13 – Human Resources

There are several ways to acquire the help you’ll need to create and run your business.  Some you may hire as employees.  Some you may “hire” as subcontractors.  A special few you may bring onboard as “partners” or co-owners of some sort. This latter group we refer to as “sweat equity” partners and are often overlooked.  For example, an attorney, accountant or IT developer may be willing to take “shares” in the business rather than be paid only in cash.  This obviates some part of the financial need to raise capital to pay for such services.  Accordingly, each entrepreneur needs to be well-acquainted with the rules about such things to determine the best approaches.

Employees vs. Subcontractors

Whether or not a worker is an employee or a subcontractor is governed by the actual working relationship not the intentions nor the documents that go along with that relationship.  In other words, you may desire to have a subcontractor relationship but wanting it doesn’t make it so.  Neither will documents saying it is so.  Many an employer has been dinged by some government agency’s determination that subs were really employees on whom employment taxes should be assessed.  That being said, sometimes work can be arranged so that workers will be viewed as subcontractors; but this is not always possible and it’s not always desirable.

Complete the assignment before moving on. (You can either type directly on the fillable PDF and download it to your device or you can print the assignment, complete it by hand, scan or take a photo of it and then upload it below.)

Click here for the PDF of Assignment 13.1 – Services You’ll Need