How Obamacare Will Help You

By YOU I mean if you have a few years of experience in the IT world. If you are brand new to the game... Sorry, but you are going to have a hell of a time just finding a job. What we will see now that Obamacare is a certainty, is that many companies are going to be laying off people. Companies, especially small business, especially will be working hard to shed workers off their roles to reduce their costs. This is bad. So, how can I work this to my advantage? Well, companies will still need IT work to be done. If they intend to stay in business, they will need MORE IT to automate processes that normally would be filled by workers. This means things like collaboration solutions, workflows, and administrative scripting will become very hot. Since business can't hire FTEs to do this work, who will do it? Contractors, consultants, and other temp workers can fill the personnel void without having to hire them full time. BUT, since most consulting agencies are, in fact, small business, it will be difficult to find a position at an actual consulting company. So how does this help me? Enter independent consulting. With a little leg and research work, you can set yourself up with your own company, with one employee, you. If you do the leg work before 2013, you can get ahead of the game and be ready if you are laid off. Companies will be looking for consultants, and you will be set up and ready to go. Now, working as an independent consultant means that you will have to pay for your own... everything. Insurance, taxes, social security, blah blah blah. You will have to figure out how much to charge per hour so that you can turn a profit. In this case profit means personal income, so remember that you are negotiating for bread on the table. HOWEVER, it is important that you keep your income below $250,000 after that amount you will really take it in the shorts from the tax man. Good luck in the coming months. They won't be easy for any of us. IT is seen as overhead for many business, so you can guarantee if cuts are to be made it will be with us.