10 things to keep in mind while setting up a business in UAE

Setting up a business in UAE is an exciting idea, to begin with. There is no doubt that the opportunities UAE offers to entrepreneurs/startups/corporates are huge and lucrative. UAE has an access to international markets and trading with excellent business conditions to foster economic growth. It is a global commercial hub and the 15th largest global commercial center. If you successfully establish a business and expand it well, there is no limit to how far you can go.

However, to dream big about an idea is not enough, to actualize it requires a good plan of action and deep thought. We bring you a set of factors to consider and think about before taking the big leap towards building your own Business Setup in UAE.

1. Plan of Idea- Define Expectations Clearly: Every great idea starts with a plan and the will to bite the bullet and take a risk. However, giving up on a stable life and beginning a journey of struggle isn’t for the faint-hearted. It requires you to understand what might be there in store for you, what you exactly are looking for, what are your expectations regarding your business idea. Before you start anything, structure a strategy regarding the plan and development that you wish to drive in your company. You should also put a plan in place if you ever want to eventually decide to sell your venture. The major reason why a lot of startups do not flourish is due to confusion and lack of proper direction.

2. Business Framework, Model & Architecture: UAE harbors a lot of businesses and startups ranging across various industries. This may make you feel that every business idea may work smoothly, but it generally requires a lot of work in the background. This background work understands the business environment along with how to go about your venture. This includes charting out the model, framework, and architecture of the business.

The business model includes:

• Market Attractiveness of the Business
• Value proposition
• Revenue Distribution
• Sales Performance
• Competitive Advantage
• Key resources
• Cost structure
• Pitfalls & Risks
• Customer Value

Business Framework: pertains to the management structure to achieve particular goals. It outlines policies, procedures, and management changes that the organization will use and require to achieve innovation and growth.

Business Architecture: includes the documents, diagrams, and path that an enterprise requires in structuring the business. It articulates the functional structure of a business in terms of its services and information.

3. Understand the Difference Between Your Home Market and UAE Market: A good understanding of the market that you are planning to get into, its business structure, behavior, and norms is very important. This is specifically to point out the fact that every market is influenced by its people, culture, and practices and can be different from one another. Taking into consideration the Indian market to the UAE market, the taxation, legislation, market structure, jurisdiction, and environment vary massively. This means that you are up for new changes, challenges, perks when dealing with a different market. You should be able to mark out the similarities and differences between your home market and the UAE market. This will enable you to carry out the procedures of setting up business seamlessly and targeting the right audience, along with the correct strategies to ensure profit maximization.

4. Ensure Your Business Marketing Plan Includes Your Customer Base: Setting up a business in UAE isn’t enough. To ensure that it goes a long way, you need to reach the right audience and customers for your product or service. This requires an accurate business marketing plan in place that includes the customer base. This means you should have all your research done over the customer base you are targeting before Company Formation In Dubai. This will require you to have your advertising budget, PR plan, and other marketing activities are covered through the right channels.

5. Location Best Suited To Your Business-Choose the Right Jurisdiction: Depending upon the business type you need to choose a business zone for your business setup in UAE. If you are planning to enter the local market, you would require a mainland business. Whereas, if you are looking for business outside the UAE, e.g.: an IT firm, then the free zone is more suitable.

6. Determine the Legal Structure Fitting Your Business Activity: The legal structure of each business zone in UAE is different. There are certain legal structures about every type of business that you should consider before starting a business. These are:

• Commercial Companies:

1. 1. Sole Proprietorship
   2. General Partnerships
   3. Limited Liability Company
   4. Foreign Company Branch
   5. Public Joint Stock Company
   6. Private Shareholding Company

• Civil Companies:

1. 1. Service Companies
   2. Speculative Venture Partnership
   3. Mudaraba Companies

• Free Zone Entities:

1. 1. Free Zone Establishments (Single shareholder)
   2. Free Zone Company (Multiple shareholders)
   3. Branch of Foreign Company

7. Sponsorship- Choose Carefully: Finding an Emirati as a sponsor who you can trust and depend upon is an excruciating task. But the point to take into consideration is whether every business will require a sponsor. Depending upon your type of business, it depends if you will require sponsorship or not. A local sponsor is compulsory for a Mainland Business Setup in UAE. But this is not a requirement with the free zones. A sponsor covers 51% of the ownership of your business. For the mainland, the three types of sponsors to choose from, suited to your business type are individual sponsors, corporate sponsors, local service agents. If you want complete ownership of your business, you should opt for a business type that can be set up in the free zones.

8. The naming of Company & Paperwork: After you have done your complete homework and research upon the type of business you want to establish, within the jurisdiction and figuring out the other requirements, the next step is naming your company. Naming the company comes with a few guidelines too. Some of these include that the name of your company should not include the name of a God- e.g.: Om, Allah, etc., it should not offend any religious or social sentiments; it should not begin with “global”, “international” or “Middle-east”, among other guidelines. Naming the company and getting it recognized with the proper documentation and paperwork is the next step. Although it is not a very hectic task, all documentation should be done in the right order to ensure that it is completed without any hassles.

9. Finding an Office Space: you will come across a lot of websites offering office spaces for Business Setup in UAE. However, with the growing number of businesses in the UAE, finding the ideal workspace may not be easy. You have to keep in mind various factors such as connectivity to the ports, demography, customer access, access to skilled labor, and so on. The availability of office spaces is a concern and various firms offer complete packages to help you to setup a business in UAE and doing all of this tedious work for you. Whether you want to do it by yourself or go for expert assistance is totally up to you. However, we suggest you go for the latter so that you can focus on your business while the experts take care of the rest.

10. Partnering With a Company Setup Consultant: Partnering with a consultancy that sets up a company in UAE , like MBG, is always a good idea. This ensures that you are guided at every step you take throughout your entrepreneurial journey. It will help you with planning, documenting, and the entire framework of your business along with liquidity and other requirements. Every consultancy offers a set of services for business setup, and you need to be informed what all services are included in their packages.

MBG offers a complete suite of Business Setup Services in UAE mainland, free zone company formation, and Offshore Company Formation . What makes us different from other consultancies is that we offer UAE Business Setup Services right from the initiation to the establishment of business and beyond. We are there for you throughout Company Formation in UAE until it is in its operational stage. With every business setup needs to be taken care of; you can focus on your business, while our Business Experts take charge of all the procedural requirements, documentation, and everything else in between.

These services include :

• Company Formation in UAE
• Sponsorship Services
• PRO Services
• Liquidation Services
• Trade Licensing & Business Registration
• A Draft Memorandum Of Understanding
• Get Approval From DED and Renting an Office

Value added services:

• Strategy & Transformation
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Taxation
• Technology & Legal Advisory
• Unified In-Country Value (ICV)

For more information, click here

You can contact us for any query related to Company Formation in Dubai Free Zone at:

Whatsapp: +91 88601-90008

Email: [email protected]