I went back to school for a career change in my 40's and am now an LCSW. Not at all familiar with Montana as far as clinical licensure, the economy, or social work rules and regs, but here's my .02
--Are you male? I don't want to presume. As a male therapist your practice will quickly get full. There are far fewer men in the field and many clients are looking for a male therapist. If private practice is your goal you will likely want to add specialized training, e.g. motivational interviewing, trauma/EMDR, DBT, ACT or something to provide you with a selling point to referral sources as well as to potential clients who are looking for a particular skill set. Working with adolescents you might well be swamped with clients as many single parents want their boys to see male therapists IME.
--If you are not male, look at how saturated your area is with female therapists, and look carefully. What is a niche that needs served in your area (eating disorders, DBT, SPMI are some that will always be sought out/sent referrals from therapists who won't see those clients, while general depression/anxiety/life stressor populations may be overserved already and you might have trouble distinguishing yourself from the pack/staying full.
--after you graduate, you will need to do at least two years as a CSW before getting your L (in my state, anyway). Salary will be lower at this time (here they start in the lowish 40's) and you may have to pay for clinical supervision if your employer does not provide it, so factor that into your costs.
--if you are AT ALL entrepreneurial, you can likely double++ your current salary once you have your L and a few years of work in your community. Open a private practice and rent offices to another couple of therapists, or hire 1-2 contract therapists to take your overflow, and pay them 50% of what insurance pays you, build this out and up as far as your market will support. Bring in an APRN so you have a prescriber handy and that will bring people in. Or, instead of an outpatient therapy office, open up sober living or other intensive/residential treatment programs. One guy moved here from another state, quickly got connected to law enforcement/court system, and now provides virtually all the court-ordered domestic violence or drunk driving related services in a multi-county area, with his crew of recent graduate CSWs who are getting less than 50%.
In short, it can be as much of a business as you want it to be, or as little. But unless things are very different in Montana, as a male LCSW you will have every advantage whether you go the private practice, sole practitioner route, build your own agency, or want to become a director of an existing agency. If you're a female, you may need to strategize more carefully to have a full practice in your early years, but the entrepreneurial part will still be true.