[bent]

There are a lot of good replies here. Read them all.

Once you start your own business, regardless of the type of business, your number one job is that of "businessman", not "welder", "machinist", "house painter", or etc. An excellent tradesman who is a poor businessman won't be in business very long, but I have known several poor tradesmen that were excellent businessmen and their business has flourished.

As for what to do? That is a local issue. If you did the best architectural details and charged out at $200/hour you could get every commission in the entire state of Kansas and still starve to death. But if you were great at building pipe corrals you would never be out of work.

When you think of what you want to do/make/repair, think in terms of making a bigger pie. If you have to steal someone's else piece of the pie, that someone else has already been there and knows what to do and how to do it. He will let you steal his unprofitable, slow paying, and pita customers without to much of a fight, knowing full well those customers may put you out of business.