There are many reasons why many businessmen from all over the planet choose to do business in the UAE. This question arises: how to start a business in Dubai? The nation’s convenient tax system is a remarkable eye-catcher, taxing both individual and corporate profits at zero percent. Then there’s the UAE’s strategic location in the heart of the Middle East, which makes it the perfect hub from which to do global business.
In this article, you will learn about how to start a business in Dubai. Set in one of the nation’s free regions and the benefits just keep coming: 100% customs duty exemption, no currency limitations, and the ability to repatriate all capital and income, to name but a few. Finally, there is the incredibly simple UAE organization formation process which, provided you are familiar with the way business is conducted in this part of the world, can be completed in a few essential steps.
1. How to start a business in Dubai?
1.1 Refine your trading initiative
Prior to offering the step to start a business in Dubai, you should have a clear and exclusive business initiative. A vague trading initiative will not help you implement your trading fines. You should make sure to clearly indicate the points marked below to refine the trading initiative which are the following:
- Start of the business venture.
- The target demographic.
- Various types of products or services.
- Availability or launch of the product/services.
- Use of the product/service.
1.2 Set the type of business and jurisdiction
To start a trade in Dubai, entrepreneurs have the possibility of starting a business in the UAE or establishing a trade in a set of nations. However, both possibilities have their own unique set of requirements and pros and cons.
Based on what you require, who you want to trade with, your products/services and where would you launch your trade, such as consulting, business, project management, marketing consulting, accounting and bookkeeping, restaurants, coffee, import, export trade toilet or others, you can set the type of configuration.
Precisely, the commercial configuration of the free area is one in which it trades with world markets or outside the United Arab Emirates. Also, you can do occupations in the designated area. As an example, entrepreneurs have the predominance to trade with other organizations in the same free region.
However, the trade of the set of nations is the one that is established in the local market as the business inside or outside the UAE. Connect Middle East can help and direct you to open a business in Dubai in different jurisdictions without any hassle.
1.3 Do market research
The next step after having recognized the type of trade is to do market research. In other words, this is the step that helps you spot the winning tactic. This is where business owners have the ability to spot their target market.
When you research your industry well before starting a company in Dubai, it will be easier for you to penetrate into it and find the right marketing strategies and tactics. Always make sure to find out your market first and sort out your market’s hobbies, interests, likes, and dislikes prior to starting the trade. In addition, with this analysis, you will have the possibility to detect the gap and fill it with the most correct products and tactics.
1.4 Generate a business strategy
After you have carried out the market exploration, now is the time to train for the funds. The best way to obtain them is to invest in your trade and take loans or credits from others. The latter might only be feasible once you write a descriptive business strategy for your initiative.
Make sure your project integrates the initiative in detail, the problem the business is trying to solve, the initiative for investors, the benefits to them, target audiences, marketing tactics, SWOT study, environmental scanning, and full financial projections. When you prepare this project, you will be able to get funds from potential investors so that you can start a business in Dubai smoothly.
1.5 Finding a Business Name: Naming Rules and Requirements in Dubai
One of the most challenging parts of the startup puzzle is choosing a brand for your trade. Considering the brand identity of your business, the name helps your consumers to remember your entity.
Your business name is a section of your entity that carries out your brand identity and your entire visual image. There are several things that business owners have to consider when dictating a name. These are the components that entrepreneurs have to take into account:
- No name or contradictory activity
- Name without reservations or without creator rights
- Not a dirty or indecent word
- No name of God or his divine attributes
1.6 Consult an organization training specialist
After finalizing a name for your business, you should consult a trusted local business-building organization like Connect Middle East to get you right. These experts are responsible for overseeing lead development, sales inquiries, and license application processes.
We make sure to set up a company expertly, meeting all the requirements from the start. Whether business owners want to set up a company in the whole of the nation or in a free region, these experts have experience in developing all.
