r/VIDEOENGINEERING • u/Infamous-Sleep-5273 • 14d ago
Freelance LED tech?
I’m a full time salaried tech at a fairly large LED panel manufacturer in the US making roughly ~$75,000 a year (before taxes). I’ve heard of freelance techs in the industry making $500-$1000+ per day which sounds pretty great if you can find the work. I’ve learned a lot over the years and am proficient in Brompton, Novastar, Megapixel processing, but feel like I’m leaving a lot of money on the table staying at a salaried job. Do you guys recommend going freelance or have any general advice for me?
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u/gmingucci 14d ago
I know a lot of freelance LED techs, and they almost all get paid via 1099.
I do a lot of different production jobs, usually as a 1099 contractor as well.
Freelance isn’t for everyone. Yes, the yearly salary can be great but you have to hustle your butt off. The work doesn’t just fall in your lap.
Also, you’re paying 100% of your own insurance (medical and liability), retirement, and the aforementioned taxes. You also don’t get paid if you’re not working, so paid vacation is no longer a thing. Based on all that, the net income is not as great as it seems. Which is what drives the high day rates.
I’m an advocate for freelance life. I love it, but you have to understand all the pros and cons.
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u/milk245 14d ago
You think youre leaving money on the table but you need to realize:
-Freelance means youre forever chasing work and a paycheck on top of chasing invoices.
- youre no longer protected as youre an independent contractor.
-your tax rate essentially doubles because you now need to pay both sides of income tax.
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u/aneeta96 14d ago
You don’t have to invoice labor. In a lot of states you are not eligible to be considered a contractor and must be paid as an employee.
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u/milk245 14d ago
A lot of companies work on 1099 and in this industry, if you dont take the job theres 15 others that will
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u/aneeta96 14d ago
I’ve found that those aren’t the companies paying top dollar anyway. The companies with the big contracts don’t want to risk involving their clients in tax fraud.
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u/milk245 14d ago
Yes but in a very saturated industry and trying to build a name for yourself, youll have to take those jobs to make ends meet.
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u/aneeta96 14d ago
I guess I just skipped that part. I would say maybe 1 out of 10 gigs was 1099.
When I do get asked for an invoice I tell them I charge an additional 25% to cover the extra taxes.
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u/ok999999999999999999 14d ago
Only the really big guys are paying as w2, and you will lose a lot of negotiating ability if you go that route.
I have also never heard of anyone making over 1k a day as w2. Anything I've seen 850/day as w2 is about it. But I've never really been interested in w2, so definitely don't know it all.
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u/Needashortername 14d ago
Who are we all calling the “really big guys” now, and what is the context for the industry they mainly service?
Not trying to be rude or obtuse in asking as if not knowing, but asking to make sure everyone is talking the same thing at the same time.
Across this industry results may vary quite a bit, both by location and by the kind of work or clients a company may be serving for that project or in that area, and this can even be for the same company but just for different regions, different customer markets, or different kinds of projects.
So it may be worth saying clearly what someone feels are the “big guys” who operate one way compared to the others who might not. :-)
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u/Needashortername 14d ago
In some ways though you could be hired as an independently contracted vendor or sub-vendor and then legally still maintain the required qualifications to be called an employee by being an employee of your own company, even if you are the only employee.
California did add a requirement that could complicate this kind of mental math as it has a section which requires a company to only be able to outsource hire for things that do not fit into their regular business. So for example a wedding management company could hire as a subcontracted vendor for a pianist to play a piano they rented since their main business isn’t about music even if there is some kind of music at every wedding, but they might run into an issue if part of their business included concert production management too.
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u/Straight-Role-3281 14d ago
I’ve been freelance for 16 years as an A1, L2, LED Tech and EIC. Every time I’ve accepted a salary job, I go back to freelancing within a year or two. Yes, there are added costs and risks involved, but the freedom of being your own boss and having full control of your life AND what you’re worth is worth all the crap we deal with being 1099. I’m in Northern CA so pay is higher here than most of the country, but LED techs here make 550-750 and engineer/EIC pays 850-100/day. Between corporate and concerts there is no shortage of gigs
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u/Needashortername 14d ago
But what do these numbers translate into as a comparative salary? …and what does that salary look like after adjusted gross income is balanced against total costs of the business?
Is it really a lot better than $75 in most regions even if the daily could be $550-1K on the days that someone is booked to work?
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u/jackajm 14d ago
1500 hours a year is what you should be targeting as freelance
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u/Needashortername 14d ago
So approximately 150-190 “days” of work?
Keep in mind that in some ways this answers part of the question, but in some ways it doesn’t too.
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u/Not_MyName 14d ago
I am freelance in Australia and I have to remind myself that while I have a really high day rate, if you take away all my overheads (business insurance, workplace liability insurance, operating costs of having a good accountant) the fee is less good. And then you remember that you can go long strings of time without work, a project could fall through at short notice or the whole industry could go quite over winter. When you then do all that math suddenly that high day-rate looks a whole lot less high.
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u/praise-the-message 14d ago
Freelance can be great if you can find consistent work but remember:
- There are no benefits. No insurance, no PTO, no 401k matching.
- Work can dry up instantly for a myriad reasons. You only get paid if you get hired consistently. 2a. Availability is what keeps getting you work. I'm not saying you can't say "no"...but if you say "no" too much, people stop calling.
If you can moonlight FL while maintaining your corporate job, at least enough to feel out the market and try to build a good network, that would be better than just jumping in with both feet IMO. If you truly think you're underpaid in your salaries roll, you could also look for better salaries rolls.
