Comments on: “Virtual Private Assistants are not a form of modern day colonialism” http://www.morgenkommichspaeterrein.de/blog/virtual-private-assistants-are-not-a-form-of-modern-day-colonialism/ Der Blog Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:32:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Heather Reimer http://www.morgenkommichspaeterrein.de/blog/virtual-private-assistants-are-not-a-form-of-modern-day-colonialism/comment-page-1/#comment-926 Heather Reimer Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:14:32 +0000 http://www.markusalbers.com/blog/?p=1769#comment-926 I am a bilingual (English/German) Virtual Assistant working out of N. Germany. Yes, there are some of us out there but we are a fairly rare species. I cannot offer rates as low as offered by either Getfriday or Strandschicht but believe the rates I charge, between € 15 - 20 per hour are justified by the quality of the work I deliver. A lot of my clients are international and use me as their representative within Germany, this is a service that I don't think either of the above mentioned agencies will be able to offer. However It is very disheartening for any new VA who is trying to set up a business in Germany to know that she/he is in competition with agencies that are probably paying their employees not much more than if they took on a €1 job! I have also in the past received mails from ex-employees of agencies like Getfriday asking me if I can offer them work because they have lost their jobs due to the recession, sounds very much like "hire and fire". I believe most clients enjoy being able to talk to the same person and to build up a working relationship with that person over a longer period of time. I don't know whether this would function with the agencies in question . However I wish both agencies luck with their projects and perhaps they will make Germany more receptive to the priciple of outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant. Heather Virtual Assistant Miss Moneypenny Direct I am a bilingual (English/German) Virtual Assistant working out of N. Germany. Yes, there are some of us out there but we are a fairly rare species. I cannot offer rates as low as offered by either Getfriday or Strandschicht but believe the rates I charge, between € 15 – 20 per hour are justified by the quality of the work I deliver. A lot of my clients are international and use me as their representative within Germany, this is a service that I don’t think either of the above mentioned agencies will be able to offer. However It is very disheartening for any new VA who is trying to set up a business in Germany to know that she/he is in competition with agencies that are probably paying their employees not much more than if they took on a €1 job! I have also in the past received mails from ex-employees of agencies like Getfriday asking me if I can offer them work because they have lost their jobs due to the recession, sounds very much like “hire and fire”. I believe most clients enjoy being able to talk to the same person and to build up a working relationship with that person over a longer period of time. I don’t know whether this would function with the agencies in question . However I wish both agencies luck with their projects and perhaps they will make Germany more receptive to the priciple of outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant.

Heather
Virtual Assistant
Miss Moneypenny Direct

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