Service providers and training professionals from organizations like Connect Middle East can help struggling business owners in this regard. In this way, approach these professionals with a history of establishing a business in Dubai to make sure that you are following the rules and regulations.
1.7 Select a Physical or Virtual Office: (Ejari: Leasing Agreement)
Currently, organizations have the possibility of engaging in 2 modalities, either physically or virtually. Business owners have to rule the store of their business if they want to physically operate. However, these days virtual or online organizations also remain succeeding millions in Dubai.
When the entrepreneurs have decided how they want to operate, they will have to sign the contract, Ejari. The concept means “my tenancy” in Arabic. This is a binding contract/agreement in the middle of the pieces that are not limited to the initial registration of the lease. It involves a wide variety of services that integrate registrations, transfers, cancellations, and termination of the tenancy agreement.
1.8 Finish a legal form
It is one of the most relevant elections in the journey of formation of the organization of the owner of a business to dictate the legal form or the composition of the company. With the legal way, business owners have the possibility to shape the composition to handle profits and losses and how they have to organize their assets and resources.
Entrepreneurs have to make sure that they decide the way of the company first by themselves. This will help entrepreneurs to obtain an organization design and apply it to their entity. Several successful legal ways include limited liability companies, local company branches, free region companies, holding companies, foreign company branches, civil partnerships, and others.
1.9 Register your organization in Dubai
Whether you are a predetermined business owner who has an entity in another territory, or a struggling entrepreneur looking to start a business in Dubai, you will need to know the basics. Dubai is a lucrative city where millions of entrepreneurs aspire to enlarge their footprints. The Middle East is an ever-growing center that has well over hundreds of benefits for business owners that can help promote them into the future.
2. Why do you need to start a business in the UAE?
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates together are incredibly welcoming and supportive business environments. Well over 20,000 new businesses were launched in Dubai last year. Not surprisingly, several of these were registered by foreign businessmen. Anywhere between 80% and 90% of the UAE’s union force are foreign residents.
There are many compelling reasons why a huge number of businessmen from all over the world flock to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai to start a business. The main benefits are:
- Low taxes: The UAE prides itself on having a 0% tax on individual and corporate profits. The only fundamental tax to consider here in the Emirates is the Value Added Tax, introduced in the first month of 2018, which stands at 5%.
- Vibrant economy: The Emirates houses the second-largest economy in the entire Arab world. With a Gross Domestic Product of about AED 692 billion, it is second only to Saudi Arabia. It is as diverse as it is enormous. You can start a trade in various industries, from healthcare and hospitality to technology and business.
- Tremendous quality of life: The United Arab Emirates ranked 23rd in the Top Territories Index, only slightly behind Spain and Ireland and ahead of Portugal and Greece.
- Support for start-up organizations: The Emirates harbors many start-up organization incubators and funding initiatives designed to accelerate business growth.
The future of business in Dubai also looks quite bright. According to the IMF, the United Arab Emirates together is expected to lead the economic growth in the Arabian Gulf this year, with an increase of 2.5%. This is significantly ahead of the territory’s largest economy, Saudi Arabia, which is forecast to grow by 0.4%.
3. Do and Don’t for starting a business in Dubai
3.1 Do’s in business startup
3.1.1 Select a local sponsor, a UAE resident for building local organizations
You should familiarize yourself with the many facts associated with starting a company in Dubai and avoid the pitfalls that arise when starting a profitable company in the United Arab Emirates.
There are many business opportunities accessible in Dubai, as well as in the other Emirates of the UAE. However, if you really want to start a business that should exploit the potential of Dubai, then you require a locally registered LLC business.
A UAE inhabitant should be taken as a 51% partner which is called a local “sponsor”. A local company offers the independence of locating a business anywhere in the town. For a brand new company in Dubai, in other words, a huge help as it gives the best location alternative to fit your budget.
A sponsor should be paid an annual fee that can be traded. Develop interaction with your sponsor so that they are ready to help you solve any problems you may encounter along the way with the authorities.
