Try before you buy!

Get a reseller account and see if you can sell anything on it. Dropping cash on gear pretty much locks you in until it's paid off, or you get it taken back for a loss.

If you can get some sales as a reseller, get a VPS or a Dedicated server and run off of that.

As said before, LEARN how to use your control panels. Make sure you have good support to take care of the things you don't know. Your going to need a good / easy to use control panel. There's a bunch out there, so give them a whirl yourself. You'll also need a billing support system, whmcs seems to be the easiest to get rolling on.

Ask lots of questions.