3 Fundamentals for Freelance Success

Many freelancers first gravitate towards the freelance life because they crave the flexibility to decide when and where they work, and the freedom of being their own boss.

This blissful balance of control and creativity is very rewarding—once you find it. Uncovering the road to success, however, can be a daunting quest for new freelancers who are still taking their first few steps. Fortunately, you don’t have to look far for help.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been walking the freelance path for a while, these articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for entrepreneurs, executives, and freelancers—will help you navigate the path ahead. Read on to learn about three key fundamentals of freelance success.

Grow Your Freelance Business

Establishing a steady client base is one of the most important steps to keeping your freelance business healthy well into the future. If you don’t have multiple clients, a shift in workload from one client can have a significant impact on your income. As such, it can be vital for freelancers to set aside regular time to find new opportunities, get their brand out there, and establish a foothold for their business—all while doing great work for current clients.

“Using Upwork to Help Build Your Freelance Business” explores a broad range of best practices to help you make a positive splash with clients and expand your business on Upwork. It digs into helpful tips so you can optimize your presence on the site, learn how to stand out in the marketplace, and find new opportunities on the platform.

Boost Your Efficiency

Once you’ve built up a stable of clients and have a steady stream of work flowing in, finding ways to be more efficient with your time and energy is the next core element to boost your success in this business.

From finding new opportunities and juggling other tasks that business owners must handle to keeping the right balance between your incoming and outgoing workload, anything you can do to improve your processes will help your freelance business in the long run.

“For New Freelancers: 4 Ways to Work Smart on Upwork” offers some useful perspective on ways to stay efficient as you get started in the freelance world—all from someone who’s new to freelancing. The article covers how to get the most out of participating in the Upwork community, tips to help you learn how your prospective clients think, and ways to stay fresh so you’re delivering your best work.

Learn New Skills

As freelancing continues to grow in popularity, finding ways to stay competitive is more important than ever. If you want to stand out to prospective clients and keep your skills up to date, taking time to learn new things can be an effective way to continue growing your business. It’s also a good opportunity to offer additional services and provide more value to your existing clients, too.

“How Freelancers Can Keep Their Skills Fresh” underscores the value of carving out time to learn new skills and update your knowledge within your field. It explains why freelancers have to take their own initiative for ongoing education and outlines some of the benefits it can have for your business. The article offers tips on everything from finding the right online learning platforms to understanding what to look for to best fit your learning style.

Looking for more great content for growing your freelance business? Head over to the Hiring Headquarters to find our latest articles for freelancers.

The post 3 Fundamentals for Freelance Success appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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Hit It Out of the Park: Upwork Tips for Millennial and Generation Z Freelancers

The Singular Success of SQL

SQL has a brilliant future as a major figure in the pantheon of data representations.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7cz7U

The Hidden Dividends of Microservices

Microservices aren't for every company, and the journey isn't easy.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2autyUQ

Smart Cities

The aim is to improve cities' management of natural and municipal resources and in turn the quality of life of their citizens.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7cKjE

Adaptive Computation

John H. Holland's general theories of adaptive processes apply across biological, cognitive, social, and computational systems.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2autAfK

Skills for Success at Different Stages of an IT Professional's Career

The skills and knowledge that earn promotions are not always enough to ensure success in the new position.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7cL71

Computational Biology in the 21st Century

Algorithmic advances take advantage of the structure of massive biological data landscape.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2autHb4

Technical Perspective: Toward Reliable Programming for Unreliable Hardware

"Verifying Quantitative Reliability for Programs that Execute on Unreliable Hardware" by Carbin et al. addresses challenges related to a bug, how likely it is to occur, and how it will affect an application's behavior.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7dbu0

Verifying Quantitative Reliability for Programs that Execute on Unreliable Hardware

We present Rely, a programming language that enables developers to reason about the quantitative reliability of an application — namely, the probability that it produces the correct result when executed on unreliable hardware.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2autZi4

Technical Perspective: Why Didn't I Think of That?

Until now, the database in a Web application has been treated as a global variable, accessible to all. In "Ur/Web: A Simple Model for Programming the Web," Adam Chlipala suggests a better approach.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7cxwv

Ur/Web

This paper presents Ur/Web, a domain-specific, statically typed functional programming language that reduces the nest of Web standards for modern Web applications to a simple programming model.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2autDrO

Future Tense: Gut Feelings

Even a little genetic engineering can render us too comfortable for our own good.

from Communications of the ACM: Latest Issue http://ift.tt/2a7dg0U

Upwork Newswire: 4 Ways Virtual Reality Will Digitize Your Workspace

This bi-weekly column features the latest freelancing trends and Upwork’s role within them.

Fast Company | This Is What Your Future Virtual-Reality Office Will Be Like

Technology has already changed how and where we work. But as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies leave their “early, awkward adolescence,” their impact on how we work will be profound.

“When you add cameras to VR or AR displays or headsets, you start to discover the interactive person-to-person potential of the technology.”

In this Fast Company article, Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel identifies four ways VR is poised to change the workplace:

• Eliminate videoconferences in a way that will “make Skype calls look primitive.”
• Supercharge virtual whiteboards by putting them in share VR environments
• Move models from 2D to 3D, so you can interact with them
• Create powerful new ways to design and test new concepts

Today, VR technology can be clunky, and the hardware is both expensive and intrusive. When VR matures, however, it will remove barriers and erase distance as a barrier to working together—one pixel at a time.

Learn more about the virtual workspace of the future by viewing the full article here >

The post Upwork Newswire: 4 Ways Virtual Reality Will Digitize Your Workspace appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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Even Wal-Mart Is Demanding Safer Beauty Products – Shouldn’t You?

When a common consumer store like Wal-Mart is demanding safer beauty products, you know times are a-changin’ and for the better!

