Five mistakes to avoid as an independent contractor

Trainer I am often approached by an attendee questioning me about how to become a professional trainer after a training session . 

I share the requirements, expectations, knowledge and skills necessary and point them in the right direction.  

Often I never hear from them again and wonder if they followed through on my recommendations.

Being a professional trainer requires not just subject matter expertise, it also requires you work as an independent contractor and run a business.

Here are five mistakes to avoid as an independent contractor:

1. Be sure to invoice your client immediately after providing the service.  One independent contractor often "forgets" to send his invoice to the client and they now are considering dropping him as one of their contractors.  An independent contractor is not an employee.  You cannot just wait to be paid like with an employer.  Until and unless you send an invoice, you will not be paid. Besides, if payments are run as a batch, sometimes you hold up payments to other contractors.

2. Immediately add the date, time, client etc., to your calendar once contracted for an engagement.  Another independent contractor missed his engagement because he relied on his memory rather than adding it to his calendar with a reminder.  This indicates that he is unprofessional and did not prepare for the engagement, otherwise he would have remembered.  

3.  Getting the engagement is only one part of the requirement.  It is imperative that you pull together the content, PowerPoint, handouts, stories, videos and everything else that you will use during the training program. 

4.  Do the math to determine how much you will actually earn from the engagement.  An acquaintance excitedly spoke to me about how much she was making.  When asked what she made after expenses, she hadn't even considered that.  Remember the independent contractor have to pay their own income tax.  Truth is she was barely breaking even and in some cases was losing money and didn't even know it. 

5.  Pick a niche and focus on it.  New speakers often say "I can talk about anything." This indicates they are not professional speakers as they don't focus on anything in particular.  It makes it difficult for a potential client to know where you would be a good fit.

Admittedly these are only five mistakes to avoid and there are many other pitfalls that await those who wish to start a business as an independent contract speaker and trainer.  

If you want to learn more about this topic, let me know and I will be happy to share how to be a successful speaker and trainer.


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