Well, depending on the scale you are thinking on, small translation businesses can be ran without investing in a physical place of business. With an industry that relies heavily on freelance work through the web, even if your business is bigger than a one-man show as long as you can outfit your home office with proper Internet access and you are at least moderately tech savvy you can rely mostly on telecommuting. Even big translation agencies tend to use outside resources from all over the world in this manner, and any freelance worker can omit that sort of "office space" investment. 

Just my 2c!