Jetmir Behluli's start-up provides not only jobs in Kosovo

Initially, Jetmir Behluli set up his start-up as a way of financing his studies, but now he is fully occupied with it himself and employs a staff of three, with three more planned, and 15 freelancers to boot.

Behluli has Kosovan roots but was born in Switzerland and attended the Cantonal School in Zug. It is two years ago now that he set up www.assignments.ch, which offers proofreading, translation services in English and German, transliteration and data collection services, among others.

All his employees work in Kosovo, creating valuable jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is 30 per cent, while at the same time proving services for clients here in Switzerland. In fact, only a few days ago he returned from Kosovo after interviewing potential employees.

All of those who work for Behluli have lived for some time in Germany or Switzerland so speak good German and, what is more, are very capable when comes to IT. “With Switzerland suffering from a shortage of specialist staff, the country could well benefit from the services we provide,” he said. At present it is with his “assignments” i.e. data collection, that the most money can be made, but recently Behluli has set up “Swisstant” providing services much like a virtual secretary. He explained that this came about through his working on several projects at the same time but could not afford to employ a secretary himself, so he set up a virtual one.

Now, www.swisstant.ch has been online for the past two weeks, providing services such as data analysis, responding to e-mails, research or support for call centre services for companies or individuals, all of which is undertaken from Kosovo. “All this saves time, money, and resources,” said Behluli.

The 25-year-old went on to mention that some client companies were a little uncertain at first as they did not know with whom they were dealing, but with him now having direct contact with them, this is no longer the case, and through Tracking he can exert a certain level of control over the work of his employees. Then several times a year, he travels to Kosovo to meet up with them and see his family. As to whether he feels more Swiss or Kosovan, Behluli said he felt Switzerland was his home, but Kosovo was equally important to him.