“For Americans attracted by the promise of living in another culture — or simply bored with life in the U.S. — overseas entrepreneurship can allow them to earn a living in another country while avoiding work-visa rules that make regular employment difficult.”

Overseas entrepreneurship is also a viable professional solution for the trailing spouse. Effective global networking via an online venture can provide the spouse forced to give up a career an option to continue a professional pursuit and replace lost income via an online venture.

“Many expats start businesses that cater to other expats. Jill Lengré grew up in Los Angeles and spent nine years in France before moving to Mexico City with her husband, a French pharmaceutical executive, in 2003. Lengré is starting a Web portal for expat women with partner Andrea Martins, another trailing spouse, as they are sometimes called. The two opted for entrepreneurship because they wanted flexibility to care for children, portability for the inevitable day when one or both spouses were transferred, and the opportunity to earn money without a work visa.”

Many online home based ventures can be run under the radar which, however, doesn’t preclude running into other snags generated by differing business practices and the hospitality, or lack thereof,of the host country to expat ventures.

“Obstacles to making it as an expat entrepreneur include language, loneliness, bureaucracy, corruption and business practices that are sometimes incomprehensible to an American.”

Numbered heavily among the expat population is the extremely successful, middle aged businessman who is willing to sacrifice much in the way of income to derive the freedom that the entrepreneurial expat cherishes.

“All the things I used to buy to distract myself are no longer necessary,” he says. “I walk outside the door, I have a view that Michelangelo painted. I have a restaurant down the street that cooks some of the best truffle pasta in the world.”
(source)