Wal-Mart has asked their suppliers to remove 8 chemicals believed to have “certain properties that can affect human health or the environment.” This request is all too telling and represents a new wave in clean beauty – one we’ve been crusading for since 2001!

Let’s explore which harmful chemicals made the list!

Wal-Mart Eliminates 8 Controversial Chemicals From Products

 

• Propylparaben – an inexpensive preservative found in many shampoos, conditioners and personal care products.

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• Butylparaben – another type of inexpensive preservative commonly found in cosmetics.

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  In 2008, a study on women with breast cancer found parabens in 98% of breast tissue tested. Parabens are thought to mimic estrogen in the human body, causing an imbalance of hormones and damage to the human endocrine system.

   

• Diethyl phthalate – an ingredient used to increase flexibility of plastic bottles.

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• Dibutyl phthalate – another plasticizer used to make plastic bottles more flexible.

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  Just like parabens, phthalates are known human endocrine disruptors. What’s worse? Many of your current plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles are made with these harmful chemicals. Phthalates leach estrogen-mimickers into your products, which are readily absorbed by your body when applied to the skin or scalp.

   

• Formaldehyde – recognized as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing ingredient) by WHO (World Health Organization) and IARC (International Agency For Research on Cancer). Remember all of the controversy surrounding keratin treatments using formaldehyde as an active ingredient? Let’s make sure that stays out of our products.

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• Triclosan – a synthetic chemical used in shampoos and conditioners as an anti-bacterial agent. Just like phthalates and parabens, this ingredient also disrupts the delicate hormone balance of humans.

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• Toluene – a colorless liquid found in nail polish and fragrance that has been linked to nervous system damage.

 

How did Wal-Mart choose which toxic ingredients to AVOID?

The Environmental Defense Fund advised them to identify harmful chemicals that had significant science backing.

Not only is Wal-Mart rewarding those who remove these chemicals from their products, they are requiring transparency. For those companies refusing to eradicate these targeted chemicals, they will be forced to add them to their warning labels by 2018.

Note: Since phthalates are not in the product itself (but rather the plastic container), many companies get away without listing them in their ingredients list.

Luckily, that’s all about to change.

While this is a giant leap in the right direction, we shouldn’t stop here. Keep demanding safer products and more transparency from these companies.

Especially in the professional beauty industry, as our vertical is even less regulated than the consumer market.

Tell us what other ingredients you hope get exposed next in the comments!

from Simply Organic Beauty http://ift.tt/2ayV8gd

Getting the Most Out of Social Media for Your Business

In recent years, social media has grown from a fun diversion into an effective tool to help brands instantly interact with their audience on a global scale. From offering more personalized customer service to launching new products, sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook offer many opportunities for businesses to engage with potential customers.

Social media marketing is where it’s at—but it also changes at a rapid clip. Making sure you get the most out of your efforts is imperative to growing your reach.

Ready to dive into the latest tips and trends to help leverage your social media presence? These articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for entrepreneurs, executives, and freelancers—will get you up to speed in no time.

Keeping up With Social Marketing Trends

Social media platforms and their audiences can be fickle. Strategies that work well on a given site one year may change wildly the next, which is why it’s important to stay abreast of any significant updates that can impact your marketing’s effectiveness. Changes to a platform’s existing features—or the addition of new feature—can sometimes make or break your social media battle plans. Facebook, for example, has undergone several notable shifts of late.

“3 Facebook Marketing Trends to Leverage in 2016” explores several new features and looks at how businesses can use them to enhance their reach on the popular networking site. The piece looks at three marketing tools and details how to best incorporate them into your social media plan.

Among the new features set to drive this year’s trends on the Facebook marketing front, these three hold ample promise:

1. Messenger Bots. Beyond helping with customer interactions via Facebook’s messenger feature, this handy tools will make it easier to automate tasks like online purchases and subscriptions via chat.
2. Instant Articles. This feature speeds up the loading time for articles on Facebook by allowing users to host the content on the company’s server, which can help put your marketing content in the hands of users before their attention wanes.
3. Live. With video being a huge component of Facebook, this new feature lets you tap into that by creating interactive live video experiences to engage your audience in real-time.

Rebooting When You’re Stuck

Without a solid plan to tackle marketing on the broad spectrum of social media platforms, it can be easy to miss your target. Having a consistent tone and approach across different social sites can help you cement your brand’s online personality while ensuring your customers feel connected. Rather than continue to spin your tires when things don’t seem to be working right, it’s useful to take a moment for analysis and reflection before moving forward.

“9 Reasons Your Social Media Efforts May Be Stuck” helps to identify what might not be working with your social media marketing approach and outlines suggestions to help you fix any issues and move forward. The article outlines problems that can hamper your social media effectiveness and offers solutions to help you improve your results.

Some of the more common issues highlighted include:

• Not posting on a consistent schedule
• Content that isn’t easily found
• Posts lack excitement and engaging content
• No clear social media policy for team members to follow

Using Imagery to Drive Traffic and Engagement

Striking visuals can be a major factor for standing out in the crowded social media space, and numerous studies show that images and strong graphics tend to get more social engagement online than written content.

That has, in part, driven the popularity of image-centric social platforms like Instagram. It’s important to know how to use Instagram to make sure you get the most traffic out of each post—especially given recent changes to the site’s visibility algorithm.

“How Will the Instagram Algorithm Impact Your Brand?” is a must-read for social media marketers who use the site to share content. This article details some of updates to the platform’s inner workings, which will have an affect on how, when, and where your content gets shown to users.

It offers tips for social media-savvy marketers, such as focusing on great image quality, using striking photography to boost engagement, exploring paid reach options, and using analytics to track the way users interact with your content.

Want to learn more about how to put social media marketing to best use for your brand? The Hiring Headquarters has plenty of articles and insights to help you out.

