Working in this industry for so many years, by far the question that we have heard the most is what kind of business should I do? Our answer is always the same, it depends?
It wasn’t the answer that you were expecting, but it truly depends. Client’s work background, education and management experience will play a role in the decision. We often don’t come up with a pre-package to impose on our clients, but we rather take them step by step along the road that will lead to the type of business that makes more sense to them.
Thinking about business and immigration, the first question that one has to ask is if you are an entrepreneur. I didn’t say investor, I am using the word entrepreneur on purpose. Investor is the one that has the means, finds a good opportunity and invests their capital waiting for the future results. My definition of entrepreneur is the one that foresees an opportunity in the market where he/she can apply their skills and make things happen. An entrepreneur has an active role in the daily operations of the business and these types of candidates are the ones that have higher chances to be invited by immigration offices across Canada.
Immigatinon is looking for people that can add to the economy, always. To someone that can innovate and have expertise, that will increase demand, offer a product or service where it’s lacking, hiring personnel and paying taxes. Just to keep the economic wheel rolling.
Back to the best type of business, the best one is always the one that you know very well and have been proven successful. How can you get that? Ideally, starting the type of business before you come. If you have an online business model where you can run from everywhere and also provide services and products everywhere you will have a strong case. If we can present to one of the immigration offices a business plan where there is already generating incoming from inside Canada and with a list of clients, we will be halfway there.
A country as Canada is officially open for business and is willing to reward the entrepreneurs with a pathway to immigration, but not all the business models will be rewarded. Canada has a modern and dynamic economy, business as franchisings or retail are not the first priority anymore, the country is looking for the next step, Canada wants innovation to keep up with the world wide technology competition. You can innovate thinking about the product and service that you know and how you can deliver in a modern way.
From this point, another thing to think about is if your business requires a special license. For someone from overseas a special license is always a challenge and it is not always possible. For example, real estate business requires a license in Canada and usually just Canadians or PR’s are allowed to be licensed. If that is your case, please rethink your business model.
You can start from zero and build an innovative business but quite often you can also spring some existing ones. Do some research, check what is available to sell in your desired area of interest and maybe you can find some hidden gems.
Last but not least, to decide what is the best business you will need some inside information. You will need to know how the local community works and how to navigate among them. We often partner with local lawyers, accounts, bank managers, real estate agents just to provide the best holistic view of internal business culture to our clients.
To summarize there is nothing like one type of business that will fit all, the job of finding the best fit will depend on different factors such as expertise, knowledge, experience and market. It is a hands-on project and one step after other is possible to build the project that will bring you, your business and your family to Canada.