You have to wait over a year to get an exhibition most places (that the work will actually sell in).
I wanted to try get one quicker so I had an exhibition in a local library last year, it took loads of work to prepare for and cost quite a bit for printing and framing, virtually no-one saw it and only one person inquired about buying a piece. I'm also not happy with that work anymore and want to continue to work on my more current style, so don't have a huge amount I'd like to show.
I've been invited to submit a piece for an open exhibition at a gallery I had a piece in last year, so I will put one into that, that will be for sale. I think my best bet is just trying to save as much of my wages as I can!