Struggling to make up your mind about freelancing? Anyone hoping to freelance in China, whether they writers, designers, consultants, trainers, or male models, would do well to arm themselves with as much information as possible.
Understanding How To Make It Freelancing In China
Pros
You may probably already see the benefits. Ultimately, it’s the adaptability that’s the biggest plus. If you’re employed full-time by a single employer, you usually work Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm and have very little time off for holidays. You may schedule your own time off as a freelancer, avoiding the busy summer months. Because most online writing gigs can be done remotely, being a freelance writer opens up a lot of geographical flexibility. Taking your laptop to Sanya for a week of remote work seems great when it’s chilly and dry outside. You may earn more money freelancing in China than you would from a single income if you are ready to put in the time and effort. Even more so if you work as a freelancer for a company based outside of China and are thus paid in a currency other than RMB.
Cons
There are, however, drawbacks to consider. The prospect of working in a setting other than an office might be intimidating for some individuals. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to be self-disciplined and capable of working alone. Without a boss checking in on you at 9:00 each morning, you’ll have to establish and maintain your own schedule. Many individuals find that they are able to keep going with the help of the structure of a full-time job, despite the monotony of their workdays, and the company of their coworkers, which they may lose if they were to go to a remote work schedule. In addition, being a freelancer isn’t the most steady lifestyle, particularly in the outset. It’s possible to go from having a lot of work on your hands to just scraping by if your employers are slow to pay you.
Being well-organized is essential while working alone. It’s easy to become disorganized when you’re working for many clients at once, particularly when it comes to billing. To avoid this, it’s a good idea to have a shared spreadsheet for all of your clients and to create separate email folders for each project or client.
Finances, including billing and taxes
If you sign a contract as an individual and submit invoices on a monthly basis, the firm will handle invoicing and tax payments on your behalf. Taxes are waived for those whose monthly income is less than 5000 RMB. If you want to make six figures working for major corporations, you should establish a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise rather than a partnership. You may engage in commerce, manufacturing, and consulting via a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE). Investment is significant initially, thus only those with deep pockets should think about this.
It’s possible that you’ll have to pay taxes in the nation where you get payment if you’re working as a freelancer for a firm based outside of China and having money wired to an account there. It may be worth looking into so you don’t run into any issues when you go back.
Start Freelancing In China
However, the difficulty of actually landing a job is very context-specific. The expat employment boards are a useful resource for anyone seeking creative jobs. You may now post your resume and have prospective employers search for you on HiredChina, which contains job ads for more than 50 cities in China. HiredChina, which calls itself the “biggest outsourcing platform in China,” is a great niche site worth checking out. In this model, businesses advertise work opportunities and freelancers submit bids. Escrow is used for the financial transaction. Simple to set up and use, registration takes no more than a few minutes. You may also meet potential customers at networking events, on professional networking sites like Linkedin, and via word of mouth. Employment bulletin boards are a gold mine for anyone looking for careers in modeling and acting. If you’re looking for a job in a nearby city, you should check out local employment boards. After a few assignments, an agency is more likely to take you on, which will increase your chances of getting consistent employment.
Making it as a freelancer in China is, of course, more difficult and less secure than working full-time for a single firm, but the payoff is substantial if you can pull it off.