The post Getting the Most Out of Social Media for Your Business appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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A New Way to Attract More Work from Top Companies

You’ve probably heard about the rising demand for inbound marketing talent. If you’re in writing, design, SEO, social media, translation, sales, or marketing—companies desperately need your help.

How desperate are they?

This year on Upwork alone, marketing automation job posts rose by 40 percent, inbound marketing jobs jumped by 68 percent, and demand generation jobs soared by 206 percent!

Organizations from nonprofits to big-name brands can’t find enough help to accomplish their many marketing projects. In fact, hiring inbound-trained talent has become the number one hurdle to inbound marketing success.

So what are some freelancers doing to attract more of these top clients? They’re brushing up on their inbound marketing skills. And it’s easy because you can…

Get inbound marketing certified—for free!

Earn HubSpot Academy’s highly respected Inbound Certification for free. It’s a half-day, online course that you can take at any time.

Once certified, you can display your certification badge on your Upwork profile. When companies search for inbound marketing talent, the badge can help your profile stand out from the others.

Is Inbound Certification right for you?

Like most professionals, it’s important that your skills remain up to date. Being up to date means understanding the inbound marketing methodology. In today’s digital world, consumers can access the information they need with just a couple swipes of their thumb. That’s why traditional outbound—or push—marketing methods like ads and direct mail aren’t always the best way to reach them.

Inbound marketing works well because it doesn’t fight for the consumer’s attention. Instead, it drives consumers voluntarily to companies by using a combination of pull marketing techniques such as SEO, content marketing, and social media.

With your skills and Inbound Certification, you can help organizations attract their ideal prospects, increase brand awareness, drive traffic to their site or store, generate quality leads, and close more sales.

Once certified, you’ll have knowledge of how SEO, blogging, landing pages, lead nurturing, conversion analysis, and reporting combine to form an effective inbound marketing strategy. You’ll also have a solid understanding of inbound marketing basics including: website optimization, landing page anatomy, and inbound sales.

You can earn more consistent work with exciting clients today

As you saw earlier, there’s already a heavy demand for inbound marketing talent. And that demand will continue rising as more companies adopt these techniques.

So help your Upwork profile stand out to top clients who are eager for your expertise. Start your Inbound Certification today—it’s free!

The post A New Way to Attract More Work from Top Companies appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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Oway Stylist Spotlight: Jenn Kidd

Through our social media forums, Simply Organic Beauty strives to create a community of Holistic Hair Stylists who can share their passion, experience, and endless creativity.

Once a month we put the spotlight on one of our community members and let them share their passion with you.

Our July 2016 Organic Way Hair Colorist is Jenn Kidd! She’s a Hair Stylist at Apotheclaire Salon in Akron, Ohio – where they take an eco-responsible approach to hair, beauty and personal care. Learn more about Jenn in our exclusive interview with her below!

Get to know Jenn!

How did you become interested in becoming an organic hair colorist?

Quite simply, I became sick.

I developed serious allergies in the salon that were escalating into other symptoms. After years of trying everything, including using steroids on my hands every night and covering them with gloves, I knew it was time to make some changes. Because of the severity of my sensitivities, I knew my only two options were to find a space where I was in complete control of what was being used or to quit doing hair.

That is how Apotheclaire came to be and that is how I discovered Oway. I was immediately drawn to Oway because of the packaging, let’s be honest – it’s fantastic. I did lots of due diligence and research and testing of other “organic hair color” lines. None of them fit what we were looking for like Oway did.

On a side note – I used to have to take a prescription antihistamine on a daily basis to be able to work. I have not had to take one since making the switch!

You have posted some beautiful balayage work. Do you have any tips or tricks for using Hbleach when lightening? Do you have some “go to” Hcolor formulas for when your toning?

Thank you! I am crazy about hbleach. I love the consistency of it and how soft in both color and feel the results are. I am a cautious bleacher and I refuse to compromise anyone’s hair, ever. Using hbleach allows me to push the lightening process a little bit further without the need of any -plex products, knowing how gentle the process is.

When doing balayage, I always like to keep a dry tint brush on my tray and use it at an angle to diffuse and blend any strong lines. This gives extra control and adds extra detailing.

I’m not finding toners as necessary for correcting as much as I am loving the way they can enhance. I have always loved a warm / cool balance with hair color and the .31 series provides perfect tone for that dimension!

Oway has an extensive retail line. Can you tell us your top three picks?

Glamshine Cloud– I spray it on my hands to put in the hair and it gives me extra control over placement.
Flux Potion – That is our swiss army knife of products at the shop.
Scuplting Mist – We do not use aerosols in the shop. So thankful for this non-aerosol gem

Do you have any predictions for 2016 Fall Trends in hair color and hair style?

Always! I think that people are looking for new ways to change up their look with ease. Playing with texture will be huge coming into the fall, on both short and long hair. There are a million ways to get great texture without using heat tools and I love sharing them with clients.

Long hair? Sleep in a braid or twist hair into a bun before going to sleep. Wake up and shake it out. Throw some boho pomade in there and voila! Playing with an extreme side part or adding in vintage accessories are also a fun way to change it up.

I believe color is going to start shying away from all of the bold, direct dyes and steer more towards emulating nature. More gingers, softer blondes and dimensional browns with both warm and cool tones combined. Warm for the winter and cool in the summer!

As a member of our Oway Holistic Hair Stylist Forum Group on Facebook, can you tell us how it has helped or benefited you with your craft?

It has been a great tool to help myself and my co-stylist learn the line. I love that we have such a valuable real-life, in-salon resource to look at and learn from. I’ve been doing this for ten years and switching color lines was intimidating, no matter how well I knew color. I called Rebecca Gregory one day when I was especially freaking out and she talked me through it. The Facebook group and technical support offered by Simply Organic has been priceless. We look at it and are inspired by everyone’s work on a daily basis!

