Up and coming business scumbag

>>1497557
>is the legal safety worth all of the extra work to become licensed?
taxes are the easy part. Just pay your help as contractors and have them sign a workman's comp waiver as sole proprietors.

insurance is fairly inexpensive, probably a couple thousand dollars a year in your line of work. Depends on how many subs you use.

The actual licensing is a bigger issue. In the US you normally have to take a written test to legally work on people's houses.

>>1497557
also keep in mind that self-employment taxes are double what employees pay.

because when you work for someone else your boss pays half your taxes. Self employed pay the whole thing. Usually close to 30% of your net.

so you want to be charging enough to pay all that tax and still make more than an employee would. I usually charge $75-$125 for straight janitorial contracts for instance. On hazardous waste sites I charge around $250 per hour per person. A significant chunk of that goes straight to taxes.

>>1497580
Up to now I've put all of this off because I was underage and the licensing process is pretty intensive with forms and fees. I'm just worried that once I start the process I'm committed to finishing no matter how much it ends up costing. I also worry about my age being a problem for obtaining liability insurance. You've given me some good info to work with though, thanks!

By the way I currently charge $40 per hour or I bid high. That's without paying taxes or hiring anyone. I'm very good at what I do but I'm a teenager and people treat me like one. I can't successfully demand much else.