Invest some billable hours

On my side of the business, I have a former Navy 'nuke' (submarine officer), a data scientist, and a software developer.

As a gamble to grow the business, I'm putting them together as a team and giving them each 50 hours to spend on developing a an AI product that one of our clients could use to potentially solve one of their problems.

150 hours X their average billable rate is somewhere between $20,000 - $25,000.

It doesn't seem like much to make an AI tool (probably underfunding it) but that is $25,000 I would otherwise get to keep if they just stuck to billing their clients.

However if my plan works, this could lead to some much bigger opportunities.

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As a solo 1099, you also have the opportunity to "invest" some billable hours by reducing the amount of time you work.

Contracts typically bake in 1860 billable hours or so.

Say you only worked 1700 hours for the year. If you bill $120/hour, that is 160 X $120 = $19,200 you'd be "giving up."

But what if with that time you started a cool side project that could make you even more money if it works out?

In my book I talk about a lot of the lifestyle benefits of going 1099. I have generally reduced my work hours to take more friday naps and vacations.

But now I'm reducing my own hours (and that of my team) to attempt to grow the business.

If you have an entrepreneurial itch, going 1099 gives you more opportunities to invest your time and money in interesting ways.

What would you invest in?

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.