Think in conversion rates

I support a People Analytics team, and one of the metrics the team looks at is the hiring conversion rate.

You can calculate this a few different ways, but one way is to count the total number of candidates who accepted your job offer, divided by the total number of applicants.

If there were 100 applicants and 10 accepted a job offer, the hiring conversion rate is 10%.

[Note: Realistically, the denominator would be the number of offers you made, but I digress.]

This allows the organization to estimate how many applicants they need to get the number of new hires they need.

If the conversion rate is 10% and they need 100 new hires, they need at least 100/10% = 1,000 applicants.

When pursuing 1099 opportunities, you should think the same way.

If you think you'll have a ten percent conversion rate, you need 10 "leads."

Leads can be a job or job offers, warm contacts, or cold contacts

Your ten leads may look like this:

• 1 - Your current job (could convrt)
• 3 - W2 job offers with primes that could turn into a 1099 gig if you convince the PM
• 2 - Previous government clients you worked with
• 3 - Previous co-workers at new companies you're friendly with
• 1 - A friend who is willing to introduce you to some folks that may be helpful

Out of those 10 leads, maybe 1 turns into a 1099 gig, for a 10% conversion rate.

This may seem obvious, but it's easy to get discouraged if you put all your hopes into a single lead.

If you think in terms of pipeline and conversion rate, you get more desensitized to things not working out and can focus on just getting more leads.

Remember, to get to one 1099 gig, you start with ten.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.