Dubai: Forget the often-quoted platitudes you hear about starting your business, especially those lines about setting your own hours and not having to answer to a boss. Most small business owners will tell you running your own business will require all of your former “free time” and the patience to track down the information you need to survive.
Apart from lack of sufficient information, SMEs face other problems, including high cost of licences, visas and insurance work, as well as “working with banks,” say small business owners. Fahed Shahadat, a local owner of “outly.net” said one of the first problems is that no one would want to talk to you.
“No one is interested in SMEs, most and foremost, because small businesses bring lots of headache,” said Shahadat. “As an example, the banks would give you [financial] facilities that require a whole yard of paper work and documentation,” he told Gulf News.
To find someone to “invest in a business plan or an idea is very difficult in the whole Middle East,” he said, adding that some of the digital business laws also need further clarification and transparency.
More information
When May Khizam decided to set up her business almost a year ago, she rushed to do so. But today she said she realises there was no need to rush and wishes she had more information when she started.
Now May. who is Australian, and incorporated her business in July 2015, has started a platform to help other businesses get the missing information they should know to make an “informed decision”.
“If somebody said to me, actually May, you don’t need to set up in June, you can set up in December, that guidance would have been good for me,” Khizam told Gulf News in an interview.
“When I think about it actually, until you start sending invoices to the clients … you don’t need to set up quickly.”
Khizam, a former COO of a private investment office in Dubai who had years of experience in human resources when she worked with a prominent US investment bank, prefers to call her business a “platform for business and professional services providers”. On the platform, content would be shared between clients and companies, who range from advisory and law firms to training and insurance companies, she said.
Panel discussions
One of the first activities Grid Initiative conducted in the first year was running events with companies advising them on how to set up a business in Dubai, whether they should be onshore, off shores, or located in a free zone. Khizam said she is planning to start running a series of panel discussions on sharing informational content at the DIFC soon.
Other topics she is considering include board memberships, VAT and Islamic finance, she said.
Khizam said there is also a need for content marketing to build a stronger relationship between companies and clients.
“So instead of going to big advertisers saying ‘we are the biggest, we are best,’ it is basically saying ‘this is how we do something’. You read the article, and you feel loyalty, then pick up the phone, and call them. I wanted to be that platform, and mostly because I felt there was not enough local content”, she said.
She said getting information on setting up businesses and recruitment is “quite difficult”, and though “the government here is offering information, I believe there is a place for extension”. In other countries, including Australia, such information are easy to navigate, she said.
Lack of transparency
Khizam agreed with Shahadat that dealing with banks can be an issue.
Many promises from banks to assist the small business owners are not followed through once bank accounts are set up, said Khizam.
“I think there is a lack of transparency with the banks, and a lack of coordination with the businesses,” she said. “I tried to [open a] business account with another bank, where the person who talked to me doesn’t even have an email with the bank email address, it was a Hotmail account, and that person and that bank wanted me to send my passport copy, licence, etc to the Hotmail, which I refused to do. That was because he was a freelancer working for the bank. Those kind of practices, that I think make entrepreneurs feel or cause concern.”
Partner
Finding the right people to fill high positions is one of the difficult aspects of setting up a business in Dubai, said Nicole Rogers, a CEO of “Agriprocity”, a company that offers contracting between food processors and farms internationally.
“It is difficult to find somebody who believes that they are partners in your business, not just working for you,” Rogers, a Canadian, told Gulf News.
When she established her business in 2014, she “struggled to find high level people … it was difficult find somebody locally who understands what a start-up looks like and have entrepreneur skills.”
Yet, Rogers and other investors and business owners stressed there are many advantages to setting up a business in Dubai and there are actually easy parts.
“Proximity for travel is terrific. We like it [Dubai] as a gateway to Africa ... I found that people accept creativity here,” said Rogers.
Khizam agreed.
Time zone
Dubai and the UAE, have a vibrant entrepreneur environment and an appropriate time zone, said Khizam.
In her case, a Los Angeles-based company is handling her business’ social media, and a UK-based accountant is handling her business financial aspects.
“I actually found out the time zone I am working in is actually a convenient one. You send the email before you sleep, and then you wake up and you got an answer. I think if I was working in Australia, the time zone will be working against me,” she said.
