Was approached by a company two years ago to carry out some work for them which was then 'put on the back burner' due to financial reasons.
Had a call from them again last week as they now want to do the work and it had to be done by xmas (pushing it but possible). Worked out a [good] price for them and I've just had an email saying that they're not going to consider my quote as my business is not a Ltd Co.
Frankly......... t055ers 😡
I would have thought that the facts that we have been operating for nearly 20 years and include way bigger and better companies in our client list would have counted for something.
It was not a massive project (£4-5k) but work is tight at the moment and now I'm pee'd off as we would have done a good job.
😥
do you have PI cover? Are they worried about liability and recovery?
If you dont have PI, offer to put a job specific policy in place. Hiscox are very good.
Everyone's into risk mitigation at the moment - dealign with a ltd or plc gives access to a verifiable finiancial history etc and just 'ticks a box' - it's a pain.
I suspect it's because they can't carry out a credit check.
do you have accounts? offer them the last 5 yrs worth maybe?
I could send my accounts but to be honest I think they've got other quotes in (similarish prices) and they're not going to want to bother with my accounts when they can get an online credit check on the others.
They seem to think they've got a big job waiting to be done when realistically it's not that big and they're probably after a lot of work doing for not much money.
Thankfully I've got other stuff on but more work is always good.
Tell them you'll be Limited for tomorrow.
you can be ltd in a matter of days.
It could also be for tax reasons. If you are a limited company then they don't need to worry about whether you are an employee or not and whether they should be deducting tax/ni. The cost of getting this wrong for them can be very high so they may decide it's not worth the risk. Contracting with a limited company passes the issue to you via the IR35 legislation.
put it down to experience and move on. go ltd if/when you are ready.