Moving a Business to Canada? 105
An anonymous reader asks: "I am an independent consultant working in Sweden. After working over here for nearly 10 years, I'm considering moving my family back to Canada. I enjoy working through my own company and the freedom it offers. One of the concerns I have is whether it is feasible for me to even try to work as an independent consultant in Canada, since I have no contact network over there to speak of. I'm also considering the idea of working as a regular employee for a consultancy company until I can build up a contact net. The major disadvantage of doing so is the lack of freedom and vacation time. Over here in Sweden, 5 weeks vacation is standard and 6 weeks isn't that uncommon. As we have relatives in Sweden we would like to spend a few weeks here a year, and still have some vacation left over to do something else. How hard is it to negotiate a 5 week vacation at an employer even if 3 weeks are unpaid? Is going through a company, that charges a commission for finding consultants work, a viable option? What cities in Ontario have a large enough customer base to support independent consultants? As much as I like Toronto, I don't want to raise my family there, nor do I want to spend hours commuting to it everyday."
Come to Winnipeg! (Score:4, Funny)
Good sized city (~680K) isolated in the middle of the prairies. Hot, mosquito filled summers. Frigid winters. Urmmm... wait.. why am I staying?
Re:Come to Winnipeg! (Score:3, Insightful)
IT community is small (relative to southern Ontario and Greater Vancouver), mostly government and financial institutions (GWL, RBC, etc).
Consulting is dominated my a few majors (IBM, EDS, Sierra), and many one & two man shops.
Depending on your skill set you can ask for anything.
Re:Come to Winnipeg! (Score:1)
I can think of one upside to living in Winnipeg... It's cheap to live here.
Re:Come to Winnipeg! (Score:2)
I thought me and Grub were about it.
yeah, yeah, -1 offtopic. I know.
Re:Come to Winnipeg! (Score:1)
Anyway, the standard of living is pretty good, prices are reasonable, and you're at least halfway to anywhere else on this continent. We might joke about the open space, but it attracted my neighbours here from the UK. They're pleased with the move a year later. As someone else noted, there are plenty of one/two man shops, which fits the original poster; apparently you can do OK at it.
Re:Come to Winnipeg! (Score:1)
Vaction time in Canada (Score:1, Informative)
Why are you considering moving back to Canada? (Score:1, Informative)
Ottawa (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, and forget 5 weeks of vacation, forget even 3. If you get 2, you'd be lucky. If you can take them (consecutively, that is), well, I could only compare you to a lottery winner.
Stay in Sweden. You are much better off.
Re:Ottawa (Score:1)
The tech sector I belive is very regional. I keep hearing good things about Calgary and Vancouver, but I don't have any first hand experience. Regina (my home) isn't great
Re:Ottawa (Score:5, Informative)
Somewhat irrelevant, but I thought it was strange.
As for vacations: exactly right. When I worked for companies as an employee, asking for a week of my vacation time at a time was almost scandalous. Working as a free agent is almost harder, though, because none of your clients wants to LET you take your vacation, and they get those puppy dog eyes, and shucks, I just can't say no.
Hell, if it weren't for the... uh... Swedish thing, I'd move to Sweden too!
Re:Ottawa (Score:1)
You would be surprised at how little Swedish you need to know in Sweden. They speak better English than most Americans and many of the larger global companies conduct their business in English.
What will get you are the long dark winters and the labor laws.
Re:Ottawa (Score:2)
What will get you are the long dark winters...
As if I get to see the sun now anyw
Re:Ottawa (Score:1)
Re:Ottawa (Score:3, Informative)
When I worked for companies as an employee, asking for a week of my vacation time at a time was almost scandalous.
As an employee (after a certain amount of time) you are guaranteed 4% pay; i.e., two week's vacation as well as paid statuatory holidays.
Re:Ottawa (Score:2)
Never happened to me (Score:2, Funny)
Oh well. I guess they just don't like me.
Six weeks of vacation? (Score:5, Insightful)
You want all the benefits of the socialist economy of Sweden and all the benefits of (largely) free-enterprize Canada. Umm, something has to give somewhere.
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Brazil and Germany have higher unemployment than the US or Canada as well. It's all pluses and minuses.
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:1)
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:2)
German or Brazillian numbers.
Anyhow, part of the reason they have long vacations is to increase the number of people employed to maintain a given staffing level. It's not a trade-off. The two figures correlate positively.
Re:Six weeks of vacation? (Score:2)
No, good for him. It's people like him who dream about having it "all" (and occasionally succeed at it) that eventually demonstrate to others that a life of quiet desperation and constant compromise isn't the only way to live.
