One of the things that I constantly remind people of is that the Official Records are public records that can be researched by anyone.  The California Grantor-Grantee system was one of the first acts of the State Legislature, upon establishing statehood from a federal territory (from the Mexican-American War).  The system was based upon the same systems in other states.  A set of Grantor-Grantee Indices maintained in alpha-numeric order were established to be accessible to the Common Man with an basic (i.e. "elementary" school) education for operating in civil (law) society.  As such, an abstractor is similar to a gardiner.  One can always go out and prune bushes, or one can pay someone else to do it. 

If you want to abstract, look at the records and report on your results.  Do so verbally or in writing; whatever your client will accept.  Find a way to get paid for doing it. 

If your smart, you have formal contracts, liability insurance, written procedures, incorporation papers and other protections in place for you and your co-owners (if any). 

Welcome to an extrememly competitive market.  I agree with the market assessment of others, that you will probably not succeed.  Not to be a downer, but simple business statistics would have me betting against you in a good market, much less this extremely bad one.  Still, competition pushes us to be better, and stimulates a floundering economy, so good luck.