Is Elderberry.work a consulting company?
No. We are a services marketplace. We enable businesses to easily and quickly find potential consultants relevant to their requirements. So essentially we are a matchmaker, handling the discovery and connections. Our consultants are independent – they are not employees of Elderberry.work.
Do your independent consultants provide advisory services or get more deeply involved in clients’ businesses?
Our independent consultants do what you need, from strategic guidance to rolling up their sleeves and embed, working alongside your employees.
Have your independents consultants always been consultants?
No. Some have, but most have extensive experience as employees of companies and organizations of all sizes. And they are more recently doing consulting. So they bring the value of understanding how businesses operate from the inside.
Who does Elderberry.work target as clients?
Our independent consultants have experiences with all types of organizations, including private and public companies, non-profits, governments, academia, and industry associations. Our messaging focuses on startups and small and medium-sized businesses, but we welcome helping any type of organization.
Do your independent consultants have entrepreneurial experience?
Many of them do. However, their value to entrepreneurs can be based on the functional and cross functional experience they have, strategic and operational. And of course the 5 ways we think of the value they create for clients.
How do clients typically use your independent consultants?
It’s completely up to what the client needs. It can be as little as a couple of hours for feedback, brainstorming, or networking, to projects and contracts of any size, to ongoing retainers and fractional contracts. Clients can use a single consultant at a time, or for more complex needs can use multiple consultants at the same time or consecutively.
What seniorities or levels of business experience do your consultants have?
Our clients’ needs are varied, so are our consultants’ experiences. We have C-suite experience, but that’s not always needed or affordable. So we have all levels. For example, a fast growing smaller business may need a person with an accomplished career as an admin to help them implement some basic systems to get organized.
What do you mean that you are a social enterprise?
Our mission is to help our age 45+ consultants and our business clients, before profits. We know there are significant socio-economic benefits by retaining the knowledge our consultants have and enabling businesses to efficiently leverage it accelerate their growth and success probabilities. To be clear, we are for-profit, but we will earn profits, to help reinvest in our business, by helping those two groups.
What makes using independent consultants through Elderberry.work cost-effective?
There are two components, and both contribute to the cost-effectiveness. Our platform fees are low by industry standards, and there is no cost until work is commissioned/completed.
Independent consultants’ fees tend to be lower than consultancies’ fees. Given the experience of our consultants, they hit the ground running and add value in 5 ways, making a lot of benefit from their work. Clients also only pay for what they need: the emphasis is on knowledge transfer by collaborating with you, not on big proposals, project managements, and large reports.
What fees does Elderberry.work charge users?
We aim to keep as much money in the pockets of our consultants and clients as possible. So we have a have a hybrid fee, applied to both groups to keep it low. We call our fees “platform” and “transaction” fees. There are no fees to find and meet consultants to screen them. There are only platform fees when a client commissions work by a consultant, and when a consultant completes work for the client. See our fees page for more information.
Are there any hidden fees?
Not at all. Our “Fees Transparency” page covers all the fees, and provides a sample calculation of them. There are no upfront fees – there are only transaction fees when a seller and a customer complete the service agreed upon.
How are payments handled?
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 and bank transfers. 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. Here is more information on Stripe https://stripe.com/en-ca .
What banking information is required?
Consultants are paid for their work by deposits into their bank accounts, so they 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. Banking information is not required upon signup, but will be needed before any work can be commissioned.
Clients pay for the services they hire from consultants by providing their standard credit card information. For larger consultants’ fees, bank transfers can be arranged if the client prefers.
Note that in both cases, Elderberry.work does not see, access, nor store users’ banking nor credit card information. Those details are collected by Stripe through its integration into Elderberry.work, and managed in conformance to its well regarded security and privacy practices.
What are the consultants’ fees, and who sets them?
Our consultants list their fees, either by the hour, day, or project to provide guidance for prospective clients. Actual fees would be negotiated between consultant and client based on the actual scope of work.
What is the timing of payments and “escrow”?
Clients pay up front for the consultant’s work they commission. Usually through credit card, but for larger amounts bank transfers can be arranged by contacting Elderberry.work. That payment is held in escrow by Stripe, until the work is completed and is then released by Stripe into the consultant’s bank account. Escrow helps ensure that both client and consultant are protected financially in the transaction.
Once the clients decides on a consultant to use, do they have to do the transaction through Elderberry.work?
Yes, it is included in our Terms of Service, which all users agree to when they signup. And it is our only revenue source, which allows us to continue to offer our services. Failure to process transactions through Elderberry.work is grounds for termination.
How can a client and consultant meet to discuss the details of the project?
Elderberry.work provides a messaging service within its platform for all users to contact others. When live meetings are desired, please use your preferred video-conferencing or cell phone service. Then when the work details are agreed to, share the final document between client and consultant via attachment in a message on Elderberry.work, and the consultant makes an offer (via purple button in their dashboard) to the client, who accepts and pays.
How do you handle assurance of consultants’ experience?
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 recommend that Elderberry.work users also satisfy their interests by seeking additional information about someone they plan a transaction with, such as social media searches and asking for references. Consultants’ reviews on Elderberry.work will provide additional information.
What does becoming a consultant on Elderberry.work require to ensure payment of relevant income taxes?
How are sales taxes (GST/HST) handled in transactions facilitated by Elderberry.work?
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).
What happens when a consultant is no longer active on Elderberry.work, but their listing is still there?
If a consultant is inactive on Elderberry.work for 18 continuous months, we will attempt to contact them to confirm an interest in remaining active on our marketplace. If we cannot reach the consultant, Elderberry.work will change the consultant’s account status to inactive, to avoid including the seller in communications with interested customers. Following the inactive status determination, Elderberry.work may delete the account.