Career change after a layoff, where to begin?

After 4 years as an IT help-desk technician I am thinking about moving into a different field. I am in Portland, in case local advice matters. I have good customer skills and I am comfortable with spreadsheets. How did you start?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

I took a small pay cut for a year, and it was worth it for the growth afterwards.