How can you start your Free Zone Business in Dubai?
- By David Baker
- •
- 29 Mar, 2017
- •
Doing business in the “World’s Business Hub Dubai” is really beneficial and highly paying. It is a dream of every businessman and investor to put his feet and hands wet in the highly paying business stream of the UAE. No one could actually deny the effectiveness of running a firm in that part of the world. Many firms have just shot to the heights of success in no time. The infrastructure and the facilities that UAE offers to businesses are just worthwhile. No one else from around the world could probably not compete it in that means.

You must have the thing in focus that you are willing to start a business in Dubai. But the most important and common question that would arrive in the minds of the businessmen and investors would be, how to start business in Dubai? Well, that’s not a rocket science at all and you can start it either in the corporate or in the Free zones. The most beneficial place to start a business in, is the free zone. Because they provide a lot of benefits along 0% tax condition.
What is a free zone?

Free Zone Process:
The process of starting a business varies depending upon the free zone you select. But even though you would be required to follow a pattern to start your business successfully in Dubai.
- You need to figure
out that how many employees do you need?
- You need to look
and clarify the visa issues of your employees, if any.
- Figure out, if it
is necessary for you to have a physical office?
- Pass all the
inspections and fulfill the legal formalities.
- Apply for the legal license from Government for doing business in Dubai.
These are the steps you must keep in mind to follow to start a business in Dubai. Don’t panic or worry about how to start business in Dubai? It is really easy and convenient for you to have one, if you can fulfill all the legal formalities and follow the instructions mentioned above in this article.

Dubai is one of the most favorable business hubs around the globe. In a recent survey, Dubai has the representation of more than 50% of well renowned international companies. It included a total of 101 international companies. The survey was carried out to know how many international companies are operating its business from Dubai, Bangkok, and Moscow. Because of its favorable business conditions, it ranked first among the two. Below is an easy step by step guide for starting a business setup in Dubai
Plan Your Business
The first step is to plan the nature of your business. A detailed planning is required, For instance, what kind of products or services you are offering? How much investment you want to make? What strategies will you adopt to compete for or in the market? Below are few other important factors to be considered.
- Number of employees
- Office space required
- analyzing the success factors
- knowing the market
- Devising Marketing strategy
Selecting the license type
This is a very important step. You need to choose between three types of licenses to operate from Dubai. The license will be issued according to the nature of your business activity. Three categories include, commercial license, industrial license and professional license. For opening a local company, you need a local sponsor who will own 51% of your company. You can own 100% of the business in Dubai by registering in one of the Free Zones.
Find the right sponsor
You need a sponsor for registering a local company in Dubai. There are three types of sponsors available to choose from. The first type includes people, who will just sign the documents so that you could proceed the registration yourself. The second type includes government functionaries, who are capable to provide help when you are stuck but they charge a high fee. The third type of sponsors includes well - established brand names. Their fee is higher. You can take advantage of their brand name.
Hiring a professional business consultant
Do you know there are more than 2,000 activity licenses with more than 28 business jurisdictions to choose from? Few business zones don’t offer certain business activities. Do you know the right type of license and location for your business? To make the right choice, it is recommended to seek professional help. There are several experienced business consultants in Dubai that can help you through the process. This is a quick way to register your company and start the operations.

The UAE is one of the best destinations in the world if you’re looking to set up a new business. Thanks to the ever increasing tourism in Dubai and its neighboring cities, and the massive oil reserves available to the Arabs, the UAE economy has boomed over the last two decades.
The most important thing to remember when considering a new business venture in the UAE is that the UAE business districts have been divided into two categories:
- Mainland
- Free
Zones
Both of these districts have their own set of rules that you need to be familiar before you decide which one is better suited to your needs.
Mainland
Mainland entails all of the business districts that are located within and around the main city centers. Setting up here has the following benefits:
- You
have freedom to set up shop anywhere in the UAE;
- There
are no taxes on you or your business;
- There
are more business activities that are available for licensing;
- There
is no limit on the number of visas on your passport;
- Access
to the large customer base within the main city center.
There is however a catch; business setup in UAE mainland as a foreigner requires you to get into partnership with a local from the region. This partner will own at least 51% of the business, and so will have the final say in all business dealings.
Only UAE nationals can open the following types of companies:
- Joint
liability companies (partners must be UAE nationals)
- Simple
commandite companies
- An
industrial or commercial type sole proprietorship
- Licence
for home-based businesses
- SME
licence (in Dubai).
Free Zone
In the UAE, free zones are specifically designated business districts where foreigners can set up businesses without having to involve a UAE national. This ensures that 100% of the ownership remains with one individual.
There are many benefits to setting up within a free zone:
- You
will have 100% ownership of the business;
- There
is full exemption from import/export, corporate, and personal taxes;
- It’s
easier to start up and licensing procedures are fairly simple.
If you’re looking for a company setup Dubai is the place to be, as a foreigner is allowed to own an unlimited number of licenses.
An important point to consider here is that free zones are usually located next to seaports, so while you may have 100% ownership of the business, your customer base is limited due to the distance from the city center.
It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the UAE laws, and talk to a business consultant before embarking on this journey. Setting up a new business can be a risky venture, so make sure you know all the details before you make your decision.

Dubai is the present and possibly future as well, for the businesses. It has made a huge impact and image all around the world in the last couple of decades. Previously it was a barren desert land, but now it has become a well-established territory where hundreds of businesses are functioning right now. No one would have thought it to become as important business sector, as it is right now.

Dubai has evolved comparatively from an unknown position to a multicultural region at a remarkable speed around Gulf. The city is situated in the heart of a fast developing metropolitan. Such an extraordinary growth and noticeable position is helpful for the productivity of both existing and new business entities.

In most
cases when an entrepreneur is about to setup a new venture there are many
highly critical tasks that are overlooked by them deliberately with a thought
that they will be dealt with at some later point in time.
This is where things go totally in the opposite directions, especially when one has opted to launch the new venture in highly promising yet very complex and fast pace markets of UAE. Things changes here in minutes, a business doing good may be not even present in the market in the next few minutes if its management has failed to comply with what was expected from them.

Modern
trends for business in developed countries like UAE opt for smarter and
authentic shortcuts. There is nothing cheeky about it, the idea is to save time
and focus on the growth factor. This enables entrepreneurs to define and follow
paths that can help them in taking over the leader from their competitors.

Transforming into a business centre at UAE is an impressive activity even more than its current architecture. The government as well has been appeared to be a key supporter of technology environment of the country. That’s why they are administering friendly policies and affordable business taxation for everyone.
Dubai Chamber of Commerce has issued a report that all of the existing entrepreneurs have launched around 16,198 businesses in 2014. While a recent survey on business setup in UAE is showing 18-20% increase in businesses in the past few years.
Based on all those available opportunities discussed above, this is the favourable time for foreigners to locate there with a business idea. However, Here we have a few points worth consideration for foreign investors as well. They are: