By Elizabeth Cloutman

Business Profile

If you own a small or startup company, you may not need or be able to afford a full-time executive assistant to help you take care of all the myriad administrative details involved in running a business. On the other hand, you do need competent and experienced part-time help so you can concentrate on business development - and still have time for a personal life.

Petra Jakobskrueger offers a solution through Creative Partner, her year-old, home-based business. She provides a wide variety of services, from desktop publishing to compiling information for presentations, from scheduling to event planning and trade show support.

“I also work for private people, so they will have more time for their families,” she said.

Jakobskrueger calls herself a “virtual” assistant because she offers her services through the Internet.

“I work from my office at home and take on assignments through e-mail and fax unless they need to meet me in person,” she said.

A native of Dusseldorf, Germany, Jakobskrueger earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

In Germany, she worked for several major corporations, including Revlon. She has more than 10 years of experience in a variety of positions: executive assistant, human resource manager and assistant manager of key accounts.

While still living in Dusseldorf, she met the man who two years ago became her husband. Ralf Muenster, a Munich native who is a marketing manager for Advanced Micro Devices in Sunnyvale, had returned to Germany on vacation.

After a long-distance romance, the two married and Jakobskrueger moved to Los Altos, where Muenster was already settled.

Three months ago the couple moved to Campbell, but she said Los Altos is a town they still love.

A self-described perfectionist, Jakobskrueger spent a year researching where her skills and experience would be the most useful.

With the shifting economy and Silicon Valley’s many home-based businesses, she decided she would offer outsource services, at an hourly rate.

“I’m an entrepreneur myself,” she said. She has regular clients and hopes to gain more.

Because she is bilingual, Jakobskrueger wants to assist Silicon Valley businesses in serving German businesses, as well as helping German businesses seeking Bay Area connections.

She also offers translation services.

Being a perfectionist, Jakobskrueger has adopted an aphorism from Aristotle as her company motto: “Excellence is not an event, it is a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

One of her regular clients, Derek Gerlach, president of Helios Photonics, a Palo Alto startup, attests to Jakobskrueger’s skills and conscientious nature.

“We have used Creative Partner for help in document creation. (Jakobskrueger is) thorough, organized, detail-oriented and a pleasure to work with. We are very pleased.”

For more information or to contact Jakobskrueger, e-mail info@creativepartner.com or logon to www.creativepartner.com.