What makes a successful contractor?

1 Has the ability to go from site to site, adapting to the different conditions, the different tools, the different culture, and the different ways of working. Those that can’t do this will struggle.

2 Has the ability to get on with other people and make new friends easily, or at least the ability to make new working relationships easily.

3 Has a willingness to help other people without criticising their mistakes. Contractors have a wealth of knowledge of how things are done at different sites, and it can be very useful for both permanent management and permanent employees to be able to tap into this reservoir of knowledge.

4 Has the ability to know when his/her advice is wanted and when it is not. Sometimes, or at some sites, they’ll want your advice about how to do things and sometimes they won’t. A successful contractor will be sensitive to this, and not try to force unwanted advice on an unwilling audience. If it is clear that they don’t want your advice, just get on with your job or go elsewhere.

5 Is always aware of a potential business at a client’s site. Any problem that the client has is potential new business for the alert contractor. The successful contractor may even have bid successfully to win pieces of work at various sites, e.g. to run part or all of a project, or to maintain an area of the system.

6 Looks for his own work rather than just lets agencies look for him or her. That way he has the opportunity to tout for new business without having a restrictive agency clause in his contract which prevents him approaching the client for new work.

7 Will have taken his or her opportunities to pick up extra bits of work for multiple clients over the years.

8 Will have a database of potential clients, with those he or she has worked for before near the top of the list. He or she will have permission to contact those potential clients every so often, say three months or so, and will do so.

9 Will keep potential clients up to date with contact information when it changes, e.g. address, phone number and email address, so that there is never a situation when the client is desperately seeking him for work in an area of the system where he has knowledge, without being able to find him.

10 Is willing to brush up on existing skills (and train in new ones) to adapt to an ever changing and fragmented market place.

11 The successful contractor will have such a good reputation for his or her work, and have such a good rapport with his clients that his various contracts are renewed whenever the client is able, or is contacted again when clients need to have work done on an area of the system where the contractor has expertise

Republished with kind permission from Contractor UK. The IT Contractor Portal

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