The basics are: 1) Get good clients. Low-end clients typically aren't worth your time, and it will be hard to make money. 2) The best way to get new business is via referrals. The best business can found through happy customers 3) Don't try to compete on price, or hire the cheapest the employees. It doesn't work well in this business. 4) Have contracts and get everything agreed to in writing 5) Pay careful attention to your costs, and learn basic accounting. Overhead for offices and such costs money. You also need to overhead to cover downtime, sales, project management, and collections. You may need 100% overhead.

If you agree to do a project for $3000, make sure you can really get it done for that prices. You also need to figure out how to deal with change-requests. If you allow too many free change requests, you will lose money.

When setting the prices, you need to think like a businessperson. A lot of designers and programmers don't understand how to price their work very well.