If you have the time, set up a server on your local machine, even if you do it at home. Does not really matter about the environment, as long as it is a web environment. I would recommend Apache/PHP/MySQL as I have found it easier to maintain than IIS/PHP/MySQL, if you have Windows, MacOS has its own issues and Linux mastly comes with its own Apache server anyway, but go with whatever you are most comfortable with.
Download and install to your server a recent version, but not the second latest or latest versions. This gives you some idea of how to install a Moodle, and make you aware of some of the pitfalls as well. Once you have it working, and it might take several tries at that for a whole range of reasons, but usually you have made a simple error with passwords, or the versions of the PHP or MySQL are not the right ones, Then try to learn a little about the tool, how to do some basic things, create courses, add images and so on. Then once you are comfortable there, upgrade to the second latest version, trial the techniques you need for a production site.
That is all this exercise is, to trial techniques where you can control the entire environment. Once you are happy with what you know, then develop some resources for the production site, nothing large or overly complex, some simple easily accessible materials, and things that are predictable.
Then try setting it up in a production site. Check with your hosts if anything goes wrong first, then come let us know what is happening.
This is not time wasting, it is simple self-defence. You will learn a lot about Moodle along the way, and get frustrated privately before resolving problems publicly. In the end, you are going to have a test moodle you can use to try things before you put them into your production site, which, I suggest, is best practice anyway. This causes minimum disruption to your clientele, an obvious objective.
Good luck.
