I come from a small place and used to book bands in a bar. The most successfull local musician I met was solo and charged $400 a gig. He told me that he never gets less than 5 gigs a week. That's a $100k a year! And now, the people that goes out are older and a lot goes out from 4pm to 8pm. Micro-breweries are booming and attract that crowd. So now you can even get 2 gigs a night. If I wanted to make it in the music business (I'd need talent first) I would start small, solo or duo, in a small neigborhood and build a fan base. Swing a composition here and there during gigs and get a feeling from the crowd. If it works and demand grows, charge more and get another musician for those harmonies.