1. Preparation of Business Plan Any investor when planning to start a business, should formalize a business plan, which is a preliminary and mandatory requirement to incorporate (setup) a business in the UAE free zones. The business plan is basically a formal statement of the goals and why you believe they are attainable. A business plan must lay out a path to those goals, with investment and marketing strategies and revenue streams. A business plan is not required to incorporate a business in the mainland, a business plan is not required, only the passport copy of the investor/s.  

2. Licenses – Professional / Commercial All businesses must be licensed to operate in the AE and procedures vary across the Emirates. Depending on the activity undertaken, the main types of licenses are

a) Professional License e.g. consultancy, beauty spa/salon etc.
b) Commercial License (LLC), e.g. general trading etc.
c) Industrial License such as factories etc.   Professional

Licenses have no shareholding, but must list a UAE National as a Local Service Agent, LSA. The Commercial License require a UAE national to hold 51 per cent of shares in the company and the initial share capital of such an LLC must be at least AED 150,000/- (AED 300,000/- in Dubai), If there are more than two partners the capital has to be increased in Dubai. It is also a requirement that the full initial share capital must be paid up (deposited in a newly formed bank account) prior to an LLC being formed. In practice, in most cases, (although in practice, in most cases the share capital can be removed once the company is incorporated). A bank certificate is required as evidence of the monies being in place. Individual shares will have an equal nominal value of at least AED 1,000/- each. As with most limited companies, the liability of the shareholders of an LLC is limited to the extent of their respective shareholdings in the LLC.   The branch office of an architecture consultancy which falls under a Professional License does ot require a UAE Sponsor or a Local Service Agent. It is 100% owned by the parent company and does not require any paid up capital. The licenses issued by the various free zones also allow for 100% foreign ownership with no UAE Sponsor or a Local Service Agent. 

 3. Visas – Investor (Partner) / Employment Visa In Dubai once the trade license is obtained from Dubai Economic Department (DED), we need to apply for the company immigration card and company labour card. The owner of the company has no option but to have an Investor / Partner visa, available for a deposit of either AED 20,000/- for the professional license and AED10,000/- for the commercial license. All employees receive employment visas from the labour department, with a deposited bank guarantee of AED 3,100/- per employee. The deposited monies mentioned for both investor and employee is refunded once  he visa is cancelled.   There are other costs involved including the labour and the amount involved depends on the category of the Company. A: AED 1,060, B: AED 2,060 and C: AED 3,060. Visas issued by free zones are to all intents and purposes identical to a visa issued outside them, and entitle the holder to work in the free zone.  

4. Minimizing Initial operational costs Every organization should keep initial operational costs to a minimum and should in certain fixed-cost items such as offices, plant infrastructure, communications equipment, support staff etc. The firm should keep costs down with innovative approaches, e.g. possibly setting up operations in a low-cost area rather than a high commercial office in a prime location, the rent difference could be 100% to 300%.  

5. Technology and Processes Identifying non-core activities and outsourcecinge them aggressively will help save the company money Outsourcing even a single position helps save in many areas. One of the most  advantageous resources which should be outsourced to a reputable company is in the PRO area  of the company. Document clearing services, translation services etc are only a few of the  necessary jobs when setting up a new business (and, obviously necessary for the business to  continue). It is very often the case that the company can save money by not employing a full time office manager or member of staff to liaise with government departments. Advice from a company such as Dubai Business Advisors is of paramount importance as costs and timescales can be given to show the involvement and the work which can be relieved of a member of staff so that their core work is more effective and therefore cost effective. 

 6. Staffing / Recruitment process The hiring process varies from industry to industry. A service-based business should avoid recruiting employees in the initial stages of operation to cut costs. Once there are more than two clients, additional employees can be acquired in no time at all. A thing to remember while  recruiting employees is that they should be multi-skilled and capable of multi-tasking.