Domain names cost $7/year. VPS hosting will cost you $20/month (or a bit more depending on tech). That's the only barrier between you and running your own software business. If you want to learn to build something, build something. Register a domain, build a site and put it live. Iterate until it's something you're actually proud of, then use it as something you can point to and say "I can build sites like this". Tha…
I already have a domain and a couple of minor projects with no commercial potential. Thank you for the encouraging words though, I've accepted that I will be spending most of my time outside of work working even harder on my own projects, which will form my CV.