Ever since I visited the island of Dominica in West Indies two years ago, I've been plotting how to move there. As I am getting close to wrapping some things here in the U.S., including getting the U.S. citizenship, that dream is becoming a reality.
I estimate I will have about $1,000 fixed monthly income from my rental real estate in the States and, since I am into outdoor adventure, I plan to try running a small rafting and kayak school company as the island, despite its small size, has a great number of small though raft-navigable rivers. I plan to advertise some through www but I think most of my business, just like any tourist-oriented business on that island, would most heavily depend on marketing directly to cruise ship visitors, i.e. waiting for they to get off the boat and trying to sell them day trips.
My two biggest concerns are:
- What kind of govt paperwork and bureaucracy may I expect on Caribbean islands? If I show that I am bringing some capital into the country, will they readily issue me a small business permit?
- Even though no one does it on the island as of yet (despite the great conditions) and I wouldn't have a competitor in the niche, I would still be competing with other tour operators on the island, who market things like waterfall tours to cruist ship customers. Since the population is small (cca 70K), what kind of resistance may I be getting from the competition, given that I would be a foreigner who came to take a piece of their pie? I am concerned about things like someone doing something violent or destroying my means of production and such. When I visited, everyone seemed seemed friendly but then I was just a tourist and not a competitor.
