Sense of freedom
For young entrepreneur Cao Ximeng, being self-employed gives her a sense of freedom in her life. "I used to be told to do things that my conscience disagreed with but now I wake up every morning motivated to work hard and put my own ideas into practice," she told the Global Times.
With a bachelor degree in finance and marketing from the University of British Columbia in Canada, Cao spoke fluent English and had good intern experience in finance, fashion, and consulting. She could have taken a well-paid job with several companies but chose to go on her own.
After graduation Cao worked in new media industry but found the job was tedious and she had no time to herself. Thinking about starting her own business she realized that many of her friends at that stage were having babies and looking for foreign babycare products.
The development of O2O platforms is providing new opportunities for entrepreneurs. A growing number of Chinese people have been setting up stores and selling products online. Cao also saw the huge market potential of online business, and came up with a plan to set up an online shopping website specializing in foreign babycare products.
At first, her plans for the online store were nothing more than some scribbles in her notebook but she and her partners began undertaking the necessary but dull practical work, contacting overseas suppliers and offering to act as agents.
"Though many brands didn't give us any feedback, once one brand showed an interest in working with us we became encouraged again and went back to emailing and calling. Now more than 20 foreign brans are working with us," Cao said.
She believes her internship and work experience helped pave the way for her independent career. Her experience in new media familiarized her with advertising and branding on social networks. Her experience as a consultant taught her how to approach potential clients. But being self-employed, the way she is now, is the ideal position for her.
Cao said she wasn't earning as much as some people thought she might be because she was ploughing much of her earnings back into the business. She is also grateful that her family has given her support - economically and emotionally. "I have to admit that my family doesn't expect me to earn money at this stage so I can stay calm and focus on putting my ideas into practice rather than worry about profits in the short term," she said.
Learning to focus
It is the independence of being self-employed that really appeals to writer and filmmaker Tao Li. "I think the best thing about my independent career is that it brings my voice to a wider social group and allows my ideas and values to have a bigger impact on society," she told the Global Times.
For her working as a freelance creator is not about her personal freedom but her desire to help free a larger part of society. Creative work attracts a lot of self-employed people for various reasons -a recent LinkedIn report showed that, 46 percent of the self-employed registered on its website were working as designers, filmmakers, painters, performers or musicians.
Tao first worked as a documentary producer at a television station in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, a post that gave her good experience but she felt, after a while, it was limiting. She packed everything up, one day, and went to New Zealand for a new beginning.
In Wellingotn, New Zealand, she studied filmmaking at Victoria University and opened her own studio while teaching at a local school.
She made a name for herself with her documentary film, Waves, which explored the lives of Chinese students in New Zealand and how they coped with cultural identity and fitted into a new country.
The film became one of the top 10 films in the 2006 New Zealand Film Festival and the next year her movie was introduced into secondary schools in New Zealand as a teaching resource.
"Youth, growth and cross-cultural experience are themes I always focus on in my works," said Tao. This year, her studio is making another film in Australia.
Looking back on her life, Tao thinks young people should try to gain as much industry experience as possible and build up their own social networks on major platforms like corporations and institutions before branching out on their own.
Increasing demand
Gu Jun, a professor of sociology at Shanghai University, explained why the number of self-employed workers is increasing in China.
"First, the demand for self-employed individuals is increasing in the market, and there are more channels for people to freelance. A second reason is that self-employed workers can now get respectable incomes. Third, self-employed work meets a young person's need for freedom and individuality. This work allows them to arrange work based on their own schedules, rather than follow company arrangement," he said.
But he warned that self-employment is not for everyone. "Self-employed workers need to have a positive attitude because sometimes business is good, but sometimes it is bad, and they need to survive the stress of an unpredictable income. Also, self-employed workers need to have good self-discipline and know how to arrange their time and work properly," Gu said.
