Port masters have an important task: to ensure that ships enter the port safely and remain there for the duration of their stay. That’s exactly what Gina Empson, CEO and founder of The Business Harbour, a Swiss freelance administration company based in Geneva, has been doing with passion for the past 14 years. She guided independent consultants, putting them in touch with employers, while ensuring with her team that both parties were satisfied throughout the employment relationship.
As a chartered accountant, with experience in auditing, financial analysis and running her own accountancy practice for over 20 years, as well as sitting on several boards of directors in Switzerland, Gina understood that companies wanted to be able to hire experts for specific projects, without having to manage their salaries and social charges.
Similarly, she found that although consultants and freelancers wanted to work independently, they were more comfortable with the status and security of an employee.
The Business Harbour has positioned itself as an intermediary between customers and consultants, offering “portage salarial”, also known as payrolling or salary hosting, as an intelligent solution to all their needs.
The Business Harbour not only takes care of administration, but also provides advice and guidance during contract negotiations and much more. For many consultants, self-employment would have remained a dream, never to become a reality, had it not been for The Business Harbour.
For consultants and the companies that hire them, it’s a simpler way to navigate using this working model. Gina is immensely proud of this achievement and is making sure that her “port” continues to offer this service, which simply allows people to work!
Comme Gina the dit oftenthere are several lives in a lifetime. So after a long, after aong and rich career in the finance sector, when the opportunity to work à sa première passion, botany, Gina set out to create a plantation of vanille on the Caribbean island of Nevis. The prospect of spend less time in front of a computer and more time in the open air, pollinate by hand each flower and finally harvest and market thisvanilla tee is a dream come true.
Cependant, Gina n’aurait pas entrepris ce changement capital dans sa vie sans avoir identifié « les mains sûres » au creux desquelles placer les clés symboliques du Business Harbour.
These hands belong toWanda Swetzer Bender, COO and Managing Partner of the Thalent Group.
Wanda a grew up in Geneva and past most of it of its working life abroad working with international companies in the banking and insurance sectore where managing work and private life can be complicated, especially for those arriving in a new country. Wanda began her career as an interior designer. She has worked as responsable project management in the field of real estate and workplace strategies, and has implemented IT infrastructure concepts.
Recently, Wanda and her partnerMichael Bender, ran the Swiss companies Thalent.com, a freelance administration company, Talents Connection, a recruitment agency for IT services and PEC Consulting, a company offering engineering services.
Familiar with consultants’ needs, Wanda has the expertise and experience to understand what large Swiss companies are looking for in a consultant, as well as the support consultants need to carry out their duties in the best possible conditions.
Gina and Wanda have both negotiated their working lives with the demands that a family brings, by being flexible and having to work part-time. They have experienced first-hand the impact this can have on their pensions, particularly as working women.
They are both hard-working, enterprising women who are open to innovation and able to anticipate trends in the workplace.
As Gina grows her 100% organic and sustainable vanilla orchids on the Caribbean island paradise of Nevis and hands over the keys to the Business Harbour to Wanda, they are both embarking on a new phase in their careers.
Business Harbour is in good hands and the world will soon have a new brand of top-quality vanilla! We wish them both the best of luck!
Article byAntonina Marenco
Contact us :The Business Harbour – Phone : +41 22 908 02 45
