Tuesday, January 30, 2018
3 Compelling Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Freelance Accountant
Running a small business can leave you on the fence about acquiring professional services like those of an accountant: You might not be big enough to have an in-house finance department, but the DIY route isn’t appealing, either.
There comes a point for every small business where you should ask yourself: “Could the time I spend doing my own books be better spent doing something else?” If accounting isn’t your strength, it doesn’t just take time to do the work. There’s also a potential opportunity cost: It’s taking your focus away from the things you do best, like being a great leader and growing your business.
Accountants don’t need to be in-house—in fact, you don’t even need to meet them face-to-face. So you aren’t limited to the accountants in your neighborhood. There is a real chance that the person with the most relevant knowledge and experience for your business might even be across the country!
Need convincing? Here are three compelling reasons to hire an accountant for your business.
It’s a shame to miss out on a tax break
Are you aware of all the government regulations that govern your business when it comes to filing your taxes? Are you getting the most from your tax write-offs? And are you sure that the expenses you are reporting are eligible?
As your business grows—and regulations change—keeping track of the answers to these questions can get increasingly difficult. A small business tax accountant can ensure you stay on track and out of trouble with Uncle Sam all while helping you get the tax breaks you’re entitled to.
Make payments on time and correctly
Keeping the people you depend on happy is a cornerstone of success. And that means paying any employees, contractors, or vendors you work with on time. Accounts payable and payroll may seem straightforward on the surface, but the more your business grows the more complicated it can be.
Further to this, it’s important to have a full understanding of worker classification and who needs to receive a W2 or 1099 form. Misclassification can get you in a boatload of trouble—something a payroll specialist (or even an attorney or HR specialist) can help you avoid. According to Columbia Law School, penalties for misclassification can range from $5,000-$25,000 per violation. And this doesn’t include the associated legal costs or the amounts that might be due to the IRS. If you need more convincing, check out this personal account.
Prepare for growth and secure financing
You’re in business to make money and should have systems in place to help you make the most money in the most efficient way possible. If you don’t have those operating procedures in place yet, an accountant can look at your company cash flow and make suggestions for improvements, set you up with the best accounting and inventory management software for your needs, and consult on the best pricing strategies for your product or service. They can also provide financial forecasts to help you make better-informed decisions for future purchasing and growth.
Big steps toward growth—such as large investments to help scale resources or production—can also involve applications and pitches for financing. A freelance accountant who specializes in growth can help you prepare your business plan, lead you to avenues for potential funding, and improve your odds of getting approved.
Ready to engage a freelance accountant? Get step-by-step tips to help you find the right accountant for your business needs.
The post 3 Compelling Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Freelance Accountant appeared first on Upwork Blog.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
4 Tips to Professional Development As a Business Owner
A lifelong learner is one who takes the opportunity to learn through all kinds of situations whether they’re formal or informal learning circumstances. When you’re eager as well as hungry for knowledge, you’re more likely to excel in your chosen craft. It’s vital that you invest in yourself when setting goals, so that you can achieve them with ease. Professional development as a business owner is critical to staying ahead of your competition.
1. Be curious
Take courses
Don’t assume that there is nothing you can learn. When you take courses, you’re furthering your knowledge in a variety of topics. Even if the topic doesn’t seem to directly apply to your career, it can lead to skills that are transferable. For example, learning about color theory can be applied indirectly to real estate. While you might not be staging homes yourself, you’ll understand what colors don’t work in the home, and why that’s the case.
In your chosen field, there’s always more to learn. The world is constantly changing, and you have to learn about those changes if you’re going to be effective at your job. Whether it’s marketing, social media or accounting, there’s plenty to learn on a daily basis.
2. Obtain certificates
When you have certificates to prove your knowledge, they can be used to leverage more opportunities for yourself. If you’re a real estate entrepreneur, you can prove that you also have certificates in other topics that might land you a sweet deal in some other area of your life.
Don’t miss an opportunity to gain a certificate in a topic that you’ve learned. It might cost a bit more and need a commitment, but that certificate at the end will bring value to the education.
3. Professional development
Join Toast Masters
As a club, this organization has members who are all about professional development. They work together to educate each other and provide peer reviews for things like public speaking. There’s a video library online for those who want to learn skills that will help them excel.
Beginners to public speaking can ask for a mentor at their local club. This person will help you learn how to craft a well-received speech, and how to speak to any group effectively. This is a skill that you can take with you into any business setting or career.
4. Write to clarify ideas
Medium
When you can learn to write effectively, it helps your overall public speaking capabilities. You’ll start with a structure or outline and learn how to hook a reader as you would in a speech too. With a platform like Medium.com, you can see whether your writing has the desired impact. It’ll get likes, comments and feedback that will help you improve.