Also, while Canada certainly permits USA-style free enterprise, you'd be practicing it above a safety net of welfare, healthc
Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo (Score:3, Interesting)
The market here is none-too-rosy, but for your peimary needs look first in the Subject areas.
gus
Re:Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo (Score:2, Informative)
From the Regional Website: "Waterloo Region [waterloo.on.ca] is a vital, prosperous area, located in Southern Ontario in the cen
Re:Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo (Score:2)
I'm quite certain I have a book here that was purchased there within the last 18 months.
Thought it was still there myself.
Re:Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo (Score:1)
Ontario is not Canada (Score:2, Informative)
Each company is different, but I'll suggest that ex
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2, Insightful)
Shame because I was thinking of moving there until I saw the prices of homes.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:1, Informative)
Alberta cities have lowest cost of living in Canada
http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=834 [gov.ab.ca]
A single line of an uninformed personal opinion is far, far from insightful.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:3, Insightful)
Horseshit.
You notice they didn't include Winnipeg or Halifax in their little survey.
For the price of a nice house in Calgary I could probably buy a whole block in Saint John or Moose Jaw.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2)
Sadly, we just sold our decently nice house (in Moose Jaw) for $95k, but that was well over market value. I'm not sure why they were so keen on it. I think it was maybe worth $75k-$80k.
I love it when people talk about Moose Jaw. As far as a tech sector goes though... not a whole lot going on.
Saskatoon, despite only being roughly 250,000 people, has a lot of tech going with the university.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2)
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2)
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2)
Ah no. Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton are all as bad or worse.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:2)
*sigh* I guess I'll never find an affordable condo...
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:1)
I'll say Toronoto, Ottawa, Calgary, then Vancouver.
Re:Ontario is not Canada (Score:1)
Depends on what you're doing (Score:3, Informative)
I'm working for a recruiting company right now on a long-term contract. I'm working as an independent contractor and am self-employed. In this case, vacation is pretty much whatever I want it to be, as long as I make sure to give enough notice so as not to inconvenience the client--and, of course, I don't get paid when I'm not working.
Re:Depends on what you're doing (Score:2)
Let me know.
I have a related question (Score:5, Funny)
I am a little concerned that I won't be able to continue my lifestyle, so I would like some assurances in that regard. I am highly skilled in the area of popsicle enablement, and I am sure that my abilities will put me in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiating things like an annual unpaid sabbatical. Any prospective employer will have to accept that their need for 95% employee uptime will have to take a back seat to my traveling needs.
Can someone here offer me some relevant advice about how to uproot my family and land my dream job without taking much risk or sacrificing much of anything?
Re:Vancouver (Score:1)
I can't speak for Canada, but for everything else (Score:4, Interesting)
Figure out where you'd like to live, figure out what types of industries are in that area (since most likely, those are going to be the ones that you'd be doing business with), figure out who you'd like to work for in that area.
Then take a week long vacation in that area and see if it measures up to what you'd want. Talk to employees of companies you'd like to work at, etc.
You should know the drill by now.
As for the vacation- well, everything can be negotiated, just be ready to deliver on your side of the deal.
BTW, I have 7 weeks a year of vacation, so it's not unheard of to get great benefits. Fairly standard in my company (a HMO company), actually.
Sure, it's possible (Score:5, Informative)
Here's how. Incorporate yourself. Register with the best local temp agency. You can find out which agencies you should choose to represent you by researching who services the local companies you're most interested in working for. By sticking to six-month contracts, you'll usually end up with a month or two of slack time. This will allow for extended vacations or short-term skill developments via the local technical college.
Link to one list of Canadian Temp Agencies.
http://www.nextsteps.org/jobs/tema.htm [nextsteps.org]
The best part is that as a consultant, I'm more autonomous, better compensated and generally more respected.
As well, why Ontario? Alberta is booming and is rapidly becoming one of the most wired places on the planet.
http://www.albertasupernet.ca/benefits/default.ht
Re:Sure, it's possible (Score:1)
Start here (Score:1, Informative)
SImple (Score:4, Funny)
Just say you found a mouse in a beer bottle, and you can get a job at the local brewery!
Re:SImple (Score:1)
6 weeks of vacation?!? (Score:1, Insightful)
If you plan on moving out of Europe, you may as well get ready to join the rest of the world, where you're lucky if you can realistically take 5 consecutive no-holiday business days off per year.
Regardless of what the law might say about accrued vacation time, etc, most employers implement some kind of "performance review" scheme which will rank you lower (and thus deny you career advance
Vacation...? (Score:3, Informative)
One option to consider might be unpaid leave, which might be negotiable.
Negotiating vacations (Score:3, Insightful)
> an employer even if 3 weeks are unpaid?
I've never been to Canada, so I can only speak as someone who's done contract work for many years.
My normal year has 11 weeks off - I'm a single dad and I choose to take my kids for every school holiday.
