As everyone has pointed out, hosting is an extremely competitive space. We (Virtualmin) build tools for the industry, and the majority of our customers are providing hosting services in one form or another (though not all could be called "hosting providers"--many are web developers that host their clients sites as a value-add, and for their own convenience, since they can always install the software they need when they need it).
I would recommend you do a bit more research before building a basic hosting service. You'll be competing with people who charge a couple of bucks per month for service. It takes an awful lot of customers to make a living out of $2/month agreements (many of whom will disappear after the first month or two, so customer acquisition will be a constant struggle).
I would almost certainly recommend you aim for the high end of the market rather than the low. You can't do it with a cPanel plan from Hostgator, however. You'll need one or more dedicated servers with a good method of backing it up (either to S3 or to a file share at your hosting provider). From there, pick a niche that you love (Ruby on Rails, Python/Django, PHP with some framework or application, etc.) and build a really nice service based on providing the best possible user experience for deploying that kind of application. Or, focus on your local market, and build relationships with small businesses in your area. In either case, you can charge a premium for good service, and because you're offering a very focused set of features (either support for a complex set of tools, or a local personal touch, or something else) you won't be competing with every hosting provider in the world (of which there are thousands or tens of thousands depending on your definition of hosting provider).
I would recommend you do a bit more research before building a basic hosting service. You'll be competing with people who charge a couple of bucks per month for service. It takes an awful lot of customers to make a living out of $2/month agreements (many of whom will disappear after the first month or two, so customer acquisition will be a constant struggle).
I would almost certainly recommend you aim for the high end of the market rather than the low. You can't do it with a cPanel plan from Hostgator, however. You'll need one or more dedicated servers with a good method of backing it up (either to S3 or to a file share at your hosting provider). From there, pick a niche that you love (Ruby on Rails, Python/Django, PHP with some framework or application, etc.) and build a really nice service based on providing the best possible user experience for deploying that kind of application. Or, focus on your local market, and build relationships with small businesses in your area. In either case, you can charge a premium for good service, and because you're offering a very focused set of features (either support for a complex set of tools, or a local personal touch, or something else) you won't be competing with every hosting provider in the world (of which there are thousands or tens of thousands depending on your definition of hosting provider).