I had this situation recently — between March and last Friday (10/18). Here are some things to consider from my experience. First, the money was very good. So good, it unexpectedly pushed me into a higher tax bracket. As you are 1099, you may have a little more control over how you recognize revenue, offset revenue with expenses, and take distributions. I was a W-2 for both of these gigs, so I had to adjust withholdings and found I may need to marry my partner a few months early so that he can shoulder some of the gains. Please don’t ignore your tax situation and plan for this extra income. Second, I had to let one of these projects “go” in the end. The work was excruciating and both projects were adversely affected by my inability to focus completely on one or the other. Both projects were in a nonstop state of crisis, which is why they both needed me in the first place — I am good at solving problems and mitigating crisis. But the personal toll on me was not small, and I have a sour attitude toward software projects now that I’m sure will take a few months to overcome. If you can truly contain the two projects to their 8-hour slots and are willing to put up with 16-hours a day to address them fairly, you are in a position I was not in. But I didn’t make a commitment to 16 hour days 5 days a week — I made a commitment to deliverables, and as those deliverable requirements and schedules kept shifting, it became very difficult to plan and keep things compartmentalized. I dumped one project that I could have saved if I hadn’t been working on two projects and picked the one that had the nicer people associated with it to focus on. I don’t think I’d allow myself to be put in this situation again, but I realize consultants juggle multiple clients’ projects all the time. They probably don’t get as involved as I do, or work more rigidly to a limited scope. If you don’t have the means to enforce scope (or bill according to changes in scope) you should probably pass on taking more work.

Joe T