In England I run my own business, which I can still retain some income from each month when I am living in Canada. However, I want to be able to build up a new business in Canada also doing the same work. Does anyone have experience of doing this, or is it the 'norm' for people to move and just try to find work?

Thanks
Sally

Hello, Sally, and welcome to the BE forum.

Wow, I nearly answered your question incorrectly. This was your first post on BE, and I thought you were a total newbie, making your first enquiry about immigrating to Canada.

Then I saw in another thread (your second post) that you had applied for permanent residence in November 2006, and that you had just received your 90-day letter.

Whew, that saved me from a long spiel. Since you'll have PR status, you'll be free to start a business in Canada. Although coming to Canada via a job is more common, some members of this forum have started businesses when they've arrived here.
x

If it helps any, i'm hoping to do the same. Whats your business in ?

Cheers
Cait
IT support, tutoring and healing of sick pc's.

I work in event management - conferences, exhibitions, workshops, seminars...
We're moving to Ontario so I hope there will be plenty of business around there for me!

My husband is an IT consultant so he can carry on a lot of his work that he currently does in the UK from Canada (it's all remote anyway!), and also pick up some contract work potentially.

It's scary ! But I don't want to get a job, I would ideally like to carry on doing what I'm doing because I love it...

Thanks for your replies!

Some people are just not employable!.... And that's a good thing.

If you've been in business for yourself already you know what you need to do.

In today's economic climate you may have to get a job to tide you over, but don't see that as falrure, just something temporary.

Your post suggests that you've done little or no research into your industry in Canada/Ontario. If I'm correct, I think you are being naive in believing you can break in without learning and understanding how things are done here and what type/level of competition you are facing. Perhaps you have sufficient other income and assets that you can weather considerable time and effort without generating income. While you do not want to get a job it would be more appropriate that you work for an existing business and learn how it's done here before venturing out on your own. To me, what you propose is analagous to buying a sandwich food franchise because you know how to make sandwiches but have no idea what type of sandwiches/drinks etc people prefer or how to market them.