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Contractors' Handbook - essential reading for contractors

Published on May 13, 2009 |

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If you thought that the web was the only source for quality contracting information, you might need to think again, as the Contractors' Handbook is launched.

Written by Dave Chaplin, former IT contractor, and owner of leading resource site Contractor Calculator, the Handbook is a complete guide to living and working as a contractor.

The result of over a year's dedication and hard work, the guide covers everything from working out if contracting is the life for you, through finding contract work, dealing with tax, and negotiating with all manner of people along the way.

Dave draws on his own experiences as an IT contractor and nearly a decade running Contractor Calculator. Written in an authoritative but very accessible style, Dave clearly has a lot of passion for his subject, and also offers his personal tips throughout the book in his 'been there, done that' snippets.

I asked Dave what inspired him to write the Handbook;

"As a maths graduate, my ambition was to become a teacher; but the lure of the City and its rewards to contractors ensured my goal remained unrealised. However, through the website ContractorCalulator.co.uk and the Contractors' Handbook, I have found other channels to pass on what I have learnt. If I have achieved this, even in a very small way, I will have given back some of what I have taken over the years as a successful contractor."

Having spent a lot of time with Dave over the past decade, discussing the various web projects we've worked on over the years, we're both agreed that really successful contractors need to learn genuine business skills to succeed, regardless of their technical prowess.

As Dave explains:

"Most successful contractors remain successful because they recognise that they need to learn other skills that feature less highly on most contractors' radars, but can be even more important than the letters after their name: things like CV writing, contract law, negotiation techniques and key sales and marketing skills. This book provides the opportunity to do just that."

To buy the Handbook, or to find out more, simply click here

James Leckie