Frequently Asked Questions
About Elderberry.work’s business model and mission
An online marketplace is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties as sellers, and the marketplace connects sellers with buyers. It's often known as an electronic marketplace and all transactions are facilitated by the website/marketplace owner. Online marketplaces are now very common globally. Elderberry.work focuses on the types of online marketplace called “Consumer-to-consumer” (C2C), sometimes called peer-to-peer (P2P), and “Consumer-to-business (C2B)”.
About Elderberry.work categories for age 45+ freelancers and SME customers
Absolutely. Many businesspeople have expertise that may span more than one category or sub-category. After you sign-up to set up your account, you can additional additional “listings” for each of your sub-categories of expertise, from within your Elderberry.work account dashboard. Please note that our search function also uses key words, so Customers can find you even if you create only one listing but your profile includes key words about what they are looking for.
About Elderberry.work’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies
Elderberry.work’s Terms of Use Policy covers an important set of expectations how users (Age 45+ Expertise and SMEs) will use our marketplace. These include self-declarations that the information provided is accurate and true, code of conduct, intellectual property, data protection and privacy, and more. Users are required to agree to our policies during registration, and use of our marketplace implies agreement. Please read them in full.
Fees and Payment details about Elderberry.work
Not at all. Our “Fees & Assurance” page covers all the fees, and provides a sample calculation of them. There are no upfront fees – there are only transaction fees when an age 45+ expertise completes the gig scope of work agreed upon with the SME.
Elderberry.work uses the expertise of the global financial services company, Stripe, to manage payments processed as a result of transactions on our marketplace. It is an online payment processing and credit card processing platform for businesses. Stripe allows safe and efficient processing of funds via credit card or bank and transfers those funds to the sellers account. It has developed leading expertise in security and fraud protection. It operates globally and is co-headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco, California. It is important to note that Elderberry.work does not see, access, nor store our users’ banking and credit card details – those are handled by the expertise of Stripe. Click here for more information on Stripe https://stripe.com/en-ca .
Yes. It is important to be aware that Elderberry.work Terms and Conditions require its users (sellers and customers) only to make and receive payments through our website’s payments processing function for any work arising from connections made on our marketplace. Violations of this payments policy, by circumventing the payments method on our site, are a significant breach of the agreement, and could lead to termination from our marketplace. Elderberry.work relies on the fees collected from SME customer-to-freelancer transactions to fulfill its mission of helping older Canadians, before making profits. We aim to keep our transaction fees as as low as possible.
Assurance of Seller’s profiles and expertise
Our page on “Assurance and Fees Transparency” provides details on the steps we take to verify users’ identities and credentials, including those of our payments processor, Stripe. In addition to these steps, we conduct a first level screening of age 45+ expertise through self-declaration responses to a short questionnaire and a live video call. We recommend that Elderberry.work users also satisfy their interests by seeking additional information about someone they plan a transaction with, such as live video calls, social media searches and asking for references.
Becoming a Freelancer on Elderberry.work
Canadian residents aged 45 and above are welcome to list their expertise on Elderberry.work. Our mission is to focus on supporting older Canadians, so we provide a marketplace that features only their expertise as freelancers.
“Freelancer” is commonly used to describe a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. A freelancer is an individual who earns money on a per-job, per project, or per-task basis, usually for short-term work as an independent contractor. A freelancer is not an employee of a firm and may therefore be at liberty to complete different jobs concurrently by various individuals or firms unless contractually committed to working exclusively until a particular project is completed. Freelancers may also come in the form of gig workers.
Elderberry.work provides many benefits for age 45+ as sellers, including helping them find customers efficiently, handling payments processing, and more. Please see the “Age 45+ Listing Expertise” page which list more benefits.
What are the personal financial implications of becoming a freelancer on Elderberry.work?
As a freelancer, selling your expertise to SME customers facilitated by Elderberry.work, the income you earn should not have any income tax or benefits deductions taken by SMEs, including EI, OAS and CPP. Assuming you set up as a sole proprietor business, you will need to add your income to your personal tax return. Your financial advisor, if you have one, can help you with the calculations, as well as any impacts that your income through Elderberry.work may have on OAS and CPP withdrawals.
If your business, based on your amount of annual freelance income, your province and type of service, needs to collect and remit GST/HST, you must include it in the price charged to your customer. It is your responsibility to calculate it, collect it, and remit it to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
As a freelancer through Elderberry.work, your SME customer pays upfront for the amount agreed to for the gig specified. Those funds are held in “escrow” by our payments processor, Stripe. They are released to the freelancer when the SME customer and expertise agree a gig is complete.
Freelancers, who will want to be able to be paid for their work by deposits into their bank accounts, will provide the standard set of information: the institution number, transit number, and account number, all found on their blank cheques and from your bank/financial institution.
SME customers, who will need to pay for the gigwork they hire from age 45+ expertise, typically provide their standard credit card information.
Note that in both cases, Elderberry.work does not see, access, nor store users’ banking and credit card information. Those details are collected by Stripe through its software included in Elderberry.work, and managed in conformance to its well regarded security and privacy practices.
SME customers, who will need to pay for the gigwork they hire from age 45+ expertise, typically provide their standard credit card information.
Note that in both cases, Elderberry.work does not see, access, nor store users’ banking and credit card information. Those details are collected by Stripe through its software included in Elderberry.work, and managed in conformance to its well regarded security and privacy practices.
Becoming a SME Customer on Elderberry.work
Elderberry.work provides user to user messaging. If customers and sellers decide they need to discuss the work in more detail, they should decide among them an appropriate communication method, such as phone, Zoom, facebook chat, etc. However, it is important to be aware that Elderberry.work’s Terms of Use require its users only to make and receive payments through our website’s payments processing function for any work arising from connections made on our marketplace. Violations of this payments policy, by circumventing the payments method on our site, are a significant breach of the agreement, and could lead to termination from our marketplace.
Terminating a freelancer account in case of inactivity
If a seller is inactive on Elderberry.work for a year, we will attempt to contact the seller to confirm an interest in remaining active on our marketplace. Should that step fail, Elderberry.work will change the seller’s account status to inactive, in order to avoid including the seller in communications with interested customers. Following the inactive status determination for a reasonable period, Elderberry.work will delete the account.