I'm so lost trying to figure out how exactly to file for an LLC.  There
are a ton of sites that want to take a fat commission for filing, but
wouldn't getting an attorney be best for filing?

I'm in Texas, and from what I understand, it shouldn't be that hard to
file.  Does anyone have any specific method you used to file?

Also, finding an accountant has also been dificult.  I'll troll through
the earlier messages of this group to find answers.  TIA.

Marko Rangel

Has anyone here needed to procure commercial grade liability insurance
for a one-day event?

I am in that market and the prices are quite a bit higher than I expected.

I called my local insurance agent (State Farm) and they have a
personal liability thing for up to $1 million they can extend for a
one-day event for $50, but they don't do commercial liability
insurance. They referred me to an insurance broker who said such
one-day policies run from $800-$1,000.

Just wanted to see if y'all had any feedback on these numbers or
advice/suggestions.

Thanks


--
    Scott Mitchell
    mitchell@...
    http://www.4GuysFromRolla.com/ScottMitchell

-----------------------------------------------------------
"Just the other day I caught myself wondering who will clean out my
Inbox after I'm dead."
-- Charles Petzold
              -----------------------------------------------------------


(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.

See if this helps:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5102-6331-1031555-2.html . I have
used MyBizOffice, mentioned in the article.


On 11/28/06, Yama Kamyar <yama@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Is there such a thing as paying a service for unemployement in California or
other states? What services are out there that can pay work for people working
1099 as HRs?
>
> Has anyone used out sourced HR that did their payroll?
>
> My concern asa a consultant is the in-between jobs where I have no source of
income. Are there incentives such as insurance, unemployement, etc... for people
working on 1099s?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Yama

Hi,

Is there such a thing as paying a service for unemployement in California or other states? What services are out there that can pay work for people working 1099 as HRs?

Has anyone used out sourced HR that did their payroll?

My concern asa a consultant is the in-between jobs where I have no source of income. Are there incentives such as insurance, unemployement, etc... for people working on 1099s?

Thanks,

Yama

Hi,

Thank you Matt! For starter when using an off-the-shelf solution you end up having no control over the application. A time tool, to be perfectly honest, is fairly simple to write. I would consider buying nevertheless a time tracker only if it offered me an API I would be able to integrate with my existing software. For instance if I were to write my own time tracker I would include third party tools such as Infragistics' Scheduler along with .NET Active Reports as a repoting tool to make it eaiser for me to write code... In my opinion a guy with 3-4 years solid programming skills could pull a desktop solution within 12 weeks of hard coding for a phase 1 solution. It could include the MSDE or better yet the SQL Express 2005 database for offline data manipularion.

In all fairness I do realize though that most small to medium size business don't have ressources to dedicate time in order to write their own time tracker. Honestly I would have said exactly the same thing about writing your own bug tracker but who has time for it nowadays when you have so many other tasks to complete and so many products already writing and ready to use for a few bucks. So of course in the real world you look for a solution off-the-shelf to fit your business needs. The draw back is to pick the right one though. I googled "time tracker offline" and found many great solutions you might also look into:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=time+tracker+offline

Yama

-----Original message-----
From: "Matt" xtrac222@...
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:50:27 -0700
To: going_independent@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [going_independent] Re: What do you use to track time and bill clients?

Hi

I agree somewhat with Yama here, if you are already running Windows
Server 2003 (even SBS) then you already have the 'free' tools for the
job in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). WSS version 2.0 is a
fantastic tool for quickly and easily building bespoke solutions for
this type of problem, coupled with the built in support for MS Office
(Excel, Word, Outlook, InfoPath) and a little bit of imagination I
have seen some pretty nice implementations (take a look at what Yama
is doing for instance).

Hang around for the free upgrade to version 3.0 (should be 1Q2007)
and you're in a whole new world of out of the box capabilities that
will enable you to create something to make most paid for
timekeeping/tracking solutions look inadequate. If you're looking for
a solution that covers all the bases that Mike pointed out and more
(security, offline/disconnected availability, extensibility,
integration) then look no further.

Disadvantages? If you haven't used it before then of course there
will be a learning curve, multiply that by a factor of several if you
go for the forthcoming version 3.0!