3.1.2 Select a Free Zone if you want to own your business 100%
Keep in mind that the only way to start a company in the UAE without having a UAE citizen act as your partner is to locate your business in one of the Free Zones. This is not comfortable for organizations that have to be in metropolis markets, such as restaurants and retail stores. In addition, organizations that work with the scheme have to be registered with a local sponsor.
Not to mention the fact that buying or renting in a Free Region district could be expensive for your budget.
For the start-up of a business, the Free Regions offer 3 enormous advantages
- 100% owned.
- Immediate commissioning.
- Customs limit independent of taxes.
3.1.3 Select a location that optimizes suitability, convenience, and pricing
Another fundamental step in the idealization of the start-up of a business in Dubai is to decide the most suitable location for the business. Setting up an organization in the UAE and in the city would not do you much good despite the growing economy if your consumers or consumers do not have the ability to communicate with you.
You should plant your trade in an area that is more profitable for your trade or more correct for your trade. You can choose a location in the ideal locality for a store or an office that is most notorious for the type of product or service you are dealing with.
If you are planning a Free Zone organization, you should make your selection based on distance criteria, pricing, and whether it is right for your product, business model, and business requirements.
A marriage contract should be concluded. If you are aiming to start a small-scale organization, then essential conveniences such as telecommunications, storage, and space within the facility are the basic concern that should also be satisfied. Other accessible services in commercial property can be very disturbing.
3.1.4 Confirm your Visa eligibility and requirements
To start a business in the UAE, a visa that enables you and your employees to live in the UAE is important to govern your business. Visas will be allowed for almost every organization. However, their number changes according to a variety of criteria, such as the size of the office, the nature of the trade, and the category of the employee or the investor.
If the start of your business in Dubai is a local company, then you definitely need to work with your sponsor to get your visas, at least the first time around. Applying for a business visa in Dubai is not as rigorous as most would think, as the bureaucracy is quite open to foreign investors planning to establish themselves in the city.
However, you should have your sponsor apply for a visa for you as a business start-up investor. In addition to your passport and other legal requirements, a letter from your sponsor is also necessary to highlight your personal information, the reason for the visa application, and other details prior to processing.
3.2 Don’ts in Building Organizations
3.2.1 Do not register your company in a Free Trade Region without consulting the size of the accessible office
Constantly, the information published for a Free Zone gives a wide variety of offices. Actual availability keeps changing. A common trading principle seeks the cheapest alternative. It is possible that once you go to register the company you will be with only certain office sizes remaining accessible. This will throw your budget into devastation.
Then it might be too late to modify your Free Zone. Or it may happen that certain offices allow only 1 visa, which is also only for investors and not for employees. In this way, do not continue until all the points of the office are confirmed.
3.2.2 Do not make firm plans based solely on published information
Prior to finalizing the blueprints for the beginning of your trade, it is prudent to confirm the validity of the published information. Change of regulations in Free Regions and also in the local Secretariat of Economic Development for the registration of organizations. Do not proceed until you have confirmed your assumptions through an organization-building consultant or by contacting the relevant authority.
You may find that you may need certain documents or that various nationalities require special roles or that certain requirements may be waived if you apply or negotiate for them.
3.2.3 Do not blindly choose a license category without confirming if your trading model is possible
In the United Arab Emirates, it is not difficult to devise a business model that does not require change. Quite constantly various changes or at least certain adjustments are required.
Complete extensive forms and confirm if your planned license category allows you each of the occupations that are going to be possible in the business model you are planning. Do not select a certificate category that is too contracted.
3.2.4 Do not brag about your achievements
Dubai has been filled with braggarts who claim to have the first, the best, the exclusive, the biggest, and the wildest. Do not add to the sound.
The metropolis now leans toward new minimalism, clean design and resources rooted in taste and humility, and quality over serving. Therefore, once you distribute any commercial material, from brochures to invitations to online events, try to promote yourself without using excessive Dubai clichés.