When you use writing to clarify your own thinking, you’re exploring ideas and putting them down in a cohesive structure or argument. There are times when you have a vague idea in your head, but until you write it down, it doesn’t fully take shape. This platform can help you clarify and polish your thoughts.
Blog posting
Like Medium.com, posting to a blog allows you to gain feedback to your writing and speech style. If people get confused, you know that you have to further clarify your thinking.
It’s helpful to starting conversations too. When you can understand the needs of your audience, you’ll be on the way to creating arguments and ideas that have value in a larger sense.
Be a genuine student of your craft
As a lifelong learner, you want to have a well-rounded education. Gaining the ability to write a speech and deliver it to an audience is one of the biggest skills you can achieve as a business owner. It’s important to invest in yourself, so you never stop learning, growing and achieving your goals.
This article was submitted by John Delia and originally appeared on Due. It has been republished with permission and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.
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Friday, January 26, 2018
Work Hard? Work Smart? Why You Need to Do Both
Once upon a time there was a tiny village. It was a wonderful place to live – except for one problem. This village had no water unless it rained. The villagers needed water so they asked Bob and John, two of their own, to solve the problem.
Bob immediately grabbed some buckets. He ran to the lake, filled his buckets and started carrying back water. When he returned to the village, he emptied his buckets in the village reservoir and ran back to the lake. He worked hard, doing this day after day.
John did absolutely nothing
At least, that’s what the other villagers thought. He didn’t have any buckets and no one ever saw him carrying water. In fact, most of the villagers assumed he had given up.
But John was working too. He’d spent the vast majority of his time planning and preparing. While Bob hauled buckets back and forth, John was planning a pipeline to bring water to the village.
I’ll bet you know how this story ends. John built a system. He used a few simple ingredients to create a better product. He created his pipeline and eventually, Bob was out of business. Bob worked hard. John worked hard and he worked smart.
Hard work is for suckers
People tend to divide themselves into two camps. The hard workers focus on their work ethic and the extreme effort they put into their projects. They’re often viewed as suckers, the pack mules who clean up after everyone else.
Smart workers call it “delegating.” They’re focused on finding the best way to deal with a problem whether that’s over, under, around or through. That’s the problem though. Working smart tends to fizzle out on its own.
So, which one is better, working hard or working smart?
Neither.
As you’re probably aware, you need them both. Working hard and working smart, they’re best used together.
At certain times, you really only need to work hard or work smart.
That’s the rationale anyway.
Maybe there’s a project that requires hard work to push through. So, you work hard and fast on finishing your reports, doing what you can to get the work done. To get things finished and completed on time still requires smarts.
Okay, what about the times where you’re only required to use smarts?
Times when you’re brainstorming ideas for a marketing campaign or deciding on the strategy and tactics you’ll use for said campaign?
You’re working hard. See the problem? Working hard and working smart – they’re hopelessly intertwined. It isn’t necessarily about choosing between working hard or working smart. It’s all about balance.
Trouble comes when we’re imbalanced
Most of us need to work hard and smart but that rarely works out. The nature of these two methods seems to be in constant conflict. But, as you’ll see, they complement each other perfectly – but only when they’re balanced.
This is the ideal outcome most of us want. Most of us want to maintain a balance between working hard and working smart.
But why? Is it really that beneficial to work this way? Actually, it is. And it all starts with the differences between the two.
- Smart work shows us where to direct our attention and how to direct it. Smarts acts as a manager enabling us to focus our time and attention on the things that matter.
- Hard work gives us the ability to implement and act. Once we know what we need to focus our attention on, hard work gets us there, giving us the momentum we need to push through failure, discouragement, and setbacks.
This would be easy to handle if everything stayed the same. But it doesn’t. You know that. The one consistent part of work, and of life really, is change. Most of the world works hard and smart to be better, to have better. Like it or not, our work is in a constant state of flux.
Flux leads to imbalance when it’s ignored
Which people and companies are prone to do. When we hear the stories we shake our heads. What were they thinking? The signs were all there. How could they have ignored them?
It’s a constant struggle for most of us because we don’t understand the nature of flux. It’s inevitable, purposeful and typically driven by people.
- Steve Sasson invented the digital camera in 1975. Then his bosses made him hide it. This invention would have saved their company but they ignored flux and embraced denial, changing the company’s efforts from working hard and smart to simply working hard. You know them as Kodak, the very same company that filed bankruptcy in 2012.
