Fulthrotl has some very good ideas, but I think he - and the rest of you - are missing the point.
The point is that the latest 'fad' seems to be for firms to hire their own crews, and then go shopping for someone who will rent out their license. Look at the ads, commonly found on internet boards like Craigslist. I'd post one for discussion, but, alas, such threads tend to quickly go off tangent into cussfests. (Maybe thats where the 'no Craigslist' policy comes from.)
The firm will say we need a guy with a license, We provide the crew. You pull permits. You want to see the site, fine - but you'll have no say in the job. Don't think you'll ever make a lot of money from us, have a management role, or become a partner. We just need someone to sign the papers. It's all because of those pesky licensing rules made by corrupt politicians in hick towns.
Another variation is the 'we're hiring' pitch. We give you the calls. You provide tools, truck, ladders, license, bookkeeping, scheduling, etc. You work out of your house; our 'office' is on the other side of the country, and we never answer the phone. Give us the billing info, and we'll share with you some of what the customer sends us .... maybe.
yeah, there are a couple topics here that are worse than peanut butter
stuck to the roof of your mouth....
craigslist posts
ground up, or ground down on receptacles ;-)
this trade has gone to hell, because of (insert rant here)
most of those things you mention are not new, but they sure get
played a lot more with the internet dumping us all into close contact.
one of the local service companies here in socal takes out full page
ads in the yellow pages, two half page ads on the same page, two
different names, one call center... they are always hiring sparkys,
and carry a couple hundred on their call sheet, for service work.
i went to one of their "orientation" meetings to see what the scam
was... this was a long time ago, but the model hasn't changed.
you buy all your own material. you provide your own truck, tools,
gas, insurance, and pager or cellphone. (this was a while ago)
they call you when they have a service call for you. you do the work,
minimum charging the job for your labor and 500% markup on the
materials. you don't reset tripped breakers, you replace them.
you turn in your completed "package" with a sheet on how many hours,
and how much material you spent, ALONG WITH YOUR ORIGINAL RECEIPTS
FOR THE MATERIAL.
they split the labor with you 50/50 and you get 1/3 of the profit on the
material.
they keep the receipts.
you get a check cut for what they owe you.
come tax time, they give you a ****1099**** for all the money you
got from them, so you pay tax on the whole thing. including the material
you bought.
they write off the money they paid you, and all the material that you
bought, as they have the original receipts for it.
you are on call 24/7. if you refuse a call, or don't answer, they move
your number to the "don't call for a little while" bin.
if you get up from their seminar, laughing hysterically, they don't call
you very soon either.
they did say their average service call was $425, and they did 800
of them a month, or some number they probably made up.... but if
they didn't......
no employees. no workers comp. one old crusty sparky running the show,
and two guys for doing warranty work. 99% residential service calls.
a three man shop. with a couple hundred "associates"
while they were spewing this, i was working out a profit and loss for
them.....
$425 x 800 x 12 = $4,080,000 Gross Receipts....
anyway, they were deducting the material THAT THEY DIDN'T PAY FOR,
twice, once in the 1099 that went back to the employee, and once with
the original receipt that they kept when the employee turned in their
submittal to get paid.
the deal that is too good to be true, is usually false.