>> As mentioned the work really is feast or famine and personally I have not got enough clients to go on my own yet, also in the past 5 years the competition for CAD services etc has increased greatly, just google CAD services, CAD outsourcing and you will see. <<

This is so true Alexander. And the reason for this is that the market is rather saturated, regardless of what country you live in. But there's hope in this... as a client of mine put very succinctly:

"There are about 2000 'CAD guys' in Cape Town but you can count on your two hands those that actually know what they are doing and are prepared to offer a professional service. The rest are a bunch of chancers that are holed up in their living rooms with a pirated copy of whatever."

I think his point was that if you want to be taken seriously then go the distance. Start a registered company, use legitimate software, keep proper records, get professionals to do your advertising, etc.

Interestingly, all the people I spoken to reckon the biggest put-off is a @gmail or @yahoo email address (as opposed to @companyname)...

Perhaps try finding niche markets that previously you never thought of, for example Lawyers and scene recreation exhibits. Perhaps go to local hospitals or any business that has the public filing through its building and offer isometric building floorplans that designate emergency exits routes. If you give yourself a couple of small goals that might be overlooked by a very saturated talent pool you could in essence test the water. There are lots of people who don't need 3d art, but your new job is to convince them otherwise. Oh and one last thing, make friends with the parks and rec department head in your city, offer him/her some free renderings of the project concepts they often are required to create but don't have the budgets for. You can inform yourself of the projects they have ongoing by searching the city's webpage. It might lead to connections that pay off down the road.

Your new job will be modeling 1/2 the time while the other half is creating working relationships.

Good luck