Being an Independent Professional is not just about doing assignments. You also have to deal with things like administration, networking and personal development. But how do you tackle this? How many hours do fellow ZP'ers bill? Research by ZP Facts provides the answers to these questions.
The hours you may bill as a self-employed person are the hours in which you work on an assignment. Due to leave, illness and other unforeseen circumstances, the billable hours of a ZP'er with a full-time contract are often only 80 percent utilized, according to research by ZP Facts. For ZP'ers with a part-time contract, this percentage is significantly higher, at 97 percent. The explanation is that ZP'ers with a part-time contract use their remaining hours for things like administration, attending networking events and simple things like a visit to the dentist. When a ZP'er has a full-time contract, those things quickly come at the expense of their billable hours.
The survey shows that between 14 and 17 percent less is billed in the months of July and August than average. In addition, April, May and December are also billed below average. This is probably due to school vacations and public holidays. Interestingly, the amount billed by women is on average 1 to 3 percent lower than that of men.
Finally, Independent Professionals are increasingly being offered 36-hour contracts instead of 40 hours. The reason for this is cost savings in some cases. Yet a 36-hour contract does not appear to be cost-saving. In fact, the average claim is 9 percent higher than on a 40-hour contract. This means that a ZP'er with a 36-hour contract will claim about the same amount on an annual basis as someone working 40 hours a week.
* The results are based on Tilburg University research on 15,000 invoices submitted to Striive between January 2013 and June 2015.
You can read the entire study here.