee of £x000 to find a contractor would start to look good once companies knew how much the same service was currently costing them....

[northernladuk]

Always the same these threads. Someone has an idea to be an pseudo agent. Long drawn out argument between OP and a number of people and nothing changes.