I've had no trouble negotiating this as a contractor - most long-term contracts have busy and quiet periods, and I commit to doing overtime or whatever to try to keep projects going. I make it very clear that, not only am I not at work, I'm also uncontactable while I'm away; again, no problems negotiating this, because it's all done up front.
As a permanent, I don't think anyone I've worked for would put up with this. Employers of permanent staff have obligations such as training, career planning, etc. that would make it highly unlikely they'd be able to cope with giving someone 11 weeks off; employers of contractors, however, don't have these obligations.
Bottom line: if you want extra time off, do it as a contractor.
For god's sake, why? (Score:3, Interesting)
I love it when my clients call me on vacation! The smallest billing increment I have is 30 min, and I just call back during downtime.
I've made back my lift ticket money while on the chairlift. I've made back my car rental money driving from OAK to Napa.
Although, I guess there are vacations and there are vacations. My clients had no way to get ahold of me during either of my vacations last winter since my c
Here's what I did (Score:3, Informative)
So then I went to work for a couple of consulting firms in fairly rapid succession (useful for cranking your salary up while you're biding your time) with a sharp eye on the size of their customer base and the duration of the non-compete agreements. Once I felt I had a large enough number of potential customers that were no longer restricted by the non-compete's I went back to doing my own thing.
YMMV, IANAL, TIS, HTH, ETC
Why do you wanna leave? (Score:1)
Ontario... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Ontario... (Score:1)
Not that Toronto is any better with all the cars downtown
I used to commute from Across Toronto and into mississauga on transit and it was far from fun
Re:Ontario... (Score:2)
Vaction + Owning Business (Score:2)
For example I have a lot of time to spend with the kids after school. I can go on field trips, etc. What I as a business owner do not have time and flexibity for is extended vacations. Maybe a week if I am lucky, and even then I am constantly checking in with clients.
If you are going to run a small business your clients will expect yo
Eh (Score:2)
I dunno. I took two "extended" vacations last winter (10 days and 15 days) and my clients didn't really care. I just told them in advance and left things in a happy state before I left.
You'd be surprised. Most companies realize that their consultants need time off as well. Of course, you've got to be smart about when you plan your trips to minimize client impact. In one of the trips, one w
West coast (Score:5, Interesting)
The tech industry is much better out here, more opportunities than back east. Vancouver is good, but homes are pricey. Kelowna, BC has a decent IT infrastructure and is more affordable.
If you're looking for 6 weeks of vacation, good luck! It can be done however. My girlfriend works in IT here in BC and has 9! The trick? She took a job at a local university, and her job is officially a "faculty" position (even though she only has a bachelors and works in IT). As a result, she gets the same vacation that faculty does - 45 days. Paid. Oh yeah, and since I'm her immediate family, I can take courses for free. So I consult on the side, and study physics full-time.
Ottawa was especially hard-hit by the dot-com fallout a couple years back. Funny story: In December we were visiting friends in Ottawa during the holidays. I happened to notice that one of our "regular crowd" was missing.
"What's Jim doing these days?" I asked
"Working with windows" was our host's reply.
"Windows? I thought he was a die-hard Unix guy!"
"No, you don't understand. He couldn't find a job in IT after the layoffs. He's installing energy-efficient windows in new homes."
Similar story (Score:1)
Sweden was not bad for him, but I guess Canada is better for many reasons.
1. Permanent residence is waaaay easier to get. Let alone citizenshop.
2. The company he worked for in Sweden came through series of lay-offs. He is not Swedish citizen and he is young, so in European tradition, he always was the first in line for a lay-off. He is smart, so he held on for several rounds, but ev
Ha! (Score:2)
Unpaid extra time above that *does* happen, but unless you're just as likely to be replaced.
Stay home, I have enough roomates as it is. (Score:1)
Canada sucks. All of us ex-dot-commies talk of moving to the states for some fast cash, then realize we can't even afford the bus ri
Re:Stay home, I have enough roomates as it is. (Score:2)
Re:Stay home, I have enough roomates as it is. (Score:2)
That being said -- there is a market for qualified software engineers in this country at decent pay. My company can't hire fast enough because of a lack of qualified candidates... and thats hundreds of engineers.
Re:Stay home, I have enough roomates as it is. (Score:1)
six weeks vacation? right? here's what you do... (Score:2)
Don't Count us Out. (Score:1)
When in doubt contact the local Chambners of Commerce and use the contacts garnered there to get your foot in the door. They are an invaluable re
Markham, Ontario (Score:3, Interesting)
As for if you should move: Don't until you have some contacts. I for one believe that the IT industry (much like other business sectors) is run through who you know. See if you can get some contacts in Markham or perhaps Toronto or ask your current contacts to see if they can get you in.
I'd prefer not to see an "Ask Slashdot" next year with a disappointing failure story