Before you balk at the number, consider that during my almost 5 years as a solo contractor I've spent _zero_ hours doing sales. None. When I want a new assignment I send one email and within a week or two I have a 6 month contract.

I've seen plenty of the latter but hadn't heard of the former before.

That's nothing to balk at. In the US, being a contractor is like selling wholesale, and being an agency is like selling retail. I'd expect the contractor cut to be 30%-50%, and the rest to go to the agency.

I wonder if it is a US thing of employees having too little power. A couple years ago I heard an interview on Fresh Air [1] where a woman talked about her experience cleaning houses. She said she at first made $8.55/hour while the agency charged clients $20/hour (later it was $9.25 and $25, respectively). That means the agency got 57% (63%). I told my wife if we ever hire someone to clean our house I'm asking how much the person doing the work gets paid, and if it's not above something like 70% of the total, we're not doing it.

[1] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/689611873

In a way they are operating as a match maker and making a living by taking a percentage of the day rate, so it is partly perception. However, I think it's fair to say that they are hired by and represent the interests of the end client rather than the contractor.

Whenever I mention them, I'm scoffed at, like I believe in unicorns.

I can't help but feel like these platforms are like Uber for programmers: devoid of all meaningful professional contact and ultimately the commodification of programming as a job. The power dynamic has shifted to give most of the power to the buyer. Sad times indeed.

This would be like, for example, if you set up a job interview from a listing at Indeed, and then Indeed demands that you do not use regular email to stay in contact with the employer, you must use their own messaging system. And you can't even voice chat elsewhere unless it's a link that is provided by Indeed so they can be aware of it.

Just the walled garden aspect of freelancer websites is what turns me off.

Partly because a lot of us have made good money building platforms that increase buyer power through commodification (most of e-commerce, plenty of other things). And partly because of persistently low standards in the profession that I see little enthusiasm for working together to raise.

I was just thinking there could definitely be a niche like that, there must be a bunch of people that would love contracting but hate bizdev etc.

Up until know I hadn't heard those ever existed.

But I worked for one company for about 27 years, and never used one (except when hiring).

The downside was that we were a fairly small operation and so we only had one agent. When he left to pursue his own business venture we were unsuccessful at replacing him and ended up closing up shop.

A platform that facilitated this type of arrangement would be valuable indeed...

I suspect that the fault lies in the hiring companies.

Funny enough, I'm finding myself doing this gap too. Last December I ended up consulting as a fraction CMO/VP for mid- to late-stage startups. As the business has grown I've had demand for more work than I can fill, especially related to software, data infrastructure and analytics. At this point I'm starting to bring people into projects to augment what I can offer and frankly can't do it fast enough.

I know there's a lot of people doing similar work as myself, so looking through your network and checking with people who have found their niche as a consultant are probably a great resource.

The typical model is for end clients or employers to hire a recruitment agent to find them either contract or permanent staff.

For contract staff, the agency will invoice the customer, keep approximately 10% and pass the difference to the contractor.

A contractor can choose to work as a LTD company or through an umbrella organisation depending on how much admin they want to take on and requirements of the client such as IR35.

Consultancies are a slightly different model where they own the outcome and more of the risk, and are perceived to be bringing IP and value as well as just the resource. This is where there is a the big delta between what the contractor is paid and what the consultancy charge.

In some cases, the agent can of course be disintermediated and the end client can recruit people directly.

In 20 years working in the London contract market, I have never heard of a situation where a contractor hires an agent to go out and sell their services. You can however build a relationship with agents to remain front of mine when their customers (end clients) have a relevant opportunity.

In a way, contract agents are operating as a match maker and making a living by taking a percentage of the day rate, so it is partly perception who is their customer. However, I think it's fair to say that they are hired by and represent the interests of the end client rather than the contractor.

I know you didn't ask all of these questions, but it seemed like the best place to respond :-).

IR35 is not a 'requirement of the client', it's HMRC's judgement of the relationship between contractor & client that matters.

The recruiter does the recruiting and provides access to an umbrella company but it's optional and up to you. The umbrella company is a separate entity that provides the service to the recruiter, 99% automated so fees for it are basically nothing.

The umbrella handles witholding tax, super payments, pay slips and a few compliance things like confirming you've watched your OSHA video quota for the year.

Recruiters in the US don't really seem to work that way. Instead, they have contract shops, and hire you as an employee, or 1099 (contractor without the money).

I am very disappointed in what has happened to the technical recruitment industry. It used to be full of older folks, that obviously made great money. These days, it seems to be all young folks, and they don't seem to make anywhere near as much as they used to.

8 years ago in London I knew about some companies charging 1000+£ per day to customers and paying the contractors 400-600£.

You should still avoid those places, but many contractors didn't have the contacts to charge higher than 400-600£.

https://jobserve.com/gb/en/Job-Search/

Filter the results on 'contract'.

Hit me up for tips if you're thinking of going contract. I've been in and out of the game for years and making more than double than I would as a perm.