4. FAQ’s
4.1 How many days it takes to start a business in Dubai?
According to many consultants, it takes around four to five business days to start a business in Dubai.
4.2 How to start a business in Dubai UAE?
As a visionary entrepreneur, you should start a business in Dubai, as it will be one of the massive hubs for small, and medium-sized businesses and even monumental corporate organizations. An ideal area and central metropolis that offers all the advantages an entrepreneur needs, it has well over millions of organizations from different verticals.
However, opening an organization in Dubai is not as simple as it seems, especially once you do it on your own. Opening a business in Dubai with the help of professionals can definitely make trade setup simple.
The right type of sponsorship for your business is the key to a smooth business. Whether you decide to set up business in a free region or mainland Dubai, such professionals possess the tenacity in all kinds of businesses. The information given above is fundamental for the learning of this process.
4.3 What is a memorandum of association?
A Grouping Memorandum is an essential legal corporate record. It happens in the process of registration and formation of an organization and defines the interaction of shareholders and the organization with outsiders.
Even more relevant, this legal file establishes the duties, rights, powers, and privileges of the company’s shareholders. A company can only do the actions that are specified in the memorandum, so it is better to hire squatter lawyers and legal advisers in Dubai for its drafting.
4.4 How many days it takes to obtain a trade license?
You will receive your legal documents as soon as you have paid for the legal services. With them in hand, you will be ready to move on to other parts of your firm, such as hiring staff and determining who the best match for the position is. Obtaining a trade license in Dubai will allow you to legally work in the UAE.
4.5 How to apply for a trade license?
You must apply for first permission to confirm that the Dubai DED has no objections to you launching a business so that you can proceed with the licensing process. This can be applied online, in person, or through a third party (like a law firm). The paperwork you’ll need to give will vary depending on the type of your firm, but in general, they are:
- Form for business registration and licensing.
- A copy of your visa or ID.
- A copy of your visa/residence permit.
- The articles on the integration of the company.
- The project’s feasibility study.
If you need assistance applying, please contact one of our specialists who can walk you through the process and verify you have submitted and prepared all necessary paperwork.
4.6 How to apply for the Memorandum of association?
A firm can subscribe to a memorandum of affiliation through an agent; a minor cannot sign a memorandum of agreement. If the minor has a guardian, he or she can subscribe to a MOA on the minor’s behalf, and the subscription will be regarded to be in the minor’s personal capacity; Businesses may add other provisions or clauses as required or necessary, in addition to the mandatory ones stated before.
As an extra provision, the rights of the business’s members and the firm itself may be appended. Call our experts for assistance and help on MOA drafting in the UAE before you begin.
4.7 What is Ejari?
In Arabic, EJARI means ‘My Rent’. However, technically, it refers to a revolutionary system that would transform Dubai’s real estate industry into one of the best-regulated rental markets in the world.
EJARI is RERA’s latest project to regulate and facilitate Dubai’s rental market.
5. How can we help you to obtain more information about how to start a business in Dubai?
Dubai provides an unrivaled location for individuals who yearn to set up a business. This is due to the fact that the market offers different benefits and facilities to carry out the entire application process. In addition, the regime provides more and more business opportunities to improve the nation’s economy.
Our organization can provide qualified guidance and other essential services for any company or person. Some of the services we provide for organizations and individuals are the following:
- Corporate sponsorship
- Visa services
- Human resources outsourcing
- PRO
- Business consultancy
- Business banking
- Foreign direct investment
- Freelance visa
- Tourism license
- Business center
- Golden visa services
For a simple and hassle-free process to set up your grocery store, contact us. You can do it through our telephone number +971 433 16 688, in which you will obtain specialized attention. We also have the electronic correspondence contact@c-uae.com to get in touch with ourselves in case of doubts or information about our own services.
