"Getting paid to do shows" and "going professional" are two different things.
Jamie D Grant gets paid good money to do walk around magic - he's purposely not a professional magician. There's a lot of people out there that get paid, but are not doing it full time, or it doesn't make more than 60% of their income (which I use to differentiate between paid performer, and professional performer)
Originally I started getting paid to perform by busking. After a little while I gained more of a reputation and started taking paid gigs. Mostly parties, the occasional event/venue.
These days I focus more on parlor shows than busking, but do busk on occasion to hone material.
If I had one bit of advice to anyone who wants to start shifting to being a professional performer, it would be this: Understand it's a business, and a fairly small community.
You absolutely must have a show worth paying for, but you're going to spend much more time selling that show than you are performing it, if you're earning your living through magic.
Learn the business. Learn about taxes (I set aside at least 25% of all earnings), learn about marketing and CRM, learn about budgeting, learn about the pros and cons of incorporating and whether you should or not, learn about effective website design and use, learn about word of mouth advertising.
Also - never speak poorly about another performer. It makes you look bad, and makes the people asking you about that performer feel bad. You never want people feeling bad from interacting with you - you always want them to feel good. That's what gets you hired repeatedly.
Good luck.