Starting a business in St. Maarten/St. Martin

I know how it must feel, you come to this wonderful island in the Caribbean, you fell in love with it, and you would love to find a way to stay here and make a living.

Starting a business in St. Maarten is not easy. The deck seems to be stacked against you and most people go home bitter. St. Maarten is a great place to visit, a paradise. But doing business here is another story unless you have very deep pockets, a great business idea, a good plan and a lot of stamina.

As a foreigner you have need to obtain a business licence that can take very long, and then to live here you need a director's licence, that is you, the business owner, now think about your family or wife, maybe she will help in the business, she needs a director's licence as well. Or maybe she wants to work here for peanuts (unless she goes to sell timeshare (no salary, but can make great commissions) well guess what, you need a work permit. You have to request this paper work in advance before entering St. Maarten. This is just the paper work. Then you have the way things work on St. Maarten. You don't