- 119 fatalities, 500 injuries, 3,500 tire complaints and a public fight with the Ford Motor Co. forced Firestone to recall 6.5 million tires. Their tires were killing customers. Firestone, wanting to minimize bad publicity, focused on keeping things quiet and shifting the blame. The Ford Motor co. was having none of it, deciding to replace an additional 13 million Firestone tires on their Ford Explorers. Firestone’s decision to evade and avoid meant they were no longer working hard or smart.
- Parc created something revolutionary. A GUI based personal computer that allowed users to move their cursor across the screen with a mouse. Today this sounds mundane, but in the 1980s this idea was revolutionary. PARC launched their slow and underpowered personal computer in 1981. It didn’t go well. Xerox, their parent company, ran from the hard work of learning from their mistake. They pulled out of the personal computer market completely. Steve Jobs and the Apple team took PARC’s original idea and improved on it, eventually creating the Mac.
Xerox ran from hard work, Kodak rejected smart work and Firestone rejected both altogether.
History is filled with stories like these. People, teams, and companies all making the same mistakes. Rejecting flux and creating imbalance, as we’ve seen, leads to disaster.
What’s so great about balance?
Somewhere along the line we’ve swallowed a lie. A false dichotomy that teaches us to work backwards. That’s the sad part about working hard and working smart.
They’re balanced by default.
Working hard, working smart, they’re already intertwined. All we have to do is go with the flow, to accept what is and do what’s best.
Accepting what is maintains the balance and harmony we need to flow. It’s the ideal scenario most of us crave. But it’s impossible. If we avoid the dysfunctions, roadblocks, and barriers waiting for us, working hard and smart is impossible. Imbalance becomes inevitable.
Sounds ridiculous until we realize we stop working hard and smart when…
- We lose autonomy. Micromanagers, dictators, and controllers whittle away the smarts their team needs to make a project successful. When they’re busy controlling those around them they don’t see the truth. Compliance simply becomes hard work when we lose the hearts and minds of those we work with.
- Circumstances are hard. Smart work is often abandoned in the face of resistance, difficulty, struggle, and stress. Do we follow our training when things get hard? No. We revert to our bad habits.
- Our motives are impure. When our ego and selfishness takes the wheel we stop working smart. It’s impossible to work smart when we’re working so hard to protect our ego, interests, and desires.
- We hide from the truth. The truth can be painful. Sometimes it’s more than we can handle. So we hide from it. We avoid looking at the reports showing our project is failing, we keep doing the same things – especially when it stops working. We don’t want to know why. We’re working hard, but our willful ignorance keeps us from working smart.
Our moment-to-moment choices determine whether we’re working hard and smart. When we accept reality, accept what is, it’s easy to work hard and smart. Poor choices create imbalance taking away our ability to stay in the zone.
You don’t know how to work hard and smart
If you’re like most people that is. Most people live their lives on autopilot. They follow conventional wisdom, they simply do as they’re told—which isn’t hard or smart.
That’s a pretty bold statement to make. Is there any evidence to support a claim like that? As a matter of fact, there is. According to a Gallup poll examining employee engagement, only 31.5 percent of U.S. employees were engaged in 2014 and 32 percent in 2015. Gallup daily lists engaged at work at 29.3 percent.
It’s stagnant. The vast majority of people are unfulfilled at work. Some work hard. Some work smart, but the people who excel at both are in the minority. This seems like a stretch until you look at the behaviors of the disengaged.
“These people aren’t hostile or disruptive. They show up and kill time, doing the minimum required with little extra effort to go out of their way for customers. They are less vigilant, more likely to miss work and change jobs when new opportunities arise. They are thinking about lunch or their next break. Not engaged employees are either ‘checked out’ or attempting to get their job done with little or no management support.”
It’s an epidemic. Most people aren’t working hard or smart. So how do you work hard and work smart? It didn’t seem like rocket science at first but now…
Here’s the secret to working hard and smart
You manage your ingredients. You stay focused on the ingredients that matter. That leads you to ask the obvious question. Which ingredients are important? What are these “secret ingredients” for that matter?
Hard work is…
- Logarithmic. Growth, progress, success – it all comes quickly in the beginning but the gains decrease becoming more difficult over time. Playing an instrument, learning to read, writing brilliant ad copy – these all take time.
- Directed. All hard work is directed by desires and goals. You can’t work hard without desires and goals. Even dysfunctional behaviors like laziness and procrastination are driven by desires and goals.
- Persistent. Hard work comes with repeated disaster, failure and discouragement. Hard work isn’t really ever complete. It simply changes form, using our desires and goals to shift its focus from one area to another.
- Slow. Hard work requires time. Logarithmic growth takes lots of time. It’s difficult, painful and brutal. It depends on consistency and repetition, the tools needed to power through anything difficult.
