I know you mention null sec close to high sec if possible but have you considered WHs? Like null sec but highsec as little as 3 jumps away!
I’m currently recruiting for Space Mutts. We are a EU based WH corp. We live in WH space, specifically a C4 with static C3/C5, so plenty of opportunity to make isk and shoot people from all over EVE.
If you would like to have a chat feel free to hop on discord our into our ingame channel ‘Space Mutts’.