by Sarah Muxlow

Selling up shop and moving to the other side of the world to start a new business venture isn't as unimaginable as it once was. Australia attracts many new immigrant business buyers, investors and start-up entrepreneurs every year.

Having spoken to the Financial Director at Aussie Migrant (www.aussiemigrant.com), a company formed to ensure that migrants enjoy a stress-free, seamless and successful integration into Australia, it was clear that there is a core process of steps to follow when selling up your current business where you are and purchasing or starting up again here.

The core process can be broken down into three key areas.

Step 1 - Selling Up
The first step to start the selling up process is having your business listed local to where you are and starting the sales process. Taking on the assistance of a broker and sales organizations to help can take the headache out of this stage.

What you may also want running parallel is a pre-arrival business assessment of the type of businesses that are currently in operation in Australia or could be set-up by yourself. This could be either detailing an outright purchase, or participating in an equity purchase. The latter is generally the preferred option and a good stepping stone, from which to start.

Different Visa Options
In addition to considering selling up and buying here, there is the need to apply for and obtain a visa. As well as general visas there are numerous different business class visa options. Business class visas assess the individual applicant's assets, business history and financial background amongst many other attributes. Whether a Proprietor, Partner or Senior Executive, there is one which caters for your background and enables you to apply.

The 4 categories in the Business Skills Visa Program in short are:

- Business Owner - for part-owners or owners of businesses
- Senior Executive - for senior employees of major businesses
- Investor - for business people or investors willing to invest in Australia
- Business Talent - a difficult one to gain but is open to applicants who are high-calibre business people who have sponsorship from the state/territory Government.