The United Arab Emirates has become a globally renowned destination for budding entrepreneurs in recent years. Their growing economy, generous tax regime, and luxury lifestyle are attracting business people from all over the globe. In fact, so many businesses are starting there that it is more important than ever for the incumbents to ensure their operations are as streamlined and competitive as possible. Here are ten things that can give your UAE business the boost it needs to keep up.
1. Automate or Outsource Financial Processes
Every business is a combination of a core operation and numerous supplementary, but necessary, activities. To be streamlined means to focus as much of your energy as possible on the former and to minimise time spent on the latter as much as possible. Financial processes fall firmly into the second category. They are not where your focus should be, yet they are among the most painstaking and time-consuming business activities.
Fortunately, they are rarely something you need to do yourself. Thanks to AI, there are many automated or semi-automated solutions available to businesses all over the world. Or, since financial regulations and taxes can be tricky to navigate in foreign countries, you can outsource your financial processes to a specialist financial management service with local expertise, such as Acclime UAE.
2. Leverage AI Assistance
Finance is not the only area where artificial intelligence can be useful, however. Today, there are businesses using it to improve performance in almost every area. One area where its use has notably increased is customer service. While many people profess not to be fans of chatbots, these assistants actually do often help people find the answers they are looking for, and they can be a godsend if you are trying to run a lean operation.
However, AI is capable of much more than answering simple customer queries. You can also use it to help you conduct market research, forecast inventories, write copy, and make decisions on just about anything.
3. Embrace Cloud Solutions
Something that slows down workflow at many businesses is having to manually search for or request information. While most places have now moved on from storing things on paper, many still store the information for different departments in different places. While setups like this are sometimes necessary for cybersecurity reasons, the majority of information within most businesses is not of a sensitive nature and could be freely shared between employees.
Having to locate it or request it from the right person is just frustrating, which is why cloud-based solutions have become a lot more popular lately. They make it much simpler for everybody at a company to access what they need, when they need it.
4. Invest in Digital Marketing
Virtually no serious business today lacks an online presence, nor can a modern business afford to lack a strong one if they want to remain competitive. However, building and maintaining that is difficult. A simple website and a few accounts on popular social media sites just aren’t enough anymore. Digital marketing has many facets – SEO, PPC, influencer marketing etc. – which have developed into their own specialities.
As with financial processes, many businesses have found it much easier to leave these to the experts rather than taking time and energy away from their core business model to deal with them. But there are legitimate reasons why others want to keep things in-house. Either way, it is important in this day and age to be boosting your online visibility and driving traffic to your website.
5. Allow Remote or Hybrid Work
Work arrangements today are more flexible than they have ever been in the past, both in the UAE and elsewhere. It is probably fair to say that they have become the new standard, especially for highly skilled knowledge workers, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Some research suggests that productivity and job satisfaction both improve when working arrangements are more flexible, and it might help attract the people your business really needs. Plus, it will reduce your overheads.
However, it is essential that you supply remote or hybrid workers with the tools they need to perform their role as well as possible. This is something else that cloud solutions can help with, and you could look into project management software solutions to keep on top of things.
6. Streamline Compliance
When choosing the country in which to start your company, you likely already gave some thought to the issue of compliance. They obviously might have laws and regulations that are different from those in your home country. Despite your best efforts to learn about these, there will almost certainly be a few surprises. That is why working with local services who can advise you on compliance matters, such as Acclime UAE, is often a good idea.
But however you choose to go about it, it is important to make sure that your company respects local laws, governing standards, and licensing requirements.
7. Make Data-Driven Decisions
The business magnates of old might have talked a big game about trusting their gut, but that is not the modern way and the results suggest that it is not the most profitable way either. Today, there is a wealth of data available about your customers and it is wise to invest in analytics so that you can make sense of it.
Collecting and analysing data is often a great way to complement your investment in digital marketing. For example, you might find out about a new niche audience who are interested in your products, and by targeting them you could expand your business while keeping marketing costs low.
Conclusion
Establishing a company in the UAE is sure to be an adventure, but it could be a very short one if you are not adopting modern best practices like those suggested above. Things are highly competitive out there, and to succeed you will need to use all of the tools and strategies at your disposal to keep your costs low and achieve growth.