There are differences between an employee and a contractor. First and foremost, an employee is usually hired on full time basis with guaranteed 40 hours per week and is usually locally  based in office and even if they are not located primarily in office they work on  w-9 or 1099 and have a employee contract with an employer.  An Employer usually is responsible for paying taxes, social security, 401K, health insurance benefits. Some people may refer to this as fringe benefits. In comparison to that, working with a independent contractor, freelancer, professional service provider,  niche virtual assistant like myself, there are no overhead cost, fringe benefits  a employer would need to pay. You basically pay for billed time or a fixed amount for a task. The rates will generally be higher per hour, but that is because most professional service providers  don’t sit around in a office all day and work with one company. Most professional service providers work with several if not many other small businesses. In some cases a professional service providers can also  work within a virtual  team setting. I do also have some clients in which I have a role or responsibility given to me and report to a supervisor or team leader. I can also work as a Virtual Employee of a company just without health insurance benefits and on a w-9 within the U.S.

I see my VA business as a personal service business.  I do  currently work for several different clients while using their domain’s email address and company’s signature. Virtual Assistants generally are independent contractors or small companies and never employees unless they are hired as a virtual employee. Generally this means employer’s pay’s the appropriate taxes and social security but not health insurance.  This option  will allow me to work on a W-9 legally in the U.S. I will abide by all company policies, but reserve the right to quit or resign at will. In either case I will give at least a 2-4 week notice. I will also accept work on a Virtual Employee bases from international companies outside of the U.S.

As the standard in our industry, the most common policy is that the contractor cannot contact parties within 24 months from the moment when cooperation between contractor and client ends. Contractor’s responsibility is to keep the information confidential and not use it outside of agreed terms. Any sort of information that could lead into financial gain or contractor’s personal business marketing development must be approved by the client. I  work within that standard common policy of 24 months.

This is just an example of a time sensitive task. While majority of my clients are coming from Freight Forwarding and Customs Brokerage backgrounds, it is worth to mention this specific task that I have handled in the past. Based on my experience, I have filed over 90% of ISFs within 1h from the moment I received them. However, my commitment at the standard (non-priority) would be 24h turnaround time. For this specific task I can offer two solutions – filling the form by using client’s log-in or by using my own account with selected software company.

I work from 8:00am- 10:00pm CET Time. Please keep in mind that depending on which service you have with me this may vary. These times are discussed during the consult and are subject to change if the workload requires it.

Prepaid blocks are not refundable. They have a 90 day expiration date starting from the date of purchase

We accept: Paypal,  Direct Deposit, Payoneer & all major credit cards. Services can be invoiced when paying directly through other 3rd parties. A service charge of 3-5% is  added to your balance owed to  cover the service charge. Our current bank is with Bank of America. please contact me for those bank account details

I can work on a w-9 for work that’s meets a minimum threshold annually. This sort of work would be on a long term basis. Please contact me to discuss further details. I do  not work on a 1099.