Support Businessmen

There are many unexpected things happening in the global market that have domino effects. It is a very challenging period in our lifetime.

How do we deal with an economic downturn? We are programmed to spend on products and services because this is good for the economy. We are all bombarded with advertisements showing tempting offers of many vendors. But with artificial intelligence (AI), financial difficulties and other challenges, many people around the world suffered from massive termination.

In times like this, we are all encouraged to do business as every company creates job opportunities and contributes to the government funds in the form of taxes.

It is not easy to establish a business as there are many requirements to be submitted and approved, prior to actual operation. There are many business consultants to help enterprising people make their dreams come true. Along the way, there are many obstacles. How the management handles them with the cooperation of the employees will determine the future of the business.

It takes about ten (10) years to know if a company will really run well. It's testing-the-waters period particularly in the first five (5) years of operation.

In Dubai mainland, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the business is renewed every year, and the investor visa is good for three (3) years. The regulations are different in every emirate of the country.

The 10-year visa is introduced for the investors but with certain requirements to meet. (Read more here.) The longer-term visa is good for the businessmen to have peace of mind as to continuity of stay and to have deeper roots in the business soil that can endure the tests of time.

As the UAE goes digitally smart, business applications and renewals can be done faster and easier via online platforms and thru simple mobile SMS. Trade license can be renewed up to four times (1) in just one sitting online, provided the tenancy contract is valid.

Effective 1 July 2019, the UAE Ministry of Finance said that more than 1,500 federal government service fees were either reduced or cancelled. (Read more here.) This means a reduction in the cost of doing business in the country.

Lifted from TradingEconomics.com, "The United Arab Emirates is ranked 11 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings. The rank of the United Arab Emirates improved to 11 in 2018 from 21 in 2017. Ease of Doing Business in the United Arab Emirates averaged 29.18 from 2008 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 47 in 2008 and a record low of 11 in 2018."

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai recently launched the Youth Hub which will prepare the young for a successful journey in entrepreneurship. It is an 'open incubator in the trade center, markets, airports, cultural an tourist facilities in the state'.

Shared service centers offering space, facilities, and allied services, mushroom around, which makes rental fees lesser than before. Many millennial entrepreneurs want to be on the go, and compared to elder people, they want to start by themselves, then when they feel they have the wings to spread they will find a bigger space and hire their staff.

It is interesting to note that the government supports the small and medium businesses, which account for 95 per cent of the total enterprise population in Dubai and employ around 42 percent Dubai's workforce.

In 2018 KhaleejTimes.com published that "in a major relief to businesses in Dubai, the government has decided to exempt companies from all fines and they can benefit from this decision and renew their licences by the end of 2018".   It reported that Ahmed Shaikhani, president, Pakistan Business Council, Dubai, said, "More importantly, certain licenses which were renewed not on time or for non-compliance issues, the exemption of fines shows that government wants to ensure that these businesses come back into the fold and restart the activity."  He added, "Economic activity in Dubai will improve. All those companies which were not functioning and couldn't renew their licenses due to fines, will now come back into the fold and generate more economic activity in the emirate."

We have read and viewed sad news about businesses closing if not merging in the global business market. For one, there are many international retailers adversely affected by the retail apocalypse. These bring chills to many businessmen and they crack their brains to come up with strategies on how to handle, if not avoid, the whirlwind.

Here the local government strongly supports domestic retailers. We can see many shopping festivals back-to-back with crowd-pulling events in many major areas, at the same time, there are various safe platforms for an online presence.

I hope that in the light of the Year of Tolerance and in preparation for and to celebrate the much-awaited World Expo 2020, those who invested in the setting up of their businesses in Dubai and other parts of the UAE, but failed to renew their companies in four (4) years for some financial difficulties, will be given a 'helping hand' in terms of a golden chance to renew them at lesser costs without fines, at least until 2020. (I understand that there is an automatic cancellation if a trade license cannot be renewed in a row of five [5] years.)

