I couldn't find a teaching job so I became self-employed in Shanghai AMA
After 6 months of job searching, talking to 70+ agents, and going through multiple failed contracts with schools; I said fuck it and made my own way.
It honestly wasn't as hard as people say that it is and I personally believe this is the best option for people who don’t have bachelors degrees or are trying to stay in China past age 60. It even is allowing me to build a path towards applying for permanent residency.
I really want to share what I can about this option especially since the TEFL market is so difficult right now, especially for non-white people. There's also just a lot of misinformation on Reddit about this path so I hope that I can set some things straight for people and provide some inspiration for those who are curious :,) Posting on Reddit makes me so anxious but I want to do what I can to give back to the community that has helped me a lot so far!
I’ll get started with the first two questions I’ll probably get most of:
How did I do it?: I set up a WFOE (Chinas version of an LLC for foreigners) in Lingang Shanghai. I was able to then host my own work permit using an invitation letter from my own company.
How much did it cost: 7k RMB including registration, yearly accounting, work permit transfer, and bank/tax account setups. This does exclude office fees since those vary widely. It can be free or range up to 2800 RMB a month depending on where you set up and what you actually need.
I anticipate that I'll get a lot of questions on this post so I'm giving 24 hours for the questions to collect and then I'll go through and answer them all at once.
Please try to comment under similar questions that you have so that way the questions can stay organized and I can expand on any questions people have fully.
UPDATE: Thank you everyone for your comments! I won't be able to continue to monitor this consistently but if you would like to connect and talk more via WeChat then my DMs are open!