Ok, this is what ya have to have.
4X4 truck, for most applications 3/4 ton or larger.
Insurance
Time for paper work ( sounds like you have that)
Ok New 3/4 ton with a plow, anywhere from $ 24,000 on up.
Now used cost, very from location to location. I don't know if you want to trade your current truck (which sounds like it can't plow) for one that can, thats up to you.
You can make money plowing, however your first year won't be your most sucessfull, it will take time to learn the whole business and way to plow. If you could get 30 or 40 driveways, then i think you could do allright, i would stay away from commercial the first year.
Then you have to decide if you want to charge per push, how many times you plow, which is decided by the number of snow storm ( you will get more customers this way). If you get very little snow, per push may not make you much money However it is easier to manage less customers. So if you charge XXX.XX per season to keep the drive clear, you know how much you will make from the start of the season. However it is harder to sell a yearly contract to a residential customer. Only if you have lets say 25 residential customers at lets say 6K a year ( these numbers are just hyp ). It is easier to manage 25 accounts, than to manage 40. If you can make 6K with 40 accounts per push, or make 6K with 25 accounts per season, which way would you go?
Other than that go back as far as ya can in the forum, and read the old post. To help you decide if you want to plow or not. Just remember if you start plow, you will be stuck in mass all winter, no trips to away (at least long distance, 2 week trips)
Geoff