I recently took this plunge. I quit less than two weeks ago and now do occasional design freelancing. My goals might differ from yours; I want to contribute to

I recently took this plunge. I quit less than two weeks ago and now do occasional design freelancing. My goals might differ from yours; I want to contribute to more open-source stuff before I make freelancing a full-time thing. But what has helped was just making use of the current network I have - mostly based on a startup incubator that my last company was a part of - and letting them know I was looking for work. And +1 to the “Always be selling.” advice. I hadn’t done freelancing in many years while working at my last startup, but I always let people know that if an opportunity arose, I would work with them in the future. May seem like a shallow commitment, but in a few months, or years, you may sign up a new client this way.