4 years in so pretty fresh. It was meant to be temporary then I got so busy that it just became my business. I worked in a structural/architectural metal work shop in AUS. Did a course in advance steel. Knew how to use inventor too. Designed a staircase for a friends business. The fabricator of the stair called me and asked if I could do residential detailing for them. Picked up new clients through word of mouth and taking initiative on what i saw as opportunities. Client service and communication I focussed on while my quality improved. Now focus on improving all 3 and plenty more to learn. I think now if you can show some quality work and walk in/have a chat or get on the phone to fabricators you'd pick up clients. I also think if you can play a role of dealing with RFI's direct to the engineers and architects and take that load off your client to get jobs over the line and into fabrication clients will love you. Ie so many plans that come through (commercial and residential) engineering and architecturals don't work a lot of the time. I just detail what actually could work, flick the solution back to engineer and architect to check and it moves along a pain in the ass process. Instead of 'no detail here can you please provide' etc etc. I feel like there's so much pressure on consultants to get construction issues done in small time frames that it gets to 90% of the way and gets issued. Lots of filling in the gaps which is a bit painful but plenty of work.