Moving to IT consulting

I am computer technician that would like to go into IT consulting. I would like to set up a network in my home that would be similar to what a typical small business would be set up like so that I can experiment with Software that small businesses use and learn to work in and troubleshoot such an environment.

I was looking at getting a Dell PowerEdge T110. Is that a good way to go? Should I set up RAID ? I’m just gonna be using TRIAL version of Windows SBS 2008 to learn along with video training. I’m trying to keep costs down.
Do most small businesses use RAID? Do they use mostly software RAID or hardware RAID?  Do I need to have a raid setup to know how it works for real life? How many hard drives should I get for learning purposes and how large of a hard drive do I need? How much RAM should I get?

Do I need to learn SQL. I am really not very fond of programming languages and database languages. I do very much like being a computer technician.
do you know anybody in the orange county California area that does IT consulting that would be willing to help train me to IT consult to small businesses as a freelance.  Someone that I can be their assistant, or perhaps someone I can pay to school me. I am real flexible.

Thank You in advance.