Become an expert

In my book, I argue that you don't need to be an expert in your field to become a 1099. I spend far more time emphasizing being "good enough" and instead, spending your time networking or building good client relationships.

BUT, becoming an expert is also a viable path to going 1099, one that can often get you out of the federal space entirely if you wanted.

For example, if you were an expert in AI right now, as in, PhD level, you could have your pick of jobs. Companies would come to you and say "hey we will pay you so much money if you come work for us and help us with our AI efforts."

You could then counter with an offer to consult for them for a much higher fee for much less time.

Now, the reason I don't spend much time on this in the book is because most people are not wired to become a top level expert in their field. It takes a lot of work and from what I could tell, a certain personality type that is able to focus on one thing for long periods of time.

But if that sounds like you, you should do that. You can reduce your networking efforts and instead, just publicly display your work (e.g. a form of marketing). You'll do much better than just getting a 1099 version of a federal contracting job.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.