Congratulations an your new venture and good luck. As said above take friends praise with a grain of salt. We all like to praise and compliment our friends so it is not always a true gauge. Start entering the competitions here and in other places . Not those Facebook comps that also depend on how may friends you can get to like your photo but true impartial comps where the identity of the photographer is not known and photos are presented in a random order to eliminate "first photo" bias. There are a few around and the competition system here is excellent. I have found if your photo wins a competition on this site then it is generally of a quality to do well anywhere.