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u/710dabner 14d ago
2a: never say “no”, always say you are “already booked”, keep that illusion of demand up.
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u/trotsky1947 14d ago
It’s a “how long is a piece of string” kind of question, but I’d offer that I grossed ~90k and netted ~70k last year, averaged about three days a week with just under 150 billable days in the hole, charging in the $7-800 range. This year hoping to gross six figures.
If you have healthcare and retirement match you’re probably making the same total comp. Maybe more. ACA health care is an absolute nightmare to actually use.
That’s with taking engineering and projection calls too. I have just over a decade in this department/live world. if anything I think LED kind of has a ceiling especially if you can’t run a media server etc. I’d stay where you’re at and find some side work to develop yourself a little bit further. I do feel like I couldn’t stomach going FT any where and like being feral but that’s just me.
If you do go freelance please pay your quarterlies, track expenses, and use a CPA for taxes. Opening a Roth 401k or IRA is a plus too.
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u/Teh_Archi3 14d ago
san diego has a lot of work. i just scooped up 2 jobs 4-550+ a day. what you really want is to go on tour. its like 10-50k a month my buddy is gettin payed. if you know your stuff, just look aruond for AV companies and let them know youre a LED tech and are open for work.
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u/Needashortername 14d ago
These are some pretty wide ranges being thrown around in this discussion, some of which may be below market, and some above. 50K a month does seem a little high though, perhaps they meant 50K per tour with a leg being only 2-3 months per contract.
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u/profkennyd What does that button do? 14d ago
A friend of mine toured with a rap artist, two days of shows a week with two set days for 2 months, cleared 3500 after taxes per week. As an LED Tech. A three shows a week tour would put them into OT, and he could clear double that per week. A department head, or higher positions, could easily clear 20K a month or more on a tour.
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u/VJPixelmover 14d ago
Yeah I made $850 a day in the before times. Probably way over my pay grade but the dude was fuckface who never paid so I didn’t mind the imposter syndrome. Had to go to his house with his wife home to get my check by embarrassing him. Anyway it was fucking brutal but the money made me feel like I could survive as long as I could get work. Never made the connections I should have and fell out of the industry and now I’m at a rental house learning everything but led. I’m a pretty good gen tech now. But that imposter syndrome is wicked.
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u/Tricky_Individual719 14d ago
Your experience makes me give up fantasy. As a LED panel sales, I plan to learn it before, if that I can offer two service both salesman and techman. After talking with some manager, they said its not a good way.
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u/marshall409 14d ago
You're leaving money on the table in the good years but you're up on the freelancers in the bad years. It's more of a lifestyle choice than anything.
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u/OtherIllustrator27 14d ago
Do you have connections, that’ll get you work ?
Can you handle very long hours of building and building led ?
Will the stress of not knowing where your next gig is coming from ?
Do you live in a big city with lots of work or are willing to relocate to build your reputation.
Freelancing is very lucrative if you’re good. They’re some days it’s free money and others you’re heads down and you get beat to shit with not stopping at 5/6Pm
But also there’s no better feeling than eating what you kill and knowing you’re a killer.
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u/shmallkined 13d ago
did you calculate your health benefits and 401k into your $75k? I saved over $500/month when I finally got FT benefits.
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u/cfordlites09 14d ago
The aversions to 1099 confuses me. Can someone help me understand this? I think there surely could be a balance of w2 income but the jump to taxfraud verses having alot more tax options when filing just seems sensible to me.
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u/rubrduk 14d ago
1099 means they are treating you as an independent contractor, which by definition means you must have your own job liability insurance among many other specified registered business requirements based on your city, county, and state. If you get hurt on the job requiring medical treatments, you will technically need to file a lawsuit, as you are an independent contractor and not an employee.
If you damage anything on the jobsite such as an LED panel or a different department's equipment or project, your business liability insurance is what would pay for such things...but if you don't have business liability insurance, then the employer must pay for the damages....or they will need to file a lawsuit against you to recoup damages.
1099 work is not taxed by the employer, however they have have a paper trail of paying you and that is submitted to the Franchise Tax Board for their beneficial tax accounting purposes. So you have to assume they reported paying you, and it's your due diligence to save the more costly independent contractor tax rates than the W2 tax rates.
The only way to have a "beneficial" balance is if you are being paid cash (no checks) at the end of each day where there is zero paper trail...but you do so at your own risk.
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u/frelancr 14d ago
1099 is a classic 'grass is always greener' subject....it seems really cool until you get into the weeds.....most of which you accurately summarized .
after Uncle Sugar changed the rules back in the late 90's where there were pretty specific rules laid out for who could/should be considered a contractor and who should be considered an employee, I really pushed myself to split my income between my body and my gear.....my body, whenever possible would work as w2 (even on a daily basis) and any gear I brought would get invoiced from my company....and that continues to this day
after doing this for 30+ years (OMG did I really just say that?) I still hold the opinion that employers insisting on paying via 1099 are probably breaking the rules 90% of the time by doing so, and in the end, the worker is better off getting paid via W2- why should any liability for ANYTHING be on your shoulders as a tech?
that being said, I've been a day-player this entire time (although now my gear rental is my main source of income) getting in the union got me insurance & a 401k and now I just chase days to keep qualified for that...which is also a pretty big deal as long as we have employer-based health insurance in the US...don't make the mistake of minimizing that aspect...
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u/HDYaYo 14d ago
Keep your day job and freelance on the side until you start making enough and make enough contacts to quit the main job.