Every business aims for continuity of operation. In accounting, we have the so-called 'continuing concern concept' -- "it is an assumption that the company will stay in business and that the value of its assets will endure".  

There are many consultants encouraging entrepreneurs to put up businesses and give advice on a startup operation. It gives a big boost if there will be BIAs (business incubators and accelerators) as they will give direction to how the business will go and do it with less time as time has value and is always of the essence.

Sustainability is important, otherwise, the business cannot go on. Jeff Platt advises,

Spend time upfront to invest in systems and processes to make long-term growth sustainable.

What about if there are obstacles or setbacks? What are the options?

If a trade license cannot be renewed on time, there are penalties/fines. What should a wise businessman do next? He can either freeze/suspend the trade license if he wants to keep it or terminate/cancel it to avoid more fines.  Keeping it for the future reboot is a better decision than starting up a new one which is much more expensive and will require time for the normal 'birth pains'. Then his and his employees' visas under that company will be cancelled while on freeze, as they cannot do business for that. In Dubai, a sole establishment can freeze only up to one year while the rest up to three (3) years, and that can be done once only in its lifetime.

Giving relief to struggling businessmen in terms of waiving fines for renewal or freezing the trade licenses is a win-win move. Both the moves for renewal and freezing the trade license show the businessmen's desire for business continuity, and it really matters. They come back to the business fold sooner or later and will help generate more economic activities.

I read a story about a businessman's reaction to an article on freezing a business. He suffered from some setbacks so cannot renew his trade license. He has no money to pay the fines and the sponsor wants to collect fees for dues in arrears.

I remember what the sponsor of my previous boss said when the latter could not renew the trade license as the recession hit him bad in 2008, "In good times, he paid me. That is enough. He owes me nothing. Tell him not to worry about it." Sponsors like him make life things easier and better for the unfortunate ones.

There are many training centers and organizations offering short business courses at affordable fees. They collaborate with some companies for hands-on training of their students. For example, for a barista course, they collaborate with some coffee shops.

Creating a network of seasoned mentors can do wonders to guide businessmen. Jody Levine said,

Find a good mentor, someone who has  already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur.

Some honorable consuls do the same. For one, the Philippine Consulate in Dubai headed by Consul General Paul Raymond Cortez is very active in organizing and hosting business seminars to empower overseas Filipinos (OFs). The PCG intends to prepare them when they go back to the Philippines parallel to the government reintegration program dubbed as 'Entrepinoy Reintegration Program'.

It will be helpful if the government can come up with online courses per business activity, with a downloadable business plan or project study based on reliable centralized and updated data that help in every businessman's decision making. This can be customized later by the businessman himself. It will be interesting to have a sort of simulation process for the aspiring businessman to know what activities can be combined in one trade license, and how much will be the cost, what to do with VAT (value-added tax) and WPS (wage protection) registration, visa application, insurance companies e-tour, etc.

Rick Ross inspires business-minded people when he said,

I'm making my money make money.

'Making money make money' requires precious time, high emotional intelligence, solid commitment, hard work, and huge courage for businessmen to go through the entrepreneurial journey. There are many sacrifices in the first decade. Most of them will work without pay in the initial years more so if they do not have sufficient financial resources and the right human backup or support system. The brains must be fed with proper nutrients for them to work properly as an approach related to neuroscience in business, matters. The passion must be huge enough to keep the desire to continue the operation, burning. There are times when there are rough roads or there are dead ends and the businessman has to detour but he must know the directions to get to the destination. Rome cannot be built overnight.

As earlier mentioned, in the pie chart of enterprises in this part of the world the small and medium enterprises account for 95 percent and for the workforce, 42 percent.  They help us deal with global economic challenges.

Let's passionately make a difference in our place of residence, in addition to our place of origin by strongly supporting locally-based small and medium enterprises.  Businessmen help keep the economic cycle moving and growing up.

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Photo credits:  Pixabay