How does your personal style influence your work on clients?

I wear what I want without ever giving a thought to what others will think of my style, because I like it. I truly believe that if you feel great, you can pull anything off with your look. I am not a fan of the “if you’re this size you can’t have short hair” or “if you’re this age you can’t have long hair” rules that some people believe. I hope that I can inspire people to be a little more carefree and wear whatever makes them feel their best!

Check out Jenn's work with Oway!

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Join Jenn and other like-minded stylists in our Organic Way Holistic Hair Colorist Group here!

from Simply Organic Beauty http://ift.tt/29K7oxd

How to Ace Your Next Client Interview

Long-distance client interviews have a unique dynamic: It’s your chance to convince the client you are the best business to partner with for their project, and you need to pitch yourself without being in the same room—via video, voice, or text.

How can you manage the remote interview? How do you convince a client they should choose you over the other service providers they are chatting with? According to Upwork’s Facebook community, the keys are professionalism and effective communication. Here are some great winning interview techniques, from other freelance professionals, that can help.

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“Timely responses communicate professionalism and create a sense of urgency. Set proper expectations and be concise with your communication unless asked to elaborate on something.”
— Tobz Gorospe

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“The main points for interview success: Study the job description and research the needs of the client, list all the important matters that need to be discussed, dress up properly, and take down notes during the interview.”
— Lex Iñosa

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“Provide solid solutions at the interview itself. This means you need to have an overview of the project even before the interview and think of ways on how to improve it. Analyze it beforehand so you will show to the client how well you are adept at handling projects of the kind he is giving. Also if he gives you an overview of the project at the interview itself, ASK QUESTIONS. This shows enthusiasm to implement the project successfully and gives you better knowledge on the project itself. These methods build trust and demonstrate that you know what you are talking about, and that you have a mastery of your field.”
— John Ernest Guadalupe

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“Points to prepare for an interview: Study the job, particularly the qualifications required. Prepare a point for each qualification that you have experience with, and an impressive thought for those that you are not yet experienced. Make sure you have CONFIDENCE (since we work online, confidence is heard in our voice so it’s important that you’re prepared), ENTHUSIASM (an attitude showing you want the job by asking questions about the job–it gives employers the feeling that you’re easy to work with at the same time very interested with the position), and FLEXIBILITY (clients love to work with [multi-talented] freelancers). Good luck!”
— Klarissa Castillo

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“I make it clear to clients that they are making the best decision hiring me because of my attitude. My skills are just a bonus. There’s very tight competition for a single job post, imagine everyone having the same skills, and there even might be better skilled ones out there. But, at the end, the person with the ‘right attitude’ will stand out.”
— Kristine Alexis William

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What are your best interview techniques? Tell us in the comments!

Editor’s note: Responses edited for grammar, spelling, and clarity. The statements above are those of their authors and do not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.

The post How to Ace Your Next Client Interview appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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Perspectives on the Future of Work: July 18

Upwork’s weekly column brings you the latest news on hiring and working with freelancers, freelancing, and the future of work.

Fast Company | Are Empty High-End Restaurants The Next Coworking Trend?

In metropolitan areas with large freelance and entrepreneurial communities, the creation of dedicated coworking spaces has been a growing trend that gives individuals an opportunity to work in a collaborative environment and share resources. Much like the rapid growth we’ve seen in the freelance workforce in recent years, coworking continues to evolve in interesting ways, too, freelancer Susan Johnston Taylor reports.

To save money and make better use of building resources, some entrepreneurs are experimenting with a new approach by adapt existing spaces for use as functional coworking environments. Their prime target? Restaurants and cafes—during non-business hours.

“Having a place that’s relaxed and comfortable is very good for creative type work,” said CoworkCafe co-founder David James. “There’s a certain feeling that you get in a place like this you can’t get in an office-type building. They really love the feeling of the space; they don’t want to be in a traditional office setting.”

Working in a creative environment with ambiance and a unique vibe that’s very different from typical office culture is one benefit, writes Taylor, but these arrangements also utilize existing furniture, tables, and shared resources for a cost savings, too. And there are other perks to partnering with restaurants.

“There’s a different mood when you leave your home office versus a restaurant,” said NYC content strategist Angela Pham. “I can either leave when I’m done with my work or I have a choice of staying for happy hour. It doesn’t feel like I’ve left a long workday.”

Freelancers Union | Take an “Alterna-cation”

Lamenting the quick passing of summer’s warm rays and those fleeting opportunities to enjoy being outdoors can be a common complaint for freelancers who find themselves swamped with work. When going on a fancier getaway for some much-needed R&R isn’t a realistic option, creative entrepreneur Mica Scalin says taking an “alterna-cation” might be your next best option.

“Taking intentional time off from your day-to-day affairs could be the most important thing you invest in all year–and for creative professionals all the more so,” said Scalin, citing scientific studies that underscore the positive impact vacation time can have on your overall health, wellness, and productivity levels.

“Beyond that, for creative freelancers, the opportunity for off-task thinking and self-reflection that vacations provide is key to generating the new perspectives that keep your work fresh.”

Scalin suggests not putting off taking time for yourself and offers a few recommended options to consider as alternatives to a more traditional vacation, including:

1. Day-cation. Try taking one day a week off to unwind completely. If that’s too frequent to fit your schedule, once a month is also a good starting point.
2. Stay-cation. Invite an out-of-town friend to visit and unwind with them by showing them unique sites, restaurants, and local hotspots.
3. Health-cation. Spend a week taking time to tend to your health and wellbeing, whether that means exercise, yoga, a spa, or some other body and mind energizing activity.

