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The first of December marks the end of a 1.5-year-long contract with China Daily, China’s National English Language newspaper.

While China Daily provided me with some great opportunities I’m very excited to move on from this position and this organization to pursue independent projects. I will continue to be based out of Beijing working as a freelancer with video, still photography and design.

Although its a little scary jumping into the freelance network in a city of 20 million people, my independence from China Daily allows me to work with a greater range of clients from all over the world. Working on my own terms will also allow me to travel more and pursue some longer term projects that require extended periods of time and geographic mobility.

When I first graduated college I spent some time as a freelancer, scrapping for work wherever I could. Years later, it feels funny going back. Although I have work already rolling in, in some way it takes a little bit of getting used to being – self employed and not unemployed.

I know a large network of freelancers here in China and throughout the United States. Looking at the difference between this freelance group and my friends who are staffers at newspapers is pretty interesting. As a large generalization, the general happiness level of my freelance friends seems to be higher than that of the newspaper staffers. Although, its pretty clear that the pockets of the staffers are deeper.

When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about layoffs … When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about furloughs … However, as a staffer you don’t have to worry about money coming in, health insurance or finding a place to publish stories and photos.

There are clear benefits to both sides — however, the glim shadow of the newspaper industry’s state seems to be hanging over the staffers’ heads a little more than that of the freelancers. Although to be fair — both sides are clearly effected by the obvious economical and identity problems going on in the news industry.

I think to avoid the newsroom, you have to ask yourself — how unstable are you willing to be? If a paycheck from a job comes in 6-months late, can you still pay rent? And perhaps most importantly, are you self motivated enough to play the freelance game, constantly pitching stories and getting strung along by potential clients that don’t always materialize.

While I don’t have an answer to some of these questions — at this moment I’ve switched to the freelance side after five years as a full time staffer at different news organizations. If (and hopefully when) the right staff job comes along, I’ll jump back; however, at this moment in time — some freedom from a staff job and the Chinese media system is pretty exciting.

Some early observations

WHO TO PITCH TO: While this might seem obvious, for photographers it can be a bit tricky. Writers and reporters can pitch stories directly to editors. However, for photographers — we often find ourselves pitching to reporters, who in turn pitch to editors. While photo essays can sell and run independently, for the most part, assignments must include a story. Once you become a stringer for specific organizations, work will come to you — however, if you just sat around waiting for that to happen you would be wasting time you otherwise could be finding work. This is one reason why video production can be a little easier. I can pitch stories directly and complete the entire project independently.

WHERE TO WORK: There seems to be three options here: (1) Work at home (2) Rent an office (3) Work in coffee shops. After one week I’m finding working at home is more productive; however, there are distractions everywhere. Having a distinct environment to work in seems important — however, if your home and work environment become one, you might always feel like you are working — or worse, never work. The option of renting an office seems more healthy and productive but your monthly expenses sky rockets. I’ve been experimenting with coffee shops, which seems ok once you find the right one. Friend, neighbor and freelance writer Mitch Moxley works out of coffee shops daily. He says, he spends about 70 RMB (10 USD) a day on coffee. While this isn’t cheap, it is cheaper than renting office space — and it is catered.

UPDATING YOUR BIO: Whenever you move on from a job you need to update your resume. However, in this digital age its not as simple as updating one document. Photographers and journalists have bios all over the place. Every social media outlet (I think looking at at least 20 web sites) I subscribe to needs to be updated, Web sites, blogs and professional associations. While this isn’t that big of a deal, it is something different than what people did years ago.

TRANSFER FEES: For a couple clients who are based in Asia, I’ve been extremely amazed at what people charge for international electronic payment. In some cases for small jobs, I’ve found the wire fee is almost 20% of the total payment. This is tricky, because 80% is surely better than 0%, however, at a certain point it doesn’t make sense to even take money in this form. I have bank accounts in China and the US — but keeping too much money in China can be a problem for legal reasons here — in the case you need to leave the country.

WHEN TO TAKE A JOB: Should a freelancer take any job? While the bottom line plays a big factor in this, I will repeat advice photographer Corey Rich once gave me. When asked when he decides to take a job or not Corey responded (paraphrasing): To take a job it must meet two out of three criteria. The job has to either:

• (1) Be something I really want to do, or something I really want to photograph.
• (2) The job has to be with good people — who I would like to hang out with.
• (3) The job has to pay a shit load of money.

If it doesn’t meet two out of three of those criteria, he wouldn’t take the job. I think this is great advice that would certainly make your life meaningful and more fun and something all freelancers should aspire to.