How to fix a bad reputation?

I quit my corporate job (good move) and went straight into working as a sole-trader (in medical adjacent services). It is a highly local business and I was living in an area of town which is wealthy, unforgiving and where people know a LOT about what I do. As usual I made a ton of mistakes – a lot of these mistakes meant I gained an amazing understanding of the market, and of consumer behavior within this industry in general. I learned a lot from some early clients – not directly, but they helped me to hone my services. Sadly I made quite an influential "critic" (I wouldn't call them an enemy, but certainly they won't be recommending me, because of a stupid unprofessional error on my part – I rescheduled a few times when I was having initial scheduling issues and he took it very personally).

The trouble is because I crash landed – I wasn't providing services that were anything near the standard that I am now at. I also could have gone a little easier on clients not paying bills on time. Moving isn't an option – there's still a market around here (it's one of the biggest cities in the world).

Would you suggest I keep going but sort of rebrand my online presence, my marketing tools, and go to local networking events?

Or should I hit a different area for a while? (less inclined to do this as unfortunately this is a very affluent area which also has a very high interest in what I do).

Everyone makes mistakes, right? Maybe not as much as me but – how do you guys keep going when you feel like an entire area is against you? It's a metropolitan area (closest equivalent is NYC / Nashville) but I am not what to do. CURRENT clients are satisfied, regular etc. But enquiries are down, and I think it's reputational.

Thank you for any advice 🙂