What changes have you noticed in the way we work? Tell us about them in the comments below!

The post Perspectives on the Future of Work: July 18 appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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Harnessing the Power of Presentations for Your Business

The way we communicate ideas often makes a tremendous difference in how effective our message is. In business, presentations can be a vital tool to help you get results—whether you’re seeking project approval from a CEO, generating sales, or attempting to land new clients. A poorly executed presentation can cause you more harm than good, which is why it’s crucial to know how to make them captivating so they resonate with your audience.

Ready to learn how to create the most effective presentations for your business or brand? These articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for entrepreneurs, executives, and freelancers—are a great starting point.

3 Ingredients for a Great Presentation

Presentations sometimes get a bad rap, especially in the business world. Many come off as dull and overstuffed with text and minutia. This can lead to information overload, spurring your audience to tune you out and miss the good stuff. But with the right approach, you can build presentations that connect with and influence your audience instead of snoozers that risk putting them to sleep.

“Creating Presentations with the Power to Change the World” drives home the importance of weaving engaging elements into your presentations to amplify their success. The human brain is built for visual learning, and the article suggests you make good use of photos, charts, and graphics. This, among several other important factors, can increase the likelihood your audience will retain the information you’re presenting.

To ensure your presentations have the impact you’re looking for, incorporate these three suggested elements:

1. Good verbal communication. How you come across as a speaker sets the tone and energy of your presentation. Being personable, charismatic, and even using a touch of humor can boost your audience’s focus and engagement.
2. Striking visuals. Well-designed slides use limited text and bold imagery that help drive home your main talking points and support your underlying arguments. Consider putting as much thought into your slide designs as you do the presentation itself.
3. Emotional engagement. Tapping into emotion can increase engagement with your audience, making them more likely to absorb your message.

Using Color and Smart Design to Full Effect

Thoughtful design matters, but going overboard can overwhelm your audience and make a lot more work for yourself than is necessary. Too much text, hard-to-read fonts, disjointed image layout, and clashing colors can all hamper your efforts, too.

Anything that reduces the time it takes for your audience to grasp your message is worth implementing, and careful choice of color paired with lean design is an optimal approach to consider.

“Lean Presentation Design & the Importance of Color” explains some of the negative effects poor design can have on your presentation and offers suggestions for using color and simplicity to spruce up your plans.

Using lots of bright examples, the article walks through appropriate color schemes for your slides, touches on how different colors can evoke certain emotional responses, and shows how to use PowerPoint’s color palette in an effective way.

Looking for more tips and articles to help you—and your audience—avoid “death by PowerPoint”? The Hiring Headquarters is packed with insightful information that can help you craft a great brand image.

The post Harnessing the Power of Presentations for Your Business appeared first on Upwork Blog.

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How To Use Other People’s Money To Buy Real Estate

 

 

 

You’ve Heard Of The Zero Money Down Real Estate Investing?

Does The Word JV or Joint Venture Comes To Mind?

How Does It Work?

How Do I Find The Investors To Partner Up?

 

There’s a great book out there, “Money, People, Deal” by Stefan Aarnio.  Basically it says that if you have 2 of the 3 (Money, People, Deal), the 3rd one will come.  So if you have the deal and the people, the money will come OR if you have the money and the people, the deal will come.

Sometimes, you ONLY just need to find the DEAL and the other 2 will show up.  “If you build it, they will come” from The Field of Dreams.  In real estate investing, if you find the deal, often times, the people and money will come to you.  

So, how does it work?  

Many people ask me, 

 

But I Don’t Have The Money

 

It can still work if you don’t have the money.  The investors will put up the money and you will then do ALL THE WORK and you’d take a cut of the profits.  That can be negotiated depending on a variety of factors, how lucrative the deal is, your track record, etc…

 

What If I Don’t Have A Track Record?

The post How To Use Other People’s Money To Buy Real Estate appeared first on Gary Wong Realty Vancouver, BC.

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Introducing Upwork Engineering

Hi, my name is Han, and together with Stratis (co-founder of oDesk), we lead engineering at Upwork. I’m here to kick off a series of regular blog posts written by Upwork engineers to give you a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes. In this first article, I’ll talk about some of the technical challenges we’re facing as a company and a bit about the team of engineers you’ll be hearing from in future posts.

For some background, Upwork is the world’s largest freelancer marketplace by transaction volume, enabling over $1B of work annually. In any given week, over 1M hours are billed through our platform. In plain terms, clients rely on Upwork to get work done, and freelancers rely on Upwork to make a living. This means that every engineer who works at Upwork carries a lot of responsibility. Millions of people count on us to build and maintain the best freelancer platform possible. It has to be easy to use, fast, and stable.

The Upwork platform today is composed of two main parts: the core foundation of oDesk, which was launched in 2003, and the company’s new microservices-based platform, which we started to integrate in 2015. Like many early-2000 era Internet companies, oDesk was a monolithic system based on a three-tier architecture.

One of the fundamental limitations of such a system is the dependencies it can create between teams. Because of the interwoven nature of the solution, monolithic systems have a tendency to couple concerns between modules and ultimately between teams. As more teams become coupled, the overhead of coordination increases. In turn, this decreases developer productivity and ultimately impacts a business’s ability to remain nimble and stable. In the event that problems occur, it can be challenging to recover the site because of the cross-team dependencies.

For these reasons and many more, Upwork began its transition from a legacy system to one that is service oriented. Our journey so far hasn’t been smooth, but it’s a rite of passage that many companies go through.

Another big shift is our migration from a physical data center to the cloud. We’re confident that our approach is sound, as other large companies, such as Netflix, chose a similar approach when faced with the same dilemma.

The talented engineers at Upwork are making all this possible. I joined Upwork a year ago, well into the company’s platform transition effort. As an engineer, I was attracted by the once-in-a-lifetime challenge to be part of a site modernization effort for a company that had already achieved billion-dollar transactional scale. And to be part of the company’s incredible mission to create an online workplace for the world. I knew that there would be ups and downs along the way, so it was important to me that I joined an amazing team to tackle this challenge.

Time, scope, and engineering resources are three factors that limit the projects of most companies. Shockingly in my year at Upwork, I’ve discovered those rules don’t always apply to us. Unlike a traditional company that employs on-premise engineers only, we use a hybrid approach, with on-site and remote engineers. We’re headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Mountain View and San Francisco. Our location, which is home to other large tech companies, allows us to source some of the best local engineers.

We also use the Upwork platform to source top remote talent. By combining local and remote workers, we defy the physics of a traditional hiring approach. Instead of spending months looking for engineers, we have the capability to burst our team out and fill roles within days. As a result, the Upwork engineering team is composed of over 350 engineers. Of which, 270 are remote, hailing from 40 countries around the world.

Does this sound like something you’d like to be part of? If it does, take a look at our engineering openings both on the Upwork platform and on our Careers page.

If you’re happy where you are, you can use the Upwork platform yourself to add quality talent to your team and hire faster than your competitors.

In future articles, you’ll hear from engineers at Upwork who will discuss how we maintain a cohesive engineering team when part of the work is done remotely, the technical details behind our modernization journey, and our contributions to the open-source community.

Stay tuned,
Han

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All New: A Resource Dedicated to Helping Your Freelance Business Thrive

What’s the best and toughest part about owning a freelance or other small business?

You’re the boss.

It’s great answering to yourself and running your own days. But it also means you need to figure out everything on your own.

Things like healthcare, co-working spaces, figuring out tax write-offs, small loans…

We understand you’ve got a lot on your plate. So to make your life easier, we consolidated a list of reputable service providers who specialize in helping freelancers and other small businesses with the nitty gritty.

Check out the new Business Resources Page here.

It’s full of links most freelancers and other small businesses need. Plus, many offer special discounts for being an Upwork member. Such as discounts on incorporating, 50% off of Intuit QuickBooks Self-Employed, affordable insurance plans for freelancers, and a whole lot more.

See them all on the new Business Resources Page.

Check back often because we’re constantly adding new resources and discounts designed to help you and your freelancing business thrive. Plus, we’ll be rolling out local resources soon for freelance and other small business owners outside the U.S.

And be sure to tell us what you think. We’re always happy to gather resources that will help you the most.

Running a business isn’t easy, so it’s nice to get a little help. You never know how your life could be just a little easier, or how you could save a little more money. So don’t miss out—check out the Business Resources Page now.

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Upwork Newswire: The Epic New Battle Recruiters Face for Highly-Skilled Talent

This bi-weekly column features the latest freelancing trends and Upwork’s role within them.

The Epic New Battle Recruiters Face for Highly-Skilled Talent (Fast Company)

Move over specialists, now there are “comprehensivists.” These are individuals who provide skills and experience usually found in a team of three to four people. As more pieces of complex assignments can be handled by a single person, comprehensivists may be in higher demand.

And these multi-disciplinary workers are going freelance.

But that’s not the only challenge companies face. Talented knowledge workers in more traditional industries—including law and finance—are trading jobs for 1099s too. This means…

The new workforce may be a battle between B-player company teams and A-player freelancers.

How can hiring managers and recruiters keep their companies staffed with A-players? Find out by reading the full article here.

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Top 7 Log Home Floor Plan Mistakes and How to Avoid them

We’ve all done it at one time or another. Picked something, a car, a piece of clothing or a meal, that we think we are going to love and find that we don’t. We don’t want you to make the same mistake with your log home floor plan. Here are the top 10 most common floor plan mistakes people make and how to avoid them.

Thinking every floor plan is right for you

If you take a few moments to scan Houzz, Pinterest or the latest Log Home Magazine you will find dream homes by the hundreds. Even though we would love to live in many of the homes we see it’s important to pick the floor plan that works for you and your family. Picture your family living in the home on a day-to-day basis. Is going up three sets of stairs to get to your master bedroom going to be exhausting or will the view be worth it? Or, would you prefer everything is on one level in a rancher style home? Think about how you plan to use the space in your home after you have lived in it for three or six months. This will help you see that a particular floor plan may sound like a great idea now but may only cause you frustrations in the future.

Not having the room sized to fit your furniture

Sometimes space can be limited. If you are building any smaller sized rooms or designing a tight staircase it’s important to take in account the type of furniture you have. Sometimes part of the joy of building a new home is all the new furniture you can buy to go along with it and other times you want to keep using what you currently have. For example, if you have a large custom bed, moving it up two flights of stairs may be a bit of a challenge or require some creative thinking. Taking into account any signature or key furniture pieces can help ensure you’re not left figuring out how to get something into a room after the fact.

Not having the right floor plan for your new lifestyle

For many homeowners building their dream log home may cause a shift in their lifestyle. They may start to cook outdoors more or want to entertain more. Consider what changes you might need to make to allow yourself to cook more outside or how your home might feel when it’s fully occupied with company over. Where would the guest room and bathroom be situated? Is it easy for you to transition between the kitchen and the barbeque area?

Building for now instead of the for future

Have you ever purchased a sports car because you either don’t have kids yet or because they just moved out of the house only to realize that a couple years later you’re expecting or have grandkids on the way? The same thing happens with a home. It’s great to think that right now there might only be two of you living in your home but what about five years from now? Will kids or grandkids be on the way? Having that extra guest room may come in handy and save you from having to give up the man cave or office space instead.

Focusing on the décor instead of the floor plan

Sometimes when you’re building your dream home it’s nice to tour show homes to get inspiration for new layouts, features and other ideas. It’s one of the best ways to help you determine if you really like it or just liked the concept in the magazine. One key mistake many people make is that they don’t actually look at the floor plan but instead get caught up in the décor and staging of the home. Don’t get caught up in the décor as your furniture will look much different in the space. Instead, focus on the flow of the rooms, how you transition around the home and how much space there is in each room.

Not asking questions about your floor plan

After you have started to get some clear ideas of what you want your log home floor plan to look like, your design team will start drafting up plans. For many people these plans look like they are written in a completely different language. Don’t be intimidated by this and feel free to ask what certain things mean. Understanding how doors open, what the clearance is and the room sizes will be important for you to have a house that feels like home.

Not aligning your floor plan to your property

We all like to mix things up in our homes. You may have intended for your office to be in one space and your main living room to be in another only to mix it up in a few years. It’s easy for you to mix and match rooms around but you can’t change the location. Selecting a floor plan that complements your property will help you ensure that no matter what you change in the future you will always be happy with the view. A couple of things to consider are road and streets that might not be busy now but in 5 or 10 years will development in the area increase the traffic? If you have wide open spaces around you will they potentially turn into subdivisions and change your view? Or does the sun shine right into your home year round, if so this could warm up certain areas of your house making them harder to keep cool. If your bedroom is sun facing and you have hot summers with no air conditioning you will want to find ways to cool the space.

To help you avoid any potential mistakes with your floor plan it’s important to ask your designers as many questions as you have, look at tons of ideas and to be open to new layouts and designs. Check out our log home floor plans and log home galleries for some inspiration as well.

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The Patchery: How An Online Agency Transformed One Entrepreneur’s Business

Need technical help getting your business off the ground? Here’s how one entrepreneur recovered from a frustrating website launch with the help of an online agency.

When the idea for The Patchery, an online “design-it-yourself” kids’ clothing store, came to Amber Gunn Thomas, she couldn’t shake it.

“I had been making clothes with hand-picked fabrics for my kids,” shared Amber. “Everyone kept saying ‘Amber, you have to sell these!’”

She knew the concept was unique. But when she and her husband, who is a software engineer, discussed it, they realized that it also would be technically complex to build a clean site consumers could use to choose from hundreds of patterns and designs to create custom clothing.

In order to succeed, they knew they would need to invest in experts who could bring Amber’s ideas to life. With the risks involved, the idea kept Amber up at night—but she was confident they could make it work. So in 2013, she left her corporate job in marketing and advertising and jumped right in.

“We did what most people would do,” Amber said. “We hired a reputable, local website agency and got started right away.”

Things went well at first, but the site development took much longer than planned. Amber was very understanding, as she knew the importance of getting the site right from the start. However, when it finally launched after 10 months of development, they realized that the site still needed many bug fixes and enhancements.

After the launch–and with the original project based budget exhausted–Amber realized that the hourly rate of the local agency was not in line with her start-up budget. “It felt like we were being billed $1,000 per month just to maintain the relationship, and no actual work was being done to fix and improve the site,” Amber said.

“We quickly saw that a traditional agency relationship was not going to work for us,” Amber said.

Patching the site

An entrepreneur they had met locally recommended Upwork. “It was scary at first,” Amber said. “Our local agency had access to absolutely everything. I couldn’t imagine giving someone on the other side of the world that we had not met personally our IP address and passwords.”

But Amber needed help and was optimistic that taking a different approach would be a better fit. To start, she posted a small job on Upwork for help fixing bugs and making some minor site enhancements. After interviewing a number of freelancers, Amber hired iKantam, an agency based in Belarus, because they not only offered expertise in the areas she needed, but demonstrated impressive communication skills throughout the interview process.

“It changed the course of our business,” Amber said. “Our account manager, Alex, and his team were nimble and fast, while still providing high-quality work.”

The initial small project grew into a complete site redesign which iKantam completed in three months—seven months quicker than the first agency. “Alex and his team brought a level of expertise that I had never received before,” Amber said.

“Our motto is ‘we are good listeners.’” Alex said. “We try to find the best situation for both sides and always deliver quality.”

Since launching, the site has been working seamlessly with just a few small QA issues per month. With the redesign complete, Amber plans to continue working with iKantam in the future, and is exploring other ways to leverage Upwork for support as her business grows.

Benefits of tapping into the global marketplace

There are many benefits to hiring an online agency that can bring your business ideas to life.

Top Expertise: Because iKantam’s team has expertise in more than 10 disciplines, they were able to give Amber all of the help she needed, without her having to spend time searching for additional technical resources.

Efficiency: Because of the time difference between the U.S., Amber’s main market, and Belarus, iKantam was able to work on the site while traffic was low.

Fill a Short-Term Talent Gap: When there isn’t the need or budget for a full-time employee to manage a website, engaging an online agency gives small businesses like Amber’s access to a team of experts who can ramp support up or down as needed.

Project Oversight: Because iKantam managed the project for her, Amber was able to step back and focus on other areas of the business while they developed the site.

Value: Because hiring an agency online was more cost effective than hiring a local agency, Amber estimates she received three times the value she did the first time around—which enabled her to reinvest those savings right back into her business.

Personal Connection: Working with iKantam gave Amber a unique chance to forge personal relationships with people from a different part of the world. “Although we often were only relying on Skype, email, and emojis to communicate, I had a glimpse into their lives. The only downside was that we couldn’t pop champagne together when the site launched!”
Wondering about the best way to fulfill your project’s needs? See how to know when your project needs a team.

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Tips for Optimizing Your Distributed Engineering Team

For companies keen on optimizing productivity and agility as they grow, using a distributed team model is an excellent starting point. But what if you’re already using distributed teams and want to boost their efficiency even further?

These articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for entrepreneurs, executives, and freelancers—offer tips for optimizing your operation and getting the most value out of your distributed team.

