It seems if selling 3D models is the thing, there are two obvious approaches: the highball lotto (just need one person willing to spend that much) and then the lowball Wallmart approach (have bargain prices and hope for plenty of buyers). It's also reasonable to split the difference. The thing is that I've seen the quality differ too much even at different price points, so I can't honestly say it's directly a quality vs. quantity aspect. It seems more like you need to figure out a formula comparing experience in what the market will bear for similar items vs. your own reputation among potential buyers.

Now if you're doing custom one-off jobs and renders rather than selling 3D models to a general audience then the below comes into play:

The tool doesn't matter as much as how you are able to apply it. And there's been plenty of evidence that Carrara is capable as any. (The problems that come up on the business end is more of a hardware issue, and that has to do with rendertime vs. deadlines. Which can be hard when starting out if working with old stuff while the budget is too tight for computer upgrades. And this is true for any 3D software - even free ones like Blender.)

(However, the thing about the tool isn't as true if you plan on working under somebody else's roof. A lot of companies have bought into industry marketing hype and put a lot of money into certain software and support packages, and want you to know how to use what they have despite how ugly and hairbrained the UI, workflow, or hardware requirements are. It means you're left out unless you can learn to use something that barely runs on your desktop computer because it fits somebody else's renderfarm pipeline. Sucks, but it's true.)

I think another aspect of it isn't just what you know, but who you know. It's very hard to do business if people keep blowing you off. And if you don't like doing cold-calls and such, that doesn't make it any easier. And since it seems more than competitive enough these days, the establsihed folks tend to stay mum when you ask for leads since they want to keep clients and don't want to risk their rep by association or having an upstart do too much undercutting. Unless you've got a friend who'd trust you with some clients or the luck to run into somebody with a glut of extra work they'd not mind handing off... (Or more likely, "problem" clients they're dumping.) It's tricky at best.

The hardest part of all is perhaps staying self motivated and keeping focus when little has happened. (Pretty much the ol' adages "Hang in there." and "Keep on keepin' on." etc, have some truth to them.) As an artist, this means figuring out how to keep the muse from going on vacation and taking the inspiration with her. And this is the time when you need make something worthwhile to put into a portfolio - and then there's figuring out what exactly to put into a portfolio, etc. This is because it's always good to have something to show once somebody responds. Afterall it only takes is one good client to recommend you to another client, etc. in order to get the ball rolling and helping you achieve critical mass in the business sense.

You could probably tell that I'm on the "hanging on by a thread" end of the spectrum, but I try to stay positive. You'll have to keep the day job until you get that break or two. Persistence means not giving up when other's have shown that it's possible.

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.