Working smart on the other hand is…
- Exponential. The growth, progress and success come slowly at first, but your gains increase rapidly over time, doubling and quadrupling your effort and results. Building an audience, compounding investments and business growth are all examples of exponential or compounding growth.
- Leverage. Leverage is a multiplier, it dramatically multiplies both your effort and the result. Working with a client is a one-on-one ordeal. Writing a book gives you leverage, enabling you to speak to a limitless audience of people.
- Less involved. Working smart offers freedom and minimizes restrictions typically via outsourcing, delegating, electing and/or management. It gives you the opportunity to create the outcome you want without being hands on and intimate.
- Risky. Loss is an inherent part of working smart. It comes with the potential for accidents, disaster, defeat, and failure. Sometimes the things that seem smart turn out to be mistakes. The wise take calculated risks doing what they can to minimize any potential damage.
Work at anything long enough and you’ll see that hard work is smart work.
- Stocks may grow exponentially but successful management takes logarithmic skill
- All-star athletes train persistently but they’re called to take on new risks and challenges
- Building a business that grows exponentially requires logarithmic grow that’s brutal, painful and expensive.
- Becoming a bestseller relies on years of logarithmic experience but creates long lasting leverage and financial security.
Want to work hard and smart? Focus your time, your attention on balancing these key ingredients. Do what you can to use these ingredients, keeping them in harmony. Make it your mission to master these details, to create habits out of them. This is the secret to working hard and working smart.
Most people can’t do it
That’s the lie we tell ourselves. The sad part is they’re right. They can’t do it, not because they won’t do it. But because they haven’t been trained to do it. They don’t have an answer and they aren’t aware that an answer exists. So they do what most people do.
They give up. Naysayers will object. “If what you’re saying is true, working hard and working smart is impossible. No one’s perfect, we all have character defects.” What I’m asking for sounds like perfection and we all know nobody’s perfect.
But working hard and smart doesn’t require perfection. It just requires three things: (a) accepting reality as it is, (b) being honest about your circumstances, and (c) continuing to fight for the results you want (using the right ingredients).
That’s it. You’re going to make mistakes. Yes, we all have character defects. But these three steps are all you need to work hard and smart. When you fail, get back up and try again. Stay engaged and do the work. It’s tough but it creates results.
Working hard/smart requires more than simply focusing on hard work or smarts.
As we’ve seen, it’s the ingredients – our desires, goals, and habits that dictate the outcome. Focusing our attention on these details, staying engaged, that’s what matters most.
Bob worked hard but he didn’t work smart. His unwillingness to take risks, to create leverage, led to his downfall. He ran back and forth to the lake, filling and emptying his buckets. His hard work created imbalance, exhaustion and eventually – pain.
His pain came later, John’s pain came right at the start. John realized working hard is working smart. His hard work, his smart work started right from the beginning. It’s the same for you.
Working hard, working smart – it requires balance. Spend your time on the right ingredients and you’ll discover the same. Focus your attention on maintaining balance and you’ll find working hard and working smart comes naturally.
This article was submitted by Workzone and originally appeared on Workzone blog. It has been republished with permission and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.
The post Work Hard? Work Smart? Why You Need to Do Both appeared first on Upwork Blog.
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Thursday, January 25, 2018
The Georgia – Prices, Availability, Plans
At a Glance
- located on the edge of Downtown Langley
- 194 condominium residences
- two 5-storey woodframe buildings
- colse to Willowbrook Shopping Centre
- near Nicomekl River Habitat nature trails
- adjacent to Fraser Highway & Langley Bypass
Luxury Within Reach
The Georgia, Langley’s most exquisite new condominium development, features two five-storey buildings situated on the edge of Downtown Langley. These spacious and thoughtfully-designed homes are the perfect match of style and function. Residences include 9’ ceilings, open concept living, stainless steel appliances, granite counters, high quality laminate floors and even air conditioning in master bedrooms.
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The Georgia is just steps from the locally-owned shops, boutiques, and restaurants of charming Downtown Langley, where you can enjoy a unique small town shopping experience. For a taste of the outdoors, the nature trails of the Nicomekl River Habitat are just a leisurely 10-minute walk from your doorstep. With Langley’s wonderful sense of community, lush offerings of nature and close proximity to Vancouver, The Georgia offers urban living with the serenity and affordability of a suburban community.
Pricing for The Georgia
1 bedrooms starting in low $300’s, 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms starting in low $400’s. Sign up to our VIP list above for priority access to The Georgia updates.
Floor Plans for The Georgia
A variety of unit types are offered, including adaptable units, ranging from 466 – 1,087 sq ft. Contact me today to discuss availability and plans according to your needs.
The Georgia Interiors
Open concept living.
Chef-inspired kitchens.
Practical bathrooms.