Shorten Dev Cycles by Combining Complementary Business Practices

Sometimes, a powerful way to streamline operations is by pairing complementary business practices. Such as combining Agile development and distributed engineering teams—both are lean approaches for tackling software projects. The combination helps companies increase productivity while engaging resources around the globe. The result: faster production cycles, concurrent coding, and the ability to continuously deploy with fewer roadblocks and less burnout. Read more.

4 Tips to Effectively Scale Your Distributed Engineering Team

You’ve built a distributed engineering team that’s working together smoothly. This could be one to 100 people located anywhere worldwide. Now you’re ready to increase your success and scale your team. A common mistake is trying to remain the information hub. In the beginning, everything naturally passed through you, but as your team grows, this practice may slow work down, lengthen decision times, and put more stress on you. Instead, use a more scalable approach by empowering other members to make decisions regarding everything from the product to adding new members to the team. See more tips.

For more about building and optimizing a distributed engineering team, check out articles on the Hiring Headquarters.

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Guaranteed Best Ways To Sell Your Home For Top Dollar

 

 

 

Is It Decluttering?

Is It Depersonalization?

What About Staging?

How About Curb Appeal?

 

Is it just one of them?  NO.

To be fair, it’s a combination of them.  

Tried, Tested and True.  These are the most classic ways to sell your home for top dollar.

Decluttering:  ever walked into a cluttered house, the owners are hoarders and you are just overwhelmed by the amount of STUFF they have.  Your focus is on the STUFF meaning your focus is NOT on the home!  Buyers are quickly disgusted by the amount of garbage or stuff homeowners have even if the buyers themselves are hoarders.  Buyers are not Realtors so a majority of them aren’t able to see beyond the junk.

Depersonalization:  have you ever gone to an open house and your eyes just started looking at the homeowners picture frames, “oh that guy looks familiar”, “oh that girl is cute”, “nice, they took a picture with the Canucks”…  Once again, buyers are distracted and they focus on the memorabilia and pictures instead of the home.  That’s why when you walk into a showroom at a developer’s presentation center, the picture frames always have abstract pictures so that you can imagine putting in your own family pictures in those picture frames.

The post Guaranteed Best Ways To Sell Your Home For Top Dollar appeared first on Gary Wong Realty Vancouver, BC.

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Perspectives on the Future of Work: July 4

Upwork’s weekly column brings you the latest news on hiring and working with freelancers, freelancing, and the future of work.

The (Virtual) Future of Work? (Co.Design)

For some, the benefits of virtual reality (VR) goes beyond common applications in the game and entertainment industries. Co.Design senior writer Mark Wilson found tech companies are using VR to enhance how people work.

In his experimental profile piece, Wilson explores the new VR productivity app, Space. “I’m at my standing desk, typing this note. But instead of looking at my 24-inch monitor as usual, I’m wearing an HTC Vive Headset. I’m surrounded by six giant, 70-ish-inch screens. To my left, a small tower of YouTube videos. On my right, CNN’s latest on Brexit. And in the middle? I can look up to see my Gmail and down to see this very document sitting below,” explains Wilson.

As VR continues to mature and evolve, this kind of application is expected to develop into a promising tool for online collaboration, multitasking, and virtual productivity. At this stage, working from a virtual desktop has its challenges. Wilson’s neck ached from staring at improperly angled screens, found the sheer number of screens too distracting, and had trouble typing on a keyboard that didn’t exist. He concludes, “I don’t know if this setup is efficient…it’s stupidly amazing, however.”

7 Ways Freelancers Can Get the Right Deal on Healthcare (Time)

Despite increased flexibility and protections, healthcare remains a major expense for today’s self-employed professionals. To make sure you’re covered properly, Time Money Reporter Kara Brandeisky suggests these seven do’s and don’ts for freelancers.

1. Do learn the basics. Go to Healthcare.gov to learn about the Affordable Care Act and compare plans.
2. Do take advantage of subsidies. You may qualify for subsidies or you can shop for insurers directly through sites like eHealth.
3. Do go for higher deductible plans. If typical premiums are too high, consider higher deductible plans—they’ll lower your monthly premium cost.
4. Do plan for taxes. Depending on your income, you may have to pay back a portion of your premium credit.
5. Don’t be tempted with short-term health plans. They don’t offer the same coverage as traditional insurance and they don’t meet the Affordable Care Act coverage requirements.
6. Don’t go into sticker shock. The prices may seem high, but in addition to the tax penalty for not having insurance, paying for healthcare without insurance costs more.
7. Don’t miss the deadline. If you don’t have insurance yet for 2016, you’ve already missed the open enrollment period. But go to Healthcare.gov to see if you qualify for exceptions.

 

3 Ways Freelancers Can Save For Retirement  (The Alternative Daily)

Especially when starting out, freelancers often worry more about making their monthly bill payments than saving for retirement. And saving requires more discipline because contributions aren’t automatically taken out of paychecks.

Until you can increase your savings significantly, these three options help ease you into saving for a comfortable retirement. And they help you save on taxes in the short run. Be sure to seek professional advice for details about qualifications and limitations.

1. Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP-IRA). You can put away as much as 20 percent of your net income from self-employment. You’re taxed on the distributions once you start making withdrawals in retirement.
2. Roth IRA. You can’t deduct contributions to Roth IRAs, but you aren’t taxed on the distributions once you start making withdrawals in retirement. Unlike SEP or traditional IRAs, there’s no age limit at which you must start making withdrawals.
3. Solo 401(k). This is also known as an individual 401(k) or self-employed 401(k). You can include your spouse in a solo 401(k). Freelancers may also contribute up to 25 percent of earned net income as an employer contribution.

What changes have you noticed in the way we work? Tell us about them in the comments below!

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