[ale] Legal Requirements for small business consulting

[Dylan Northrup]

A long time ago, (14.11.03), in a galaxy far, far away, BruceG wrote:

:=Hey all,
:=
:=    Got (another) call today about a dead PC, could I come and fix it. It's
:=a Windows 98 PC with out of date anti-virus software, updates not done
:=often, and will only boot from the rescue floppy. Basically hosed. Anyway, I
:=stepped them through getting the PC back upand running, then updating
:=antivir and scanning it. Didn't find anything.
:=
:=    Anyway - looks like the office needs PC maintenance. My son could do it,
:=but he should get cash for doing so. The volunteer stuff is getting old.
:=Where do I look for legal requiments for setting up a small consulting
:=company. Basically, my son would offer a maintenance service in keeping the
:=PCs at the office current on MS Security fixes, virus updates and firewall
:=updates. He'd also offer to do backups on the payroll PC and the records PC.

Actually, this sounds like a great topic for an ALE meeting.  What
groundwork (legal, financial, contractual) should you have in place or be
prepared for before doing contract work?  How do you write up a good
statement of work?  How do you insure that the money you made consulting
doesn't get eaten up by an accountant/taxes/etc?  What's a reasonable rate
for easy, moderate and difficult tasks?

I'm sure there are folks on the list who would be able to talk answer
questions like these and I'm positive there are plenty of folks on the list
who would be interested in hearing the answers (myself among them).

-- 
Dylan Northrup <*> docx at io.com <*> http://www.io.com/~docx/
"Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's 
 really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy'