Is it possible to start a business from scratch ?

I'm wondering wether it is actually possible to start completely from scratch without breaking any laws or regulations.

At a bookshop this weekend I was flicking through Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Rich and read something that was quite interesting to me. On this page Paul said that when trying to find the 'recipe' that natural rich people use he asked some rich, successful people the following question.
Imagine you wake up one day in a completely alien place to you with only £100 in your pocket, you have no contact with friends, colleagues etc how will you turn the £100 into the riches you have today ?

The answers were varied, but all were based around starting some very small business and building this and diversifying.

I have been thinking about this realistically and believe that in the UK there are too many regulations and laws to actually start a business from only £100.

My example.
I own a few classic VW campervans / buses (I restore these and rent / sell them). If I wanted to start a new business, not even from scratch because I already have the van as an asset, a tourist bus service or special event hire I couldn't just start trading. I would need to include 'hire and reward' on my insurance policy, if not included I should have public liability insurance. I would need a private hire license from the council for the special events hire and taxi license for the tourist bus service. All these cost money and have extra costs included to obtain the license, the van would need to be serviced and have a report written to get the private/taxi licenses.

My feeling is there is always an insurance, trading license, driving license, health and safety, tax, or qualification/certification problem preventing a honest business starting for only £100.

What are your thoughts ? How does this compare globally ?

Here it is similar to what you describe, but I think for some businesses £100 is just barely possible. If you choose a service that doesn't require any upfront expenses except for the minimum licence fees etc. then it will be something close to that. IIRC it was around EUR 90 a few years ago.

If you want to incorporate then it will be a bit more expensive but you should be able to find the exact number for your jurisdiction somewhere. In that case every pound can be crucial for avoiding technical bankruptcy.

Keep in mind that the question doesn't say "how will you legally turn the £100 into the riches you have today". If you fudge a few things and stay under the table, you can get enough with that starting £100 to then go on and actually get the licenses and such that you'd need. If illegal immigrants can do it (and I know a guy who was illegaly working under the table in London up until he got caught) in the real world, then so can some foreigner in the hypothetical.

Similar to Nrblex's point, there are a number of money-making ventures that are considered too small to require licensing, permits, or additional insurance. At one point I looked into what the requirements for doing an eBay business would have been, locally - and I could have started the work without any of the licensing, insurance or other fees that are mentioned by the OP. Getting such things, and establishing an LLC would have been high priorities as the business grew - but for a starting position, and/or proof of concept to get funding for expanding such a business, it can be started without having to pay any fees.

Of course, this is a specific example, time and place specific. I'm not sure that it's possible now to do that locally.