After spending more than 6 years in crypto, this is the best bear market I am having. The last one taught me a lot. I know, in the next bull, whenever it comes, I am going to be fkn rich as per my country's standards. xD If you want to be in crypto full-time, having a strategy to survive bears should be your #1 priority. It's easy to lose interest when the markets are down. In a bull market, new projects pop up everyday. In a bear market, it goes the opposite.
So what can one do to survive without having a job? You can't. Unless you are already rich or have an income stream, you cannot survive the bear market. You need to pay your bills and need extra money to invest regularly in assets. If you are making money trading and flipping NFTs, you are most probably gambling it all away. Instead, focus on building a varied set of skills. That's how you can build long-term value for yourself.
Learn A Skill & Monetize
The first thing you want to do is to learn a high-income skill like copywriting, graphic design, coding, etc. It can be anything you like and is also high in demand. Do free paid work or internship to learn the skill on the job. That's the best way to go about it. You learn more by doing. Start looking for gigs as soon as you niche down to skill. You can take paid courses or watch youtube videos to learn the basics of any skill for free. And then use platforms like Upwork and Fiverr to get gigs. Maybe get a full-time and work under an experienced person who is a master of the skill you want to learn.
Once you become decent or good enough at what you do, it's time to level up - Monetization of the skills. There are two things you can do to make money from your skills:
- Freelancing: Freelancing is the best way to earn by selling your skills. You can achieve time and location freedom which is kind of absent in a job. An open market will always be ready to pay you more for your skills than your job.
- Content Creation: Build a personal brand by creating content on social media channels around your skill and get paid by selling your knowledge in the form of info products. You can use Hive to publish your content and get a chance to earn crypto.
I would say, try both. They are separate businesses and have the potential to keep your inward money flow busy at all times. Once you start making more than you spend, you can use the rest of the money to invest in crypto. That is exactly what I am doing right now.
How I Am Surviving
5 months ago, I was in deep shit. Closed my supermarket business. Lost most of my life savings (around $30k) I invested in the business. And went into a huge debt that might take years for me to repay. But then I decided to start another side hustle. I didn't want to take any money out of my crypto investments because doing that in a bear market would be a disservice to my years of hard work.
So I had a small chat with @forexbrokr (The Legen) and decided to freelance side hustle on Upwork. Created my profile and started finding writing/copywriting & graphic design gigs. This is what I have been able to make so far:
| SNo | Month | Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nov | $120.20 |
| 2 | Dec | $898.93 |
| 3 | Jan | $1,061.42 |
| 4 | Feb | $2,241.75 |
| 5 | Mar | $1,455.15 |
This isn't a flex, it's just a snapshot to show what's possible. As a side hustle, this is great money in most countries. You can easily turn this into full-time job if you want.
In December, I had a breakthrough with Chat GPT & other AI tools that helped me up my game even as a newbie. 🫡 You can read the full story in the linked blog where I mentioned all the steps I took to bag more than 3 clients in Jan and how Chat GPT helped me do it with more efficiency and productivity.
Now I am also building a personal brand on Twitter to find more opportunities as a creator too. I don't want to freelance forever. At some point in time, I will have to fire them because let's face it, freelancing is tiring and it needs your presence unless you own an agency with employees supporting you. And I find it better working alone. So content creation (on Twitter and Hive) will help me achieve this goal to work as a solopreneur all my life.
What are you doing to survive in this bear market? Let me know in the comment section below.