Hey There,
I'm in a bit of a similar situation to you. I enjoy studying Web Design in my spare time. I also really like helping nonprofits and small municipal organizations. I've taken some first steps to turning this into my profession, and the key to this was two-fold:
1) The nonprofit I worked for in the summer had a terrible website. I made a portfolio website that showed what I could do, sent it to the director, and asked her if I could redesign her website. She agreed, and we went for it. Things went well, but one thing about starting your own business is you really work closely with people, and if they are very difficult people, you have to find a way to deal with them.
2)So I had my first success at an opportunity I found by leveraging my current connections. How to proceed from there? Offer to volunteer your services. I reached out to a local Americorps worker offering to volunteer my web design skills. We emailed back and forth for weeks and just recently say down for a meeting of 4 people in a small municipal government office. We are currently putting together a proposal to update the current website and if it goes through, I'll have my second client.
I'm not where I want to be yet, but I've started to get some traction and very hopeful that I'm on my way.
I'd love to talk to you more and see if we could help each other if we can find similar interests.
- Max