You are spot on, and it is such great fun to browse a book store, it sounds amazon sterilized it which is probably a rare misread on what target customers wanted.
You start by posting on upwork etc and try to grow out. $10/hour clients or $500 per job clients are simple but abusive and not sustainable. $125 / hour clients are really really hard to get and you gotta get 3 or 4 until you are in a derisked position. Finally, staffing companies are great but require a lot of 9-5 commitment but you can build your portfolio.