Amenities at The Georgia
Each building includes a lounge adjacent to the entry, a fitness room on the first floor, meeting room on the second floor, library on the third, yoga room on the fourth, and theatre on the fifth floor.
Parking and Storage
The Georgia will provide 245 underground parking stalls and 39 surface visitor stalls.
Maintenance Fees at The Georgia
TBA.
Developer Team for The Georgia
Whitetail Homes is the Fraser Valley’s multi-family development specialist. With thousands of homes either constructed or project managed directly by Whitetail’s principals in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, you can be assured that your brand new condo or townhome will be of the upmost quality – now and for years to come.
Expected Completion for The Georgia
Phae 1: 2020. Phase 2: 2021. Sales begin Spring 2018.
Are you interested in learning more about other homes in Langley, Surrey, or White Rock?
Check out these great South Fraser Presales!
The post The Georgia – Prices, Availability, Plans appeared first on Mike Stewart.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Top 10 Websites for Online Education in 2018
With a new year comes New Year’s resolutions. And what better way is there to kickoff 2018 than by picking up a new skill? As highlighted in Upwork’s report, Freelancing in America 2017:
“Freelancers are better prepared for the future – As work changes, 54 percent of the U.S. workforce said they’re not very confident that work they do will exist in 20 years. Reskilling is therefore critical. 55 percent of freelancers participated in skill-related education in the last six months versus only 30 percent of non-freelancers.”
Sixty-three percent of freelancers think a diversified portfolio of clients is more secure than having one employer: A new skill can open up new markets to tap for potential clients that can help secure your bottom line.
Thanks to MOOCs (massive open online courses) and other online educational sources, it’s never been easier to reskill or to stay at the top of your field. You can get a high-quality education and all you need is access to a decent Internet connection. Whether you prefer to learn from your local coworking space, via your smartphone while lying on the beach, or from the comfort of your home computer, here are 10 top websites for online education in 2018.
1. Coursera
Coursera tops many lists for good reason: With more than 25 million learners, 149 university partners, and 2000+ courses (at the time of this writing), it’s the largest MOOC provider on the market.
Like most MOOC providers, Coursera courses cover a broad range of disciplines and skills, from neural networks and deep learning, to web development and even painting. Courses are generally free, with the option to pay $40 to $150 for perks like graded assignments and certificates, called “specializations”, which can be used to bolster your resume.
Unlike most MOOC providers, Coursera also hosts online Masters degrees from accredited universities, such as the University of Illinois or HEC Paris. Imagine picking up a Master of Science in Accounting (iMSA) as you prepare to leave a traditional 9-to-5 job forever and launch a freelance accounting business. With Coursera, that’s a real possibility.
2. edX
Eager to learn from top universities and industry leaders like Harvard, MIT, and Microsoft? edX is a non-profit open-source educational platform with 1600+ free online courses, 100+ university/industry partnerships, and more than 12 million learners (at the time of this writing).
Courses are free and upon completion you have the option to pay for a verified certificate. edX also has MicroMasters programs, which provide a series of graduate level courses you can take to earn credentials for your resume or to use as credit for participating universities. Whether learning web development from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) or earning a MicroMasters in marketing analytics from UC Berkeley, edX is a portal to top-tier courses taught by world-renowned experts.
3. Udacity
Founded in 2012 by Sebastian Thrun, the brain behind Google’s Self Driving Car, Udacity bills itself as a place where “lifelong learners come to learn the skills they need, to land the jobs they want, to build the lives they deserve.” If you want to learn from industry professionals from tech companies like Amazon, Google, and GitHub, Udacity is the MOOC for you.
Targeting working professionals, they are best known for their nanodegrees — paid certificates that are accepted by major tech companies as credentials for industry-specific skillsets such as data analyst, Android developer, or even machine learning engineer. While you’ll need to pay for graded projects and certificates, all the courses that make up a nanodegree are free.
4. FutureLearn
FutureLearn is the largest MOOC in the United Kingdom, with more than seven million learners, 400+ courses, and 130+ partnerships with universities and institutions around the world. It’s owned and backed by Open University, a public distance learning and research university that pioneered the concept of a location independent education long before MOOCs became a buzzword.
FutureLearn uses the standard model of offering a wide variety of free courses with an option to buy a Certificate of Achievement at the end of the course. Students can gain academic credit at participating universities. They also provide fully online masters degrees in fields such as cybersecurity, information technology, and real estate via a partnership with Deakin University.
5. Khan Academy
Khan Academy’s founder Salman Khan is quick to point out that his nonprofit is not a MOOC. Founded in 2006, Khan Academy’s mission is to provide a place where “you can learn anything. For free. For everyone. Forever.” Khan Academy does not offer certificates, college credit, or paid programs. But they do have 6,500+ video lessons teaching a wide range of academic subjects for students of all ages, from kindergarten through college to adult learners.
