I was fortunate enough to make the move after a layoff that left me with a bit of a runway. I basically made phone calls and met with people, telling them what

I was fortunate enough to make the move after a layoff that left me with a bit of a runway. I basically made phone calls and met with people, telling them what I was interested in doing (X.500 mostly, some PKI (hey, it was a long time ago!)) and asking them not if they had work, but if they knew who might. I made sure to get at least one strong contact from each call/meeting. As time went on, the quality of referral got higher, until I was talking to two people who had work and no one to do it. I ended up getting both contracts, and they kept me busy for my first year (making better money than I had ever made as an employee). Your network has more value than you might think, and working that network can be as simple as “hey, who do you think would be interested in...”