The chance to live and work in another country is certainly an interesting and exciting prospect for most people, but the reality is that it’s not as easy as it looks and it requires a lot of planning and preparation ahead of time to make things go smoothly.
That’s assuming the best case scenario when you already have a job lined up or at least a good chance of getting one fairly quickly, but what happens when you run a business where you currently live and are having to move?
It can get quite complicated, to say the least, so here are some things to consider as options. Of course, it’s important to remember that not all of these will apply to your situation because it will very much depend on the type of business you have.
Sell up
If you run a physical business, such as a salon or small store, you might want to consider selling the place because this could be the easiest option for you – especially if you don’t employ a lot of staff where you are.
You could use the profits from the sale to start a new business in your new country assuming you meet the regulations. Although it may feel difficult to let go, it’s not really possible to be in one place and have a business somewhere else that requires you to be there in person.
Move your business
If your business is less focused on needing your presence or is one that’s online based, then you could look at how you could move the business to your new location. Depending on the type of business you have, this could be easier or more complicated than others. It can also very much depend on the country you’re moving to and whether they will allow you to run this business from there.
If you have a lot of equipment or physical products, for example, you may need to await customs approval, and this could take some time, so consider taking advantage of storage units while waiting for your inventory to be shipped.
Run it remotely
Another option you could consider is if you’re able to run your business remotely. For example, if you’re not happy about selling the business, you could consider bringing on someone else to manage the in-person stuff on a daily basis. You can then run it and take care of the management side of things from your new location.
This is not a problem for an online business that’s already working remotely, but if you’ve been an offline business, this can often pose more of a challenge and can take some more time to get things set up and running as they should be.
Hopefully, these tips have helped give you some ideas about what your options might be if you were faced with such a situation. Even if you do need to move some things, it’s not going to be impossible to keep your business even if you move abroad.
