I'm posting in English to reach as broad an audience as possible and to spare you the atrocities of my German grammar skills

I have planned a much-needed trip to Germany in a few months in order to visit friends and practice my language skills.  Now that I have recently gone full-time freelance, I would also like to explore opportunities for things like marketing and advertising in Germany, with the idea of gaining German clients.  I would like to use my trip as a starting point in doing this.

Trouble is, I have no idea where to start.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I'm specifically looking for things that I could do within the span of a 15-day trip that would be fairly low-risk things to do and that more or less require physical presence in the country (since I can do Internet stuff from home anytime).  Are there cheap and effective advertising opportunities that you know of?  Is it difficult and/or expensive to set up a German bank account as an American, for ease of payment with German clients? 

I'm wide open for suggestions here and would appreciate anyone's comments.

Setting up a German bank account without a(n official) German address would be nigh on impossible, I think.

How about trade fairs?  Anything you could home in on which is interesting for one of your specialities.  I've been thinking about this one myself.  Might be expensive though - unless you can team up with someone already there.

Getting an account in Switzerland, however, is a relatively simple matter. The procedures can even be handled by mail.

I don't know the rules in Germany. Many countries have tight and often inconvenient rules about who may have an account. (In Canada, there was a time—only about thirty years ago—when a married woman could not open an account without her husband's permission.) Sometimes mere residence isn't enough: a certain visa status or citizenship may be required.

Another possibility is to open an account, perhaps denominated in euro, at a branch of a German bank in your own country. This might not be any more convenient to clients, however, than any other foreign account. I don't know.

In any case, it would be easy to get answers to these questions before going to Germany.

Scott

Scott, can you provide more information about opening an account in Switzerland? I am in the US and was hoping to open a German account as well, but I have no immediate plans to travel to Germany and no address there.

Well, I guess I'll just have to give it a shot when I'm over there and see what happens!

Daina,

I have never had a Swiss bank account myself, but I understand that it is possible to open one by mail. Try writing to a bank in Switzerland and requesting the necessary documents.

Scott

Hi Daina,

To open a Swiss bank account (numbered) you usually need a reference from someone who already has one - and of course a decent amount of money to deposit. I have had one for 15 years and have never lived there, just have good contacts. The benefits are ease of use and global FX transactions can be made by telephone, however the disadvantage is that the charges have recently gone up astronomically, probably to deter would-be tax-evaders.

regards

dave

Isn't it possible to get a regular (not numbered) account with fewer procedures? I understand that Switzerland has tightened up the rules for numbered accounts in recent years.

Scott