For Anton Verstakov, being a freelancer is crucial to ensuring the effectiveness of his product. “For me, the feeling of being on my own means I can control things myself. I will not be irritated by non-professionals.”

Freelancing can mean a lot of different things, depending wildly on the industry, the location and the individual. Just as for one person it denotes their freedom to choose what kind of work they take on, for another it is a natural, sometimes temporary, solution to the predicament they find themselves in after losing their job. It may be a long-term career builder or a short-term money spinner; a clear-cut independent consultancy or a marriage of convenience between a would-be employee and an almost member of staff.

Typically hard to quantify, freelancing is a concept that during the nineteenth century denoted inferior quality work from someone considered to be less reliable. But attitudes certainly have changed and now freelancing is really seen as a cheaper and more flexible way of getting services that staff or temporary workers provide. Many company bosses in Russia are currently less enthusiastic about employing staff and thus often use outside help from potentially more experienced independent operators. In March, research by Russia’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) suggested that freelancing was becoming more profitable during the current difficult economic times, and 80 percent of the 13,000 freelancers interviewed said that their work paid well.

It cannot all be rosy and freelancing is sometimes the unwanted alternative to a full-time job. Reuters reported in September that in the U.S. for instance design graduates are increasingly being forced into long-term freelancing or intern roles when no permanent jobs are available — the result of budget cuts in fashion companies.

But many deliberately seek the freelance role. Verstakov, a television program feature maker, is living proof of a Russian freelancer who opts away from the payroll — and of the fact that during a recession freelancers need not be the ones that suffer first, or even at all.

“Sure, I was very pessimistic and afraid of the future. I have friends who stopped freelancing and got jobs,” he said. But some tenacity paid off, as he saw several months into the crisis, when in general he said times were tough for freelancers in his industry. One of the difficulties appears to be the fluidity of procuring work. If a freelancer does not advertise actively, and Verstakov said he does not, then they are exposed to the unpredictable, yet more personal mechanisms of word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals.

Having graduated from Moscow State University’s journalism faculty, Verstakov started his career with an internship, a move that symbolized in some way his later move into independent work. From this stint, at the then independently owned television channel, NTV, Verstakov moved into news editing and helped launch the English-language channel Russia Today. “It was at this stage that I started doing documentaries which really boosted my enthusiasm to do independent work,” he said. “From fashion to Old Believers, the work was engaging, and I was still at Russia Today when I did my first documentary on my own.”

Using his knowledge of the system for pitching and carrying out projects, Verstakov was well-placed to tackle the world of documentary making on his own. He started selling documentaries to people that he knew, before becoming, in his own eyes, more fully fledged as a freelancer. “But Moscow is nepotistic and you cannot get into this business unless you have ties and connections... but I don’t like this. It’s idealistic, but I’d like to see a level playing field,” Verstakov explained. From this platform, he has managed to attract and work for a wide range of clients, many foreign, including the likes of Sky News and Al-Jazeera. He now regularly performs the entire documentary-production process from beginning to end, and his partner, Masha, helps out with the sound from their shared apartment-studio near Kievsky Station.

Verstakov is clearly just one example of a man, who, in his capacity as a sole trader in Russia, has managed to carve out a production and continuous line of business for himself in Russia. But marketing is not his pre-occupation, as he said that it is really word-of-mouth that acts as his promoter. He has a web site that people may chance across, but he never uses promotional tactics beyond that.

Naturally, there are no guarantees that Verstakov, or any other freelancer of this type, would receive a steady stream of work. “It’s great fun with a steep learning curve — a school of life. But even when engaged by a client, particularly a Russian one, there is little or no legal guarantee. I use mostly

e-mail agreements. I consider this legal.” However, this can put freelancers at risk of not being paid, even when a project is complete, as Verstakov has found out on occasion: once a long documentary on the United Nations’ relations with Russia, costing him thousands of dollars, brought no end result.

Maksym Kozub, a Ukrainian professional interpreter and translator, based in Kiev, has been a freelancer for the last 14 years. “The word itself contains a hint as to one of the key advantages: it is about freedom,” he said. “You manage your time and resources, and, if you are good at what you are doing, the returns, including the financial returns, are yours.” In Ukraine, Kozub said, there are a number of advantages to freelancing that cannot be felt by those on the payroll. The “so-called single tax”, he said, is a useful system for those that earn under 40,000 euros a year, for example. This tax is even lower for him during the current weakness of the hryvna — a clear advantage to be found for the work of a freelancer who uses the euro as an economic benchmark during the crisis.

“There is, however, another aspect to it, which is even more important for me... it is easier to keep to your ethical standards,” Kozub was keen to stress when describing his vision of the freelancing world. For Kozub, differently from Verstakov, itself a sign that freelancing clearly differs from industry to industry, there is a wide range of associations and societies that offer something of a forum for members of his industry. True, they may not all be specifically aimed at supporting freelancers, but given the prevalence of freelance translators — “translation and interpreting is naturally a good example of how freelance principles can work” — he is able to mix with similar people.

Given the manoeuvrability of his work place — as Kozub said: “a translator can sit in a room of 10 square meters with his or her PC” — there is no reason for forums and associations for translators and interpreters to be restricted by geography. Indeed, Kozub is a member of the American Translators Association, even though, ironically, he is not part of the Ukrainian Translators Association. In terms of co-operatives and networks of supporting such work in Russia, for example, he said: “I know that many Russian freelance translators and interpreters are members of the Union of Translators of Russia. I have heard mixed opinions as to its real usefulness.” While this is no condemnation, it is worth remembering that freelancers are, all the same, always exposed to the sometimes harsh winds of the market. “I pray for my colleagues and other people who have lost their business as freelancers or their jobs as employees,” Kozub said.

Kozub too does not advertise — at least not directly. “Some clients contact me because they find me searching through the ATA membership directory, or profiles on web sites, but I do not run any active advertising. Even my website looks ugly; I made it after getting tired of colleagues and clients telling me ‘you need a web site’. My clients come mostly by reference from others.” This referral process, which Verstakov described as part of the excitement of working in the business, reflects what over a third of HSE’s respondents called the avoidance of routine — one of the major advantages of flying solo in the working world. So, although the outlook may be unpredictable in today’s economic predicament, there are reasonable grounds for independents and freelancers, voluntary or not, to feel buoyant about the prospects and conditions for their work.