Buying a business to qualify for residency.
These bars/restaurants and businesses offered on this web serve you by, first, qualifying you to live here and then by earning you a living while connecting you to the pulse of this country. From time to time they will reappear on the market as the owner’s resell, not only to profit but often to reinvest in other businesses. Some unfortunate folks have been forced to sell out from a pressing need to return to their homelands for one situation or another. In any event, the values of the businesses have never gone down when resold.
The result of this exchange is; there are a lot of folks out here running businesses that are a first time for them, and that includes me. We learn the hard way what works and what doesn't, but the safety net is large since the overhead is so low. The first couple of days or so of the month’s business can pay the rent and the staff can be covered for the month in the next few. Profits are high relative to the expenses, but generally, the net is not the same figure one might have earned in their cubical at General Electric. Coinciding with that, rents and living costs are in line with the lesser numbers. Not that earning can't be every bit the same or more as overseas with a little ingenuity, or assuredly in time, since this place is at ground level, shaking a little in the legs like a new born colt as it gets on its feet getting ready to run the course. Business is "good" for most, but it could hardly be any worse. Tonga is virtually unknown and with more to offer than the best known in the South Pacific. When the spreading word hits the mainstream, anyone here in position with their seat belts on should be in for an interesting ride to the top.
I got into this broker business by accident and I am the first to be licensed, maybe the only licensed one, as I understand. About 5 years ago I bought a bar/restaurant above the CocoNet, operated it profitably for a year and sold it for a profit too. One thing leads to another, but you have to start somewhere. Some folks are at home with the perfect match in the business they chose, others discover their gold while panning silver.
Making things happen,
Robert