Good luck

--- In going_independent@yahoogroups.com, "Yama Kamyar" <yama@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
> For time tracking I believe there are many tools available out
> there... An example is a free tool available if you had Sharepoint
> server
>
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/def
ault.mspx).
> You can view an example at
> http://sharepoint.yamabiz.com/TimeSheet/default.aspx. You also have
> templates written for Outlook (custom forms), OneNote 2003, etc...
>
>
>
> In order to have an offline solution you must create a separate
> database that will track any changes. Database can be as simple as
> saving a XML form, Access, or even comma-delimited files. When there
> is no connection to DB or you can't ping your server then start
using
> the offline database. Every time you reconnect to the database or
> you can ping your server then check offline database
synchronization.
> It can be assimple as checking offline database for a flag telling
you
> whether the database has been used offline if it is on then synch
> it with your production database and turn it off and if it isn't
> turned on then do nothing and begin using production database. 
>
>
>
> As a consultant I always billed hourly; however, I never wrote
> descriptive activities of what I was doing hourly. Instead I
reported
> daily or weekly activies. Further I never accepted or rather refused
> to work less than 40 hours a week and a minimum of 12 weeks. My
> contract agreements reflected if I were to finish the project before
> the 12 weeks period I would get paid the difference.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Yama Kamyar
>
>
>
>
> -----Original message-----
> From: "Joe Mele" joemele@...
> Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:12:39 -0700
> To: going_independent@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [going_independent] What do you use to track time and
> bill clients?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> How much is that?  I have time tracking module with QB online.
> As for the disconnected mode, A QB app that saves it then "uploads"
> when possible, would not be more costly than a days programming if
> that.
>
> Joe Mele
>
>
>
>
> On 9/1/06, Mike Gunderloy <MikeG1@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> We went through a fairly long evaluation process and ended up with
> Standard Time - which is far from perfect but closer than anything
> else
> we've found so far. Key issues for us:
>
> - Quickbooks interface
> - Central database
> - Must be able to handle offline mode for tracking time when people
> are
> working disconnected (we do a lot of work with people in client
> offices
> via laptops, can't always get to our servers over the net due to
> idiotic
> security restrictions)
> - Some sort of stopwatch/timer mode (people are not reliable when
they
> have to record time on their own or remember it after the fact)
> - Security at least on a user/project basis
>
> Given the number of commercial products out there, I'd love to think
> the
> perfect system exists, but if it does, I haven't found it.
>
> Mike Gunderloy
> http://www.larkware.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Borland Technology Partner
> FileMaker Solution Allaince  Associate Member
> London Number
> +44 (0)20 8090 4340.
> Toll Free US  1-(866)-387-1998
> www.fmplugin.net
> www.melesystems.com
> www.youseful.com
> forums.youseful.net
>

--- In going_independent@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Gunderloy"
<MikeG1@...> wrote:
>
> We went through a fairly long evaluation process and ended up with
> Standard Time - which is far from perfect but closer than anything else

My company was using XL spreadsheets to manage timesheets and we
underwent an evaluation of time tracking software.  In the end, we
also chose Standard Time.

For us, it had the follwoing compelling features:

* a central SQL Server database
* a functional fat client and a web client
* Microsoft Project integration
* It handled both time tracking and light project planning

My group is spread out over the country and we do consulting work for
customers on their premises.  We attempted to run the client over our
VPN, but the performance was not acceptable.  We tried to use the web
client, but after using the real client, it was disappointing.

In the end, we enabled SQL Server merge replication on the DB and
installed MSDE on each person's local machine.  We replicate between
the local machines and the main server every 5 minutes.  This allows
all of our consultants to use the fat client against their local
database.  If they are travelling or on customer site, they sync back
to the main DB once they connect again to the VPN.  It has been a
terrific system for us.

We have been using Standard Time for 9 months so far.  It has plenty
of quirks and I can give you a list of things that I would like to
improve, but I honestly don't know how we would work without it, which
is probably the best praise I could give.  It is our full time
tracking tool and we use the project planning aspects a lot.

The other thing that I like about it is that since it is built on a
central SQL Server db (we run Secret Server on the same server), we
can extend the functionality of the
application by using db triggers on the tables and stored procedures.
  Overall, it provides a nice platform for our work.

bvj

www.jandrconsult.com

Hi,

For time tracking I believe there are many tools available out there... An example is a free tool available if you had Sharepoint server (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/default.mspx). You can view an example at http://sharepoint.yamabiz.com/TimeSheet/default.aspx. You also have templates written for Outlook (custom forms), OneNote 2003, etc...

