Guild Member Tools
Every Guild Member can be listed on our directory if they like. This allows potential clients to find you and know that you’re a professional in your line of work who produces high quality work and adheres to our Code of Conduct.
Every Guild Member has access to the Microsoft Office Suite and may use any and all available tools (including a secure email) to help you with your work.
Guild Members use our Calendly booking account to schedule appointments with their clients. Share this link with your customers on social media, your website, in your new email’s signature, and on your directory listing. Our favorite part is the automatic reminders!
Guild Members use our Merchant Services portal to list your services, details, and prices. Make changes anytime! This account can be used for automated checkouts, deposits, and creating invoices to send to clients with a secure payment link. This gives you a professional look, and we cover all of the merchant services fees.
You perform your services as usual, earning 62% revenue splits on all sales you bring in. The other 38% is how Guilds with Benefits pays for the benefits, tools, and administrative support we offer our Guild Members. Don’t worry, your take home pay will be about 94%-112% of your current 1099 take-home pay, due to several factors:
The tax system favors Employer/Employee relationships way more than 1099. In case you didn’t know.
We can offer large group premiums for health insurance, which means savings for you and your family! Like with most things, we are much stronger when we work together.
We provide all Guild Members with PTO, which acts like a growing bank of funds that you can access when business is slow, you’re sick, you’re on vacation, or for any reason at all. If you ever leave, your PTO bank will be paid out to you. It’s yours after all.
We provide a match of up to 3% for your 401k contributions- this is just money on the table, and we hope you take advantage of it! No vesting period- it’s yours! If you’re contributing to your future, we want to contribute to your future, too!
By pooling our accounts, we can get large group discounts on tools like Microsoft Office, Calendly, Merchant Services, and more.
If you’re paying for a CPA to help you throughout the year or for one big mess each April, you can kiss those expenses goodbye since you’ll have a simple W-2 from us at the end of the year (& free tax filing through our EAP)!
You pay day is the 10th and 25th of each month, providing you with consistent pay days.
If your payments are more sporadic, we pay you $16/hour worked during pay-periods where you don’t have any client payments. You simply pay us back once your payments hit, interest-free, obviously. This allows you consistency in between client payments. This was important to us, because we had this same issue as freelancers, too!
If you’re a freelancer who has only a few large payments throughout the year, we can help you spread those large revenue splits over a longer period of time so you have consistent income until that next customer payment comes in.
Contact us any time. The Guilds with Benefits team is available to help with whatever you need—just get in touch via phone, email, or the Contact form. We are founded and staffed by former and current freelancers, so we understand your needs and speak your language.
Do I Qualify?
To qualify, you must:
Show proof of US Citizenship.
Be a current 1099 tax filer for your freelance work- or be ready to make the switch from your current employer to being your own boss.
Show proof of at least 1 year of demonstrated work experience in your profession (1099 or W-2).
If a current 1099, you must handle your own scheduling or booking platform, if applicable (no Uber/Door Dash).
If a current 1099, you must handle your own payment platform (no Fiverr).
Show proof of applicable qualifications and experience to perform your profession, such as degrees, certifications, licenses, portfolios, references, etc. to perform your profession.
Show proof of having earned a minimum of $60,000 on your prior tax return in your line of work (1099 or W-2).
Show proof of and maintain auto insurance (if applicable) and general and professional liability insurance that is adequate and customary for your profession and the risks involved.
FAQs
So what does this cost?
It depends on how much you typically earn in gross revenues, your tax bracket, and other factors, but here are rough estimates for a single tax filer:
If you earn $60,000 gross per year, you will have about $284 more in your wallet each month.
If you earn $80,000 gross per year, you will have about $188 more in your wallet each month.
If you earn $100,000 gross per year, you will have about $121 more in your wallet each month.
Lower earners will be pleased to find out that they’re likely going to be taking home more dough each month as a Guild Member.
Higher earners often value financial security, stability, and protection as a priority over straight earnings more and more as they work their way up the ladder and are willing to pay for the peace of mind for themselves and their family.
Guilds with Benefits allows you to reach what you’re seeking throughout your career.
Part of being in a Guild is contributing to the greater good, and since we were all on the lower earning side at one point in our careers, we believe in giving back to those who could use the help. We know that a little bit can go a long way for someone starting out, and we want to watch folks move up the earning ladder. This is how our community works. We contribute to the group so we can all benefit and protect each other.
What are the downsides?
We want to be as transparent as possible, especially regarding the potential adjustments our Guild Members may feel after joining. As a Guild Member:
You will need to direct your customers to the Guilds with Benefits booking/payment platform. We cannot do this for you.
Depending on your specific situation, you could take home about 0%-10% less than your current take-home pay, depending on your earnings and benefits elections.
You cannot write off any work-related expenses since you will be a W-2.
This is less of a big deal now that tax law have changed to make write-offs worth less, but we want you to know anyway!
Will I need to sign a contract? Is there a time commitment to join Guilds with Benefits?
No way.
All Guilds with Benefits employees (AKA Guild Members) are at-will and can leave whenever they like. Outstanding balances for insurance premiums will be deducted from their final paycheck and PTO will be paid out. This isn’t like breaking up with a regular employer. We truly want you to succeed and get the most out of your career- so no hard feelings if you decide to leave. And if you’re leaving, it must be for something even better than what we are offering, so CONGRATULATIONS! We’re happy for you!
The heart of what we are trying to do is provide options and tools for freelancers.
If someone joins a guild to get themselves from point A to point B, then they decide to leave the guild, we see that as a success!
Likewise, if someone joins a guild, and they love it and stay a Guild Member for the rest of their career, that’s a win, too!
How does Guilds with Benefits make money?
We get this question a lot.
A small slice of the revenue split that stays with Guilds with Benefits funds the admin team and stays with the company. We suspect that the reason no one has done anything like this before is because the profit margin is thin. We want to keep it thin so you can take home as much $$$$ as possible!
It’s a numbers game- so we have to have X amount of Guild Members for this to work financially, and it’s a gamble to start something like this with no knowledge that it will be successful. We are counting on our belief that there are other 1099’ers like us who want protection and financial security for themselves and their families.
That’s why we’re different. We are putting people before profit. We don’t have any shareholders or investors to answer to. It’s just two people building something that we wish existed for us when we were hustling as 1099 folks. We are doing this because we have a sense of duty to provide something that is desperately needed for the growing number of freelance workers- and we’re tired of hearing horror stories of our neighbors’ and friends’ lives being turned upside down because they didn’t have any financial security or protections when they needed them the most.
We believe that what we are doing is extremely important and that it is going to change the lives of our Guild Members and their families while allowing for more success, freedom, and creativity in their work.
It’s a bit of a passion project. :)
What if I’m already on my spouse’s health insurance?
You are certainly able to stay on your spouse’s plan if you like and choose to waive our coverage, but we would encourage you to look at how much your plan costs under your spouse. Most employers don’t contribute anything towards dependent health insurance premiums, so switching to one of our plans could save your household $500 per month! It’s worth checking out!
Another option would be to be “double covered”. Folks who are lucky enough to have double coverage typically don’t pay anything for doctor visits, services, or prescriptions, AT ALL. This could be a good option for folks who anticipate costly medical procedures or frequent visits.
If you’re hesitant to make the switch, please know that if you ever decided to leave Guilds with Benefits, that would trigger a “Qualifying Life Event”, which would allow you to go back onto your spouse’s plan. No strings here, just benefits if they’re useful to you. :)