You’ll find high-quality educational videos that cover everything from multivariable calculus to personal finance, to introductory courses on web development and data science.
6. Saylor Academy
If you’re looking for something like Khan Academy that’s a little more friendly for those looking for actual credits, Saylor Academy might be the online university for you. With 100+ courses, featured learning pathways (some leading to credits), and 22 full credit aligned courses, Saylor Academy is structured like a university with quizzes, assignments, and final exams.
From art history, to political science, to microbiology, there’s plenty to sate your intellectual curiosity. If you want to stick to programs best suited for business development, check out courses such as business administration, project management, and computer science.
7. iversity
Berlin-based iversity collaborates with universities, companies, and non-governmental organizations to provide high-quality educational content to more than 750,000 learners. Initially founded in 2011 (its MOOC service was launched in 2013), they are best known for being the first online educational platform to offer ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits.
Courses at iversity are available in both English and German, with some courses even supporting subtitles. There is a free Audit Track that gives students access to all course materials, access to the learner community forums, and a free statement of participation at the completion of any course. ECTS track, pro courses, and bundles are all paid, but can lead to a certificate of accomplishment and actual ECTS credits.
8. Open2Study
Open2Study is brought to you by Open Universities Australia, an educational platform that provides accredited online courses through a collaboration with Australian universities. The website divides courses into paid accredited courses that follow a traditional university curriculum structure, and free courses geared more toward freelancers and professionals looking to pick up new skills.
Courses consist of video lectures, supplementary reading materials, assessments, and quizzes. There’s an online classroom for interacting with other students, gamification via a reward badge system to encourage participation, and free certificates of completion for free courses. Whether you’re looking to learn to write for the web, polish up on your UX design, or even pick up an associate degree in engineering, Open2Study has the courses to help you reskill.
9. Udemy
Initially launched in 2010, Udemy bills itself as a “global marketplace for learning and teaching online.” While most MOOC providers source content through corporate and university partners, Udemy also allows individuals to create their own courses and submit them for review. Udemy boasts an impressive library of more than 55,000 courses.
Udemy is a true marketplace, with both free and paid courses that range from $20 to $200. The variety of coursework is also not to be understated: You can learn everything from military hand-to-hand combat to playing the piano. Whether you’re looking to pick up a new programming language like Python, retrain for a career in digital marketing, or brush up on your copywriting, there’s a course for everyone at Udemy.
10. Cognitive Class
Cognitive Class (formerly known as Big Data University) is an IBM-backed MOOC provider that specializes in data science and cognitive computing. Blockchain, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning were among some of the fastest growing skills for freelancers in 2017.
Cognitive Class courses are completely free, awarding IBM recognized badges and a certificate upon completion. Courses are organized into learning paths covering essential skills like Hadoop, Scala, Spark, and other data science fundamentals. If you’re looking to capitalize on the next wave of automation, Cognitive Class is for you.
Ready to set your educational goals for the coming year? Check out Upwork’s Hiring Headquarters for more educational content and insights to help you stay up-to-date on the latest skills and trends in the marketplace.
The post Top 10 Websites for Online Education in 2018 appeared first on Upwork Blog.
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Monday, January 22, 2018
Park House – Availability, Plans, Prices
At a Glance
- highly sought-after Cambie Corridor location
- two 6-storey concrete buildings
- 86 condominiums
- 126 underground parking spaces
- near Marine Gateway & Oakridge Centre shops & services
- between Langara Golf Course and Winona Park
- goal of LEED Gold
Parkside Luxury
The newest community on the highly sought-after Cambie Corridor is Park House by Vantac Holdings. Nestled between Winona Park and Langara Golf Course in the rapidly-growing South Cambie neighbourhood, Park House will blend opulent parkside living with the urban convenience and connectivity that has made the Cambie Corridor one of Vancouver’s most coveted neighbourhoods.
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Surrounded by some of the city’s premier greenspace, and with Marine Gateway, Oakridge Centre, and a future proposed Canada Line station in close proximity, Park House is ideally located to take in all that the West Side and beyond has to offer. Park House is a rare offering of two 6-storey concrete buildings located just off Cambie Street. It will raise the bar for luxury with Italian kitchens featuring Miele and Gaggenau appliances, hotel-inspired interiors, and ample outdoor spaces carefully planned to maximize park views.
Pricing for Park House
Final pricing has not yet been made public. Serious purchasers should sign up to our VIP list above for priority access to Park House updates.
