Dubai
May 27, 2020
Creative Zone organised a webinar on setting up businesses in the current scenario. The session was moderated by Lorenzo Jooris, CEO, Creative Zone and was led by Paul Prendergast, Head of Revenue and Strategy and his team – Alistair Paine, Romell Gumbs, and Jamie Harvey. The session was opened by sharing the good news that the period of Ramadan, contrary to expectation was not a slump period for businesses. The news becomes especially good considering the ongoing events worldwide. The new norm of Work from Home is proving to be a success because for many businesses productivity and efficiency has increased and the new methods of communication have been well received by clients.
Paul Prendergast began the session by giving a brief history of Creative Zone and how over the years the company has effectively become a full-service consultancy that provides 360-degree solutions to people looking to establish their business in the UAE.
The importance of choosing the correct jurisdiction was highlighted by the speakers as there are so many options these days, it can be confusing to select the right one. Alistair explained, they advise clients by first doing thorough research about their business, understanding not only the business product but the model too, knowing who their clients are and how are they targeting them, understanding the marketing strategy and everything else. As setting up one’s business in a wrong area can cause one to lose heavy bucks but can also jeopardies any expansion plan that the company might have.
Jamie Harvey elaborated on the different kinds of jurisdiction and what works the best, he emphasised on the increasingly becoming popular- DED Mainland Coworking license, that is not only affordable but also allows taking advantage of some of the features of Mainland DED license. Free zones were always a popular choice especially amidst foreign companies looking to establish a branch in the UAE, Free Zones in the Northern Emirates, SHAMS, Fujairah Creative City offer great benefits to companies by easing the business process and providing world-class amenities.
The webinar also discussed the emerging commercial activities and how has COVID-19 impacted the nature of business. Romell clarified that certainly, the pandemic has affected the nature and the way people did business. Requests are mostly coming for setting up an E-Commerce, consultancy, and products that are specific to the current situation like manufacturing sanitizing equipment and other cleaning tools. The ventures are mainly started by people as a side business to supplement their income or by those who have recently lost their jobs but have plenty of industry experience, they mostly go for setting up a consultancy.
The team also stated that the DED Mainland license has increasingly become a top choice for people setting up a business in the UAE. The main reason for this is the reduced rules and regulation that earlier pushed away business owners. Now, starting a business in mainland Dubai has become relatively easy, affordable and rewarding.
The session was then opened for a Q&A session, the full video of which can be seen above.
