Dave Chaplin, CEO, ContractorCalculator:
As it enters it tenth anniversary year the Professional Contractors Group has launched a new survey, The Freelance Marketplace in 2009, that it hopes will provide valuable insights into today’s contracting sector.
Just as the instinctive thought, ‘oh not another survey’, popped into my mind, so too did many of the achievements of the PCG in looking after the rights of contractors. So I thought it might be worth taking a few moments to consider the good that industry bodies can do and how they can provide an invaluable service in holding up a mirror to ourselves.
If the PCG had not invested time and resources into a substantial research project, commissioning the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University to investigate the actual size of the UK’s contractor and freelance workforce – a whopping 1.4m of us, it turns out – we would be in a much weaker position when making representations to public bodies, like HM Treasury, about contractor issues.
Those of you who, like me, were contracting in the late nineties will remember the PCG when it was launched, as a one-platform body set up to act as a coordinated opposition to the IR35 proposals. Imagine where we would be had the PCG not supported so many contractors in test cases against what is, frankly, an iniquitous law. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the ongoing support of the PCG’s members; so if you are one of them, give yourself a pat on the back!
PCG regional meetings, known as ‘RLMs’, provide contractors with opportunities to network and so increase the chances of winning more contracts. And for many, contracting and freelancing can be a solitary occupation, so the opportunity to engage with ‘pseudo-colleagues’ can be incredibly important.
The PCG, as evidenced by its recent activity report for November/December 2008, is working hard all the time to ensure contractors’ and freelancers’ interests are heard and protected by every organisation that might have an impact on the sector.
But none of this could be done effectively and with a mandate from contractors, unless the PCG understands what contractors want. And the way they find out about what we want is by conducting surveys. So don’t think, as I first did, ‘oh not another survey’. Instead think ‘what can I do for my professional body’ and tell the PCG what you really think.
A link to the PCG’s survey is given below. Whether or not you’re a member, if you’re a contractor you’re invited to fill it in. Go on...