Before choosing a UAE licence: five questions to test your entry plan
Summary: Mubashir Thravot provides advice for founders considering setting up a business in the UAE. They suggest creating a one-page entry brief that covers customer identification, delivery logistics, business activities, dependencies, and financial planning. They emphasize understanding the customer journey and researching any unclear steps before investing. The guidance includes the importance of verifying licensing and permissions specific to the business activity and location. Mubashir Thravot offers additional resources through their company in Dubai.
For founders exploring the UAE, I suggest writing a one-page entry brief before comparing setup packages:
1. Customer: Who is the first buyer, and what evidence shows they will pay?
2. Delivery: Where and how will you actually deliver the product or service?
3. Activities: What will the business sell, invoice for and perform? Describe the real work before looking for an activity label.
4. Dependencies: What must be in place before the first sale—people, premises, supplier agreements or activity-specific approvals?
5. Cash and sequence: What are the initial and recurring costs, and which commitments can wait until demand is clearer?
A useful exercise is to map the first customer journey from enquiry to payment and delivery. Any step you cannot explain becomes a research question before you commit capital. This is a planning framework; the licensing route and permissions still need checking for the specific activity and location.
I work on these questions through THRAVOT in Dubai. For anyone who wants to structure their own brief, our diagnostic is at https://thravot.com/diagnostic/
Which part of UAE entry has been hardest to validate for your business: customer demand, the operating model, or the setup route?
.png?_a=BAVMn6Gg0){kind=small}
