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Welcome to the Forum, Amanda! I enjoyed clicking through your site (and may I add that if you don't find much portrait work in your area you should certainly continue to do your figurative work and apply for gallery representation. I think you have a gift for narrative figurative paintings as well as for portraiture.)
There is a lot of information addressing your business questions contained in the Business, Marketing and PR section of this Forum.
Getting a great portfolio together and creating samples of portraits are very high priorities for everyone interested in the business. Start painting friends and relatives and hire models if you have to. (It probably helps to have attractive subjects in your samples, though I don't know that for a fact.) Try to include adults, children, a group of children... anything that will spark ideas in the heads of potential clients. Remember, portrait artists are hired on the basis of their past performance, not necessarily their potential to paint a great painting at some future date.
Several Forum members have received portfolio awards from the Portrait Society and I hope they will give you some input as to what to include in your portfolio.
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