In order to have an offline solution you must create a separate database that will track any changes. Database can be as simple as saving a XML form, Access, or even comma-delimited files. When there is no connection to DB or you can't ping your server then start using the offline database. Every time you reconnect to the database or you can ping your server then check offline database synchronization. It can be as simple as checking offline database for a flag telling you whether the database has been used offline if it is on then synch it with your production database and turn it off and if it isn't turned on then do nothing and begin using production database. 

As a consultant I always billed hourly; however, I never wrote descriptive activities of what I was doing hourly. Instead I reported daily or weekly activies. Further I never accepted or rather refused to work less than 40 hours a week and a minimum of 12 weeks. My contract agreements reflected if I were to finish the project before the 12 weeks period I would get paid the difference.

Thanks,

Yama Kamyar

-----Original message-----
From: "Joe Mele" joemele@...
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:12:39 -0700
To: going_independent@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [going_independent] What do you use to track time and bill clients?

We went through a fairly long evaluation process and ended up with
Standard Time - which is far from perfect but closer than anything else
we've found so far. Key issues for us:

- Quickbooks interface
- Central database
- Must be able to handle offline mode for tracking time when people are
working disconnected (we do a lot of work with people in client offices
via laptops, can't always get to our servers over the net due to idiotic
security restrictions)
- Some sort of stopwatch/timer mode (people are not reliable when they
have to record time on their own or remember it after the fact)
- Security at least on a user/project basis

Given the number of commercial products out there, I'd love to think the
perfect system exists, but if it does, I haven't found it.

Mike Gunderloy
http://www.larkware.com

I have been an independent more or less my whole career and have used
various time tracking methods over the years.

My steady favorite for a long time was a custom Excel sheet.

Almost 3 years ago I decided to move to Washington DC (a larger
market) and grow the business beyond just me and it quickly became
apparent that Excel wasn't going to cut it for multiple people,
approving time, etc.  So being a software company, we foolishly wrote
our own - well, actually we adopted some freebie code and heavily
customized it and turned it into a product.  It serves our needs
really well as billable software development consultants but we are
having a tough time getting it into any vertical markets.  (Our other
product, Secret Server, which has a huge security focus is doing far
better!)

* Do most people on this list sell their time?
* Do you give detailed descriptions down to the hour?
* Are you going through the same hassles that we did (buy vs build)?

Thanks,
Jonathan Cogley

If anyone is interested, our time entry system is called
MyClockWatcher (http://www.myclockwatcher.com)

Our other product is Secret Server which is a secure web-based
application to put your passwords and securely share them across your
team.  (http://www.thesecretserver.com)

I'm finally on my own, per se (through staffing firm), and this is
the first time I've had to deal with covering my own travel expenses
for work.  Normally I would just stay somewhere and submit expense
reports and get reimbursed from my employer.  Now I'm the
employer. :-)

A couple of things I would like to discuss or get feedback on.

The first is getting money from the client to cover travel
expenses.  What's typical to get this or negotiate for it?
Initially I started out by trying to negotiate for something similar
to what I was use to with a full time employer.  I soon found out
that it doesn't always work that way when dealing staffing and
consulting firms.  I was advised from a independent veteran that
should increase my hourly rate by $20.  That gives me $800/week to
cover airfare/hotel/car/food.  Good, bad, or something else?

Second how do guys normally handle scheduling their travel?  Are
there any travel agents/sites/etc..that are used more than others or
any good tips or tricks on getting the best deals?  I've been using
Kayak.com to track down cheap airfare and was told to call a few
different hotels and ask to speak to the "Business Services Manager"
and let them know that you'll be staying with them for an extended
period of time.  That ended up working well for me.  I got an room
at an extended stay place for $16/night less than any published
price I had seen.  That's a savings of $112/week.  Some didn't seem
to care much but I called about 5 different places just to see what
would happen.  I've also contemplated just trying to find a cheap
place on Craigslist.com that's a sublease or something like that.
Again, any ideas or things to discuss?

Thanks all and I hope this brings in some others to discuss.
Erik