By Brent E. Boling Feature Being in Business as a CWI Passing the CWI exam is only the first step to establishing yourself as a self-employed welding inspector After careful deliberation, you have made your choice: You are going to become an AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI). So you research this new opportunity to see what it takes to become an AWS CWI. You go online and buy study books and immerse yourself in them. You take the final plunge and travel to an AWS-sponsored seminar, then sit for the exam. Finally, the much awaited e-mail from AWS arrives: “Congratulations, you passed the CWI exam. The documents and stamp will follow in a few weeks.” Truly, congratulations are in order. But you soon find yourself facing the next question: Now what? How do I use it? Where do I find work? As an exam proctor, Section chairman, fabricator, and a CWI, I hear it all the time: What do I do now? A few questions are in order as you consider the options available to you at this point: 1. Did you or an employer pay for the certification to aid you in becoming an in-house inspector/quality control? If your employer paid, are you planning on staying with that company? 2. Are you planning to go to work for an inspection facility at whatever capacity for which they require the assistance of a CWI for welder qualification, procedure qualification testing, etc.? 3. Did you plan on traveling the world doing welding inspections on structural erections, pipelines, or one of a great variety of opportunities working for whomever needs another CWI? 4. Do you plan on just going it alone and starting your own business doing weld inspections? It is this last question that interests us for this article: how to go about being in business as a CWI. As a fabrication/erection 24 Inspection Trends / April 2013 contractor in the state of Arizona, I have come across many issues pertaining to this question. It needs to be stated that there will be many differences regarding exactly how this information applies to you and your circumstances. State laws vary on how one conducts business in a particular state, and then, of course, there are all the different Internal Revenue Service rules, OSHA rules, customer/company policies, AWS codes, local building jurisdiction rules, insurance requirements, etc. With those differences in mind, where do you begin? I have to admit that in some ways this article may create more questions than answers, but I hope they will be questions that will lead you to discovering the answers that apply specifically to you, your location, and your application. As a CWI, I have worked mainly as a third-party inspector representing the customer/engineer in the shop and/or field as its quality assurance person. While I run across many other inspectors doing the same thing, how we all got to that position varies widely. Many people believe all they have to do is show up as a CWI, inspect the welds, get a paycheck for the work, receive a 1099 tax form at the end of the year, and all is good. However, starting a business requires much more thought and attention to detail than that. Following are some scenarios and questions to consider as you plan your business strategy. Scenario 1. Most job site requirements and insurance responsibilities require the general contractor to make sure all employees and/or subcontractors representing them have the proper insurance coverage. The necessary insurance may include liability, workers’ compensation, worksite auto, and other types of coverage. At the company’s annual insurance audit, it will have to show proof of the subcontractor’s own coverage or pay a percentage based upon payments made to the subcontractor to have been covered under the general contractor’s policy. This trickles down to the working agreement between the inspection agency and the subcontracted inspector; is he or she properly insured? If the answer is no, everyone is in a hazardous position legally and financially if someone gets hurt, whether it be the inspector or someone he or she drops a tool on, runs over, knocks off the roof, or whatever. Are you properly covered by either your own insurance or the agency you are working for? One cost of being your own company — the all-important, selfemployed inspector — is insurance. And if you don’t have your own insurance, how do you get onto a job site if there is no agency umbrella that was preapproved by the customer and/or general contractor as to their insurance? Keep in mind the customer/general contractor’s insurance most likely wouldn’t cover you anyway, but no one asks for your proof of insurance because they think you work for the inspection agency. Don’t take a chance and leave yourself open to problems; make certain you are covered either by your own insurance or the agency you are working for. Scenario 2. Do you know the IRS rules regarding the requirements for being self-employed? What happens when you don’t have an employer deducting the taxes out of each check? Sure, that bigger check looks nice all year long, and you feel like you are getting paid what you are worth. Right? Maybe not. You start doing your own taxes and find out that even with many great deductions for certain
Inspection Trends | April 2013
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