On another thread (perhaps the one dealing with joining art societies), I also recommended hanging your art in specific business locations.
Such establishments as Doctor offices, coffee shops, restaurants, hotel lobbies, barber shops, beauty salons, pet stores, are quite wonderful places tp hang your art, and to sell it, generally. The owner will likely ask for some reasonable percentage of the price, but there is certainly no entry fee. One does NOT need to be "established" in order to do that, and I have found it a very rational way to sell my art, when I was a bit younger. The browsing public in these cases are likely to ask you to do something fpr them on a commission basis, also, and since that is a private bargain between you and the prospective buyer, you won't need to pay ANY commission, even if the opportunity for such a commission truly originated in the coffee shop in which you hung your art.
THIS is the way to get your work in front of the browsing, and buying public, and to "become established". I've sold some work out of one, or two small galleries, and it worked well for me, but galleries can be mighty discouraging, if you pick an inappropriate one for your work. However, galleries can sometimes offer some very helpful advice, regarding things you should do, and things you should not do. If their advice makes sense, I take it seriously. For example, the advice of not inscribing the date on the painting was the best advice that a gallery ever gave me. The reason? "When someone sees and old date on a painting, they get the impression that there must be something wrong with it, since it hung around for so long, without being sold." Once I followed this advice, I've sold paintings that were 4 and 5 years old, with no problems.
There is no particular "protocol" in meeting with a restaurant owner for hanging your art in his establishment, such as there is with galleries. No appointment is necessary; I merely carried several paintings in my car, and asked if they'd care to see it. When you do that, I would estimate that 90% of them would say yes, and once they see your art, and like it. you get to hang your work in their establishment. It's that simple.
Price your work accordingly fot the type of establishment in which you hang your art, though. Nobody is gonna' purchase an $800 painting off the wall in a small coffee shop, although I believe I did sell one for something like $150, or $200.