Floor Plans for Park House
As this development is in pre-construction, plans have not yet been released. However, a total of 86 condominiums will be available, broken down as follows:
- 2 x 1-bedroom + den
- 12 x 2-bedroom
- 40 x 2-bedroom + 2 bath
- 32 x 3-bedroom + 2 bath
Given the sales performance of similar developments in this neighbourhood, I expect Park House will sell out quickly. I highly recommend you contact me today to discuss availability and plans according to your needs.
Amenities at Park House
Each building has a dedicated 400 sq ft amenity room with an adjoining patio and children’s play area. Ground level suites have their own private landscaped patios, while each sixth floor residence has its own private rooftop patio.
Parking and Storage
Each building provides parking in their own dedicated two-level underground, accessed from the laneway that separates them. Together, a total of 126 vehicle parking stalls are available, of which 96 are regular, 20 small, four handicapped, and six for visitors. Bicycle storage is offered in 60 spaces in each underground. Storage space is allocated to each suite.
Maintenance Fees at Park House
TBD.
Developer Team for Park House
Vancouver-based Vantac Holdings is a team of six visionary entrepreneurs. With 20 years of experience in construction, materials, investment, and design, Vantac builds much more than quality homes. Exceptional craftsmanship, innovative design and enduring construction merge to create extraordinary multi-family and single-family residential properties. Vantac’s in-house construction team is your assurance of impeccable quality construction, with no additional outside fees.
Over the past 25 years, Francl Architecture led by principals Walter Francl and Stefan Aepli has established a strong track record of efficient and elegant projects that are attuned to the unique social and physical textures of the City of Vancouver for both public and private clients. Most of the firm’s work is located within the City of Vancouver itself, giving the firm an intimate knowledge of the evolution of the civic fabric and an awareness of its potentials.
Expected Completion for Park House
2020.
Are you interested in learning more about other homes in the Cambie Corridor, Mount Pleasant, or Southeast False Creek?
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Why Big Businesses Like to Hire Freelancers
Large companies have legions of employees to lean on for any number of tasks and projects. When companies have so many resources and dollars at their disposal, why would they hire jobs out to freelancers that don’t have a long-term attachment to the company? There are a handful of reasons, and understanding them could mean the difference between landing the highest paying gigs and wondering where you went wrong in your freelance career. Here are some top benefits big companies look for when hiring freelance workers.
No long-term commitment
Why would a company work with someone that requires no long-term commitment? The reason businesses make most decisions: to save money. When working with contractors and freelancers, businesses can hire top talent without an ongoing commitment to keep paying for many months or years in the future. With a freelancer, the payments stop when the project ends.
Before I was a freelancer, companies had to commit to paying me thousands of dollars every month indefinitely. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have given the job a second look. But now as a freelancer, I am interested in shorter-term gigs if the price is right. A company may be willing to pay a premium to get a worker with the right skills for a specific project or two.
No benefits
As a self-employed freelancer, I have to pay the entire $1,000 per month for my family’s health insurance. When I had a full-time job, however, I looked to my employer to pay a big portion of my healthcare costs. At my last job, I paid $168 per paycheck toward my medical and $12.75 per paycheck for dental. The employer picked up the rest of the tab.
Now when I work for large clients, I don’t expect them to pay my health insurance. I’m not an employee, after all. This saves the company an average of $4,708 per employee per year, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. If a company can hire ten freelancers instead of ten employees, that adds up to $47,000 in annual savings on healthcare alone, possibly enough to hire an entire additional employee.
Get what you pay for
When hiring employees, it is completely possible that your worker will just do the minimum to not get fired. Anyone who has spent time in the corporate world has come across employees like this. Some workers have a drive to achieve the best results for the company and get a promotion. Others are happy to coast along until retirement. This iconic scene from Office Space explains it perfectly.
“That’s my only real motivation, is not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.”
But as a freelancer, it is really easy to lose a job. No one has to fire you or put together paperwork. They just don’t hire you back. As a freelancer, you are motivated to do the very best work possible on every single project. In a way, this motivates freelancers to do a better job than employees. If a freelancer is being well paid, you know you will get a great result.
Freelancing is the ultimate meritocracy
Many companies claim to operate as a meritocracy where the best workers are promoted while worst performers are pushed out. There is nowhere that this culture is more prevalent than Silicon Valley, which takes pride in its merit-based employment.
Thanks to the challenges of hiring and firing, the level of meritocracy in The Valley and elsewhere is dampened. In some parts of Europe, it is so hard to fire someone that there is hardly any merit to promotions and employment. Companies with a heavy union influence also have challenges in operating with a focus on employee results and merit.
In freelancing, meritocracy is built right in. Instead of focusing on degrees and experience, hiring managers look at recent projects and results. Instead of getting promoted, freelancers can make the case for higher pay or move onto a company willing to pay more. However, slacking off and sending in low-quality results will quickly sour a working relationship. With a short feedback loop, freelancing is the ultimate meritocracy.
Freelancing isn’t right for everyone
Shortly after taking my freelancing full-time in 2016, I was on the phone with a client who shared that he had done the same a few years earlier. After six months, he was burned out from the uncertainty of where his next paycheck would come from and the constant need to sell his services to new clients. He is now happily employed as a content manager at a large media company.
Freelancing wasn’t for him, but I love it. That is proof that freelancing is great for some, but is not right for everyone. If you think the fast-paced, meritocracy of freelancing is for you, it’s a wonderful lifestyle. A year in, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
This article was submitted by Eric Rosenberg and originally appeared on Due. It has been republished with permission and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.
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Friday, January 19, 2018
Pier West by Bosa – Plans, Prices, Availability
At a Glance
- spectacular riverside location
- 2 residential towers (53 & 43 storeys)
- 660 condominiums
- 5 townhomes
- 3-storey commercial building
- 40-space childcare facility
- 930 parking spaces
- 2 acres of public park space
- new pedestrian overpass
- 9m-wide riverfront boardwalk
A Vibrant Waterfront Community
Pier West is a landmark project that will bring vibrant design and refined living to the most significant waterfront property in Metro Vancouver. Respecting the prominence of its location by Westminster Pier Park, Pier West is the final piece in the completion of New Westminster’s waterfront revitalization. The groundbreaking development includes two residential towers, including the tallest building on Metro Vancouver’s waterfront, plus a variety of services that add to the community. The design will be of lasting architectural significance, reflecting a forward-looking vision.
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Pricing for Pier West
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Floor Plans for Pier West
Plans have not yet been made public, however, Bosa intends to offer a family-friendly residence mix of 156 one-bedroom units, 441 two-bedroom units, and 68 three-bedroom units, ranging in size as follows:
- 1 bedroom580 – 650 sq ft
- 2 bedroom 860 – 1,350 sq ft
- 2 bedroom + den 1,190 – 1,495 sq ft
- 3 bedroom 1,185 sq ft
- 3-bedroom townhome 1,400 – 1,800 sq ft
Of these, 69 1-bedroom and 195 2-bedroom residences are adaptable. Serious purchasers should contact me today to discuss your needs.
Amenities at Pier West
A 3-storey commercial building will offer residents a 40-space childcare facility, restaurant, and retail space. Each residential tower will have its own indoor amenity space – 4,522 sq ft for the west tower and 3,750 sq ft for the east tower – providing a gym, yoga studio, steam room, and sauna. There will also be a 24-hour concierge service and an Owners’ Club lounge.
A common outdoor amenity space between the towers offers a dog relief area, community garden plots, barbecue area, and communal meeting areas. Site improvements that integrate the property with the surrounding neighbourhood include 9-metre-wide riverfront boardwalk, a 2-acre extension of Westminster Pier Park, and a pedestrian overpass spanning the rail tracks at the foot of 6th Street.
Parking and Storage
Pier West will offer 777 vehicle parking spaces for residents, 61 spaces for visitors, 80 public spaces, 13 commercial spaces, and four daycare stalls. One car share space is also proposed. The majority of parking will be located in a three-level underground parkade, of which 31 stalls are accessible. Six surface spaces have been allocated behind the commercial building and 15 surface residential visitor stalls are located along the north property line. The underground will also provide 832 long-term bicycle stalls and the daycare will offer two. At grade bicycle racks for the restaurant and the residential towers will accommodate 11 bicycles.
Maintenance Fees at Pier West
TBD.
Developer Team for Pier West
Bosa Development is a wholly-integrated, privately-owned developer, contractor and asset manager, and one of British Columbia’s most respected privately-owned firms. Bosa has an impressive five-decade track record of providing efficient and expedient solutions for projects that present varied challenges. Bosa developments include City Gate, Eden and Oscar in Yaletown, as well as 819 Hamilton and Rosedale Gardens in Downtown Vancouver.
Amanat Architect is an architectural firm that is active in the field of public and institutional projects with substantial expertise in assembly buildings, embassies, and educational facilities. The firm has experience in urban design, housing, industrial, and health facilities. Amanat operates at an international level, undertaking projects in Canada and the United States, as well as Europe, the Middle East, and China. Awards and honours include the Shahyad Monument Design Award and the Tucker Award for Architectural Excellence.
Expected Completion for Pier West
Early 2022.
Are you interested in learning more about other homes in Burnaby, Coquitlam, or New Westminster?
Check out these great Tri-Cities Presales!
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