Starting to plan the permanent move

Hello all:  My wife and I just came back from Sosua.  We had a lovely stay at Casa Marina and fell in love with the country and its people.  We met a few expats in town and are now seriously considering making a permanent move,  We expect it to take a little while and want to do it right.  We are late 40's early 50's and have a custom sewing business we are considering relocating to manufacture for online sales and/or shipping abroad.  We will have some small investment money to bring from my pension should I cash it out early.  Lots to consider so we will be here often and doing plenty of homework.

I'm not living in DR yet, but one of the big adjustments the expats shared was that shipping anything out of DR is very expensive! You'll definitely want to research that before moving your company if you plan to ship items out.

Take your time and do the research... ALL of the research if you are planning on bringing your business here.  Same for buy any real estate. 
Please read and then read some more.  Lots of info here
And do come down for multiple visits before you do anything and rent a condo, apt or villa not a hotel for your exploratory visits.

Bob K