Strategic Business Consultancy
Founders arriving in the UAE usually ask three questions in the wrong order: which licence, which free zone, how much. The useful order starts a step earlier, with whether the business works here at all, who is already serving that customer, what it costs to reach them, and what the numbers have to look like before the licence is worth buying. This service answers those questions before you commit. We size the market for your specific activity, map who is already competing for it and on what basis, build a financial model on your real cost lines rather than a template, and set out the operating structure that follows from the answer: entity type, where it sits, headcount, and what has to be true in year one for the plan to hold. It suits founders planning a first UAE entry, owners deciding whether to expand an activity or close it, and companies whose operations have outgrown the structure they were originally set up with.
Key Features
- A market and competitor picture for your specific activity, naming who is already serving that customer in the UAE and how they price, rather than a category-level industry overview.
- A feasibility view carrying the real cost lines: licence and visa costs, office or flexi-desk, staffing, and the working capital needed to reach the point where revenue covers them.
- A financial model you keep and can edit, so you can test a lower price, a slower ramp or a smaller team yourself instead of commissioning a second study.
- A structure recommendation covering entity type, jurisdiction, ownership and first-year headcount, with the trade-offs written out rather than one option presented as the obvious one.
- You supply your current numbers if the business is already trading, a clear description of the customer you are aiming at, and the constraints that are fixed, whether that is budget, timeline or residency. We supply the research, the model and the written recommendation.
Benefits for Your Business
- A decision you can defend to a partner, a bank or an investor, because the reasoning and the sources sit in the document.
- Fixed costs sized before you commit to them, rather than discovered in month four.
- A model you can rerun when a price, a cost or a timeline changes, instead of a static report that ages out.
- A clear answer when the plan does not stand up, which costs less than finding out after the licence is paid for.
General information, not financial or legal advice. Any market size, cost estimate or projection we produce is an estimate built on the inputs you supply and the sources available at the time, not a forecast of a result. Government, free zone and visa fees are set by the relevant authority and change without notice.