Questions and answers about eAssistentin.de

How did the idea for eAssistentin.de come about?

Years ago, Marco Schiesler was looking to change his professional situation. The path into online business was already mapped out, but he still lacked the breakthrough business idea he could pursue with passion. In 2007 he came across virtual assistance. At that time, this service was provided mainly by companies from distant countries such as the USA. He liked the idea of bringing this business model to the European market, where virtual assistance was still in its infancy.

His vision was born, and he set about putting the idea into practice. In 2010, he founded the service company eAssistentin.de. He also used the service to build his own company as a start-up service: His Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) took on many tasks for Mr Schiesler, allowing him to focus on the formalities of founding, building the company and running day-to-day operations.

Since then, he and his VPAs have been supporting entrepreneurs, freelancers, start-ups and private clients, giving them greater time freedom and flexibility by outsourcing a wide range of tasks.

In the meantime, the company has gained numerous long-standing clients who no longer see the services of their personal assistant merely as help during peak workloads, but as a permanent reinforcement of their team.

What are the benefits of a VPA?

Support from a VPA brings a variety of benefits from which our clients profit:

• Time flexibility: Your VPA is there for you whenever you need them. By arrangement, this is often even possible outside normal working hours. Short-notice assignments are often feasible, too.
• Versatility: Thanks to the broad experience of our virtual concierge service, our team members can take on a wide variety of tasks for you.
• Quality: We place the highest value on high-quality, error-free work. This is further ensured by internal quality checks. If something still doesn’t meet your expectations, we’ll discuss it—there’s always a solution.
• Availability: While with traditional job ads you first have to go through a tedious recruitment process, our VPAs are available to you at very short notice and with no effort on your part.
• Cost transparency: With eAssistentin you incur no fixed costs. You pay only for the working time you use, billed at a transparent hourly rate with no hidden extras.

Why are the services so affordable?

We know that start-ups and new founders need to manage their finances carefully in the first years in order to grow sustainably. That’s why we have chosen a pricing model that is as flexible as possible and tightly calculated. At eAssistentin there is neither a minimum spend nor a notice period if you no longer wish to use your VPA’s support. It’s important to us that you get relief at the best possible price.

Which tasks are suitable for outsourcing to a VPA?

Many entrepreneurs find it difficult to imagine working with their VPA. In practice, the physical absence of your assistant is usually not a problem at all. Your VPA can support you in a wide range of areas, for example:

• Researching addresses and suppliers, information about competitors, or flight connections
• Writing responses to customer inquiries and customer service in e-commerce
• Managing your social media channels such as Facebook fan pages or XING profiles
• Performing tasks in the field of search engine optimization (SEO)
• Maintaining products and content in online shops and online marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, eBay)
• Carrying out translations
• Services in the areas of graphic and web design
• Maintaining databases
• Making phone calls.

In principle, any task that does not have to be performed on site can be delegated to your VPA. Just ask whether the necessary expertise is available.

What happens if none of the VPAs has the necessary expertise?

Even though our team members have a wide range of skills and knowledge, they naturally can’t do everything. That’s why we carefully select internally which team member is best suited to your requirements. As a rule, we assign two assistants to you so that you can draw on an even broader range of know-how at the same price. If none of our VPAs has the required expertise, you have two options:

• Recommendation: We maintain contacts with a wide range of specialists who can provide services we do not cover. We’ll be happy to recommend suitable experts.
• Training: Most tasks can be taken on by our VPAs after a short time even without prior knowledge, provided they receive an appropriate briefing. In addition, with the help of tutorials, forums and help pages, it is sometimes possible to get up to speed with more complex topics within a few hours, even if you cannot provide the necessary know-how yourself.

By the way: We also practice lifelong learning internally at eAssistentin. For example, one of our team members taught herself the necessary knowledge online to manage our social media presence.

How can I check my VPA’s work results?

If you have assigned your VPA a new task and are still unsure whether the task has been fully understood, simply ask to receive an interim update after any desired period (e.g., after an hour of work). This way you can easily review the results and adjust the briefing if necessary.

Such control is not necessary when you assign your VPA recurring tasks. After onboarding, they will complete them independently and reliably.

When is it better to hire an in-house assistant?

Whether a flexible virtual assistant or a permanently employed staff member on site is right for you depends primarily on the task and your needs. This direct comparison shows:

A VPA is particularly worthwhile during the start-up phase of a company, when additional support is already needed but the capital for permanent employees is not yet available. VPAs are the flexible solution for entrepreneurs at every stage of building their business.

What happens if I’m dissatisfied?

Because the quality of collaboration in our industry also depends on the personal level, it isn’t easy to achieve one hundred percent customer satisfaction at all times. Of course, it can happen that you are not satisfied with your VPA’s performance. In this case, please contact us immediately. If needed, we can switch assistants at any time.

Ideally, give your VPA regular feedback, be it praise or criticism. Your collaboration can only benefit from this. Only through feedback can your eAssistentin continuously improve.

Does my assistant speak my language?

Most Virtual Personal Assistants at eAssistentin speak English and German—and some even more languages. This enables them to communicate with clients from the German-speaking region, and of course with clients from other countries as well, provided sufficient English skills are available. Many of our clients are from the DACH countries, and some are from English-speaking countries.

How can the work be worthwhile for the VPAs at this low hourly rate?

Even if it sounds surprising: although the hourly earnings are below the German minimum wage, they are significantly higher than the earning opportunities our VPAs have in their home countries. This is because incomes there are generally much lower than in Germany. When you compare our VPAs’ earnings with the prevailing local price levels, they actually earn above average.

Another reason is that some of our assistants live in rural areas where earning opportunities are very limited. This applies all the more as many also care for family members or look after their children. We see a classic win-win situation for both sides here: our VPAs earn above average through their work, while at the same time we can support our clients particularly cost-effectively.

How do you view your competitors?

eAssistentin operates in a small niche market. Accordingly, every client is extremely important to us as well as to our competitors. At the same time, we believe that only those providers who can offer their clients high work and service quality as well as consistent points of contact will survive. Building long-term client relationships and continuously working on our internal processes and quality is the key to our success.

There are always new providers in our industry, but very few can sustain themselves on the market in the long term. eAssistentin has remained loyal to its clients—and they repay us for this trust in cash.

Is hiring an eAssistentin VPA worth it?

At first glance, a VPA naturally incurs costs. However, a quick comparison reveals the price advantage: if you can invest the time saved into your core business—for example, into new customer acquisition or account management—the investment will soon pay off. We therefore particularly recommend that founders and start-ups seek support in the form of a VPA.

It is also an investment in your health. If you try to do everything yourself as a self-employed professional, you will sooner or later burn out. That is neither effective nor sensible.

How does people management work in a purely virtual team?

In a purely virtual team where coordination takes place almost exclusively via email and Skype, team leadership is a very special challenge. Nevertheless, everything runs remarkably smoothly in our team and the atmosphere is good. Everyone brings their strengths and knowledge to the table and thus contributes to the success of all. Management meets regularly with the VPAs to exchange ideas, discuss current topics and simply maintain personal contact. If customer complaints or criticism do arise, we are happy to take them on and see them as an opportunity to continuously improve our performance and collaboration.

The high motivation of our eAssistants stems from their situation: working for eAssistentin offers them fantastic opportunities. They can pursue a career and be challenged, earn money, contribute and expand their expertise, and at the same time care for their families. For them, working as a VPA has great significance, which is reflected in their excellent performance.