ExcavatorSkills

I live in Staffordshire and currently I'm working on forklift trucks. I have few licenses: Tele truck, canterbalance and combilift. Because of rising cost of living I'm thinking of changing the career. I feel quite positive with the bigger machine than I have operated so far and also in the further plans is the idea of work as a individual contractor (own the excavator and work for myself). I haven't started yet any research of any good places where I can start my adventure with excavator and that's why my post. Please share with me where is the best place to start, what I need to look at, what is the estimated cost of the whole process from a to z. Many thanks.