May 22, 2024 • 28 mins
Join Aaron Henriques, a seasoned entrepreneur from London, as he shares his journey of moving his business to Dubai. Discover the challenges he faced with high taxes and low opportunities in the UK, and how Dubai’s favourable environment for entrepreneurs offered a fresh start. Learn about why Aaron pivoted away from his start up idea and instead created Handlr Zone. Gain insights into the entrepreneurial spirit in Dubai and Aaron's plans for the future in Dubai.
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/aaronhenray/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhenray/
Watch: https://youtu.be/u7GVPLDUyRw
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/AaronHenray
Start a business in Dubai: https://handlrzone.com/
Get more Google search traffic: https://handlrseo.com/
Episode page: https://aaronhenriques.com/OAP017/
#opportunity #motivation #success #businessstrategy
Disclaimer at https://aaronhenriques.com/disclaimer
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm going to give you a bit of a sneakpeek behind the scenes about what
I'm doing with this Dubai companyand things we've been up to recently
because it's changed quite a bitsince the original video that you'd
have seen when I set up in Dubai.
For those of you who don'tknow me, I'm Aaron Henriques.
I'm from London in the UK.
I've been running, failing and startingbusinesses for about the last 15 years.
(00:21):
I left a 10 year career as apolice officer in London in 2017
And soon after I experienced myfirst major business failure.
I'm currently in an Airbnb in EMAAR Beach.
And you might be able tosee the palm behind me.
I've got a nice view of thepalm, But anyway it's great.
I'm glad to be back.
I've experienced in a range ofsectors and I'm sharing some of my
(00:42):
own experiences so that you don't makesome of the same mistakes that I did.
I woke up in London a few weeks ago.
I looked out the window and it wasabsolutely pissing with rain again.
And I was just like, screw this.
I got on my laptop, bookedthe flight to Dubai, booked my
Airbnb, and I was like, I'm off.
Generally what I found is if I'm stayingparticularly in London for too long, I
(01:04):
just start feeling a bit depressed andlike I have no motivation to do anything
and it doesn't help where we've gotbasically an anti entrepreneur government
with crazy high taxes low opportunity,dirty streets, crazy people, and it's
basically raining all of the time.
I am actually really glad to beback in Dubai for the third time.
(01:25):
I was slightly delayed, however,because ironically, I was just
talking about the rain in London.
You might've seen the rain in Dubai.
That was crazy.
You literally had cars floating down theroad, people on jet skis on the highway.
Nuts.
And British airways canceledmy flight the night before.
So I ended up a couple of dayslate, but I've been here a couple
of weeks now and all is good.
I'm staying in an apartmentfor nine weeks at EMAAR Beach.
(01:48):
It's like a new project being builtout here and it's a much more positive
environment for entrepreneurs or anyonewho just likes better things in life.
And this new environment has givenme a boost of energy to go ahead
and just do a load of stuff thatI just wasn't doing when I was,
feeling all depressed in London.
I've been using VAs in my companiesfor years to help me with the
(02:10):
growth of my own companies.
I had a few consistent issues thatwould pop up every now and then when
I'd have a new VA placed with me.
I'm sure one day when I was sat inthe bath, if I had this brainwave
where I have all my brainwaves,or when I'm asleep at night.
Does that ever happen to you?
You get this like crazy idea whenyou are asleep and you just have to
wake up and write it down quickly,or you'll forget in the morning.
(02:32):
But anyway, I thought I would be ableto make it better for the end client
with, providing more support, moretraining for the VAs, more supervision
of the VAs and a number of other thingslike smoother processing and stuff.
for those companies who had likemultiple VAs like I did, have smoother
processing where they have to makemultiple, international payments to
(02:54):
the individual VAs, being able to bringthat into one sort of single payment.
And that was the idea that Ihad then had floating around.
My big failure, which I mighttell you about sometime, was
I just called it Handlr 1.
0 because it was the first iterationof one of my Handlr companies.
And basically, because I was too lazy tothink of a new name and I also don't think
(03:17):
it's that important when no one knows you,is I decided to just call it Handlr VA.
I remember initially I really wantedto do it from the UK, but the numbers
just literally just didn't stack up.
Now I'm a big believer that the UKsystem, it's really anti entrepreneur.
And let's just say you're an entrepreneurin the United Kingdom, and you're
(03:37):
following all the rules, and you aredoing your 40, 60, 70 hours, whatever it
is you're doing a week, for some reasonthe government then think that they're
entitled to about 60-65% of your money.
Now to me, that's a crazy deal.
And you still find them crazy peoplethat are still like, Oh, then rich
business people don't need to pay more.
(03:59):
No, we don't.
In my view, the UK government reward lazypeople who are not really doing much,
not really advancing themselves,
and then instead go and penaliseentrepreneurs and other people who
are investing in stuff, who aretrying to generate wealth, trying
to generate jobs, trying to generatea better life for themselves to
give themselves more freedom.
(04:19):
spoke to my accountant aboutthe idea and quite simply, it
just didn't stack up for me.
The margins were way too lowfor me to get excited about it.
I would need extreme numbers of VAs beingplaced and it just wasn't gonna work.
And of course, the wholething may never have worked.
It would have been my investmentmoney going into it, my personal
(04:42):
money that I've managed to save fromwhat the government allow me to keep.
And I just felt, quite simply,the greedy government in the UK
wanted too big a chunk of my pie.
So I just thought I'mjust not going to do it.
Simple as that.
For those who know me well, they knewthat I was, quite patriotic from a young
age, I was indoctrinated, let's just say.
I was a boy scout, then a sea scout, thena air cadet, then I joined the police.
(05:09):
And it's, I still do some stuffnow for the state, let's just say.
And, I have my businesses now, butpro UK, really proud of being British.
That British brand and stuff thatthey make you feel so proud about.
But now I literally think it's ashit show run by absolute morons
who just need to disappear.
And let the adults take over.
so when I was talking to one daycomplaining about, the amount of
(05:33):
taxes that the UK government want totake, they take from your corporation
tax, they take from your income tax,the dividend tax, all the stealth
taxes that they do and whatever.
Anyway, I was complaining about that.
And my accountant, I think as ajoke suggested why don't you go and
set up your company in Dubai then?
And really I felt a bit forcedout of my country, to be honest.
(05:54):
It's shit to think the only realoption for me to make a business
work is to literally do it ina completely different country.
So eventually I found out how to setup the company without being scammed,
ripped off or having to use an agent.
And I did a ton of research andso I thought after doing all that
research, I put a video together andmade it available to you guys, which
(06:16):
you can watch on YouTube after this.
And after I got my company set up, Iwent through the UAE investors visa
process to get my residency visa.
And again, because therewere so many steps to it, I
just thought, you know what?
Let me put a video together.
So you can watch the two videos afterthis, which shows you the steps of
how to set up the company and then thesteps of how to get your visa sorted.
(06:37):
Now, personally, I foundthe UAE extremely welcoming.
It's safe.
It's clean.
everyone's entrepreneurial.
They don't have bums out herebecause bums are not allowed to stay.
You either pay your way.
And when I say pay your way, Idon't mean in taxes as in like you
can support yourself or you leave.
That's the two options that you have here.
The tax system is super cheap forentrepreneurs and it's 0% if you're
(07:00):
a salaried staff member out here.
for entrepreneurs, It's literallyjust 9% tax, which was bought in just
in 2023, but it's 9% tax on profits.
Now at the moment, the small businessesit's on profits of over AED 3 million
Dirhams, which means you get tohave about $815,000 US dollars of
(07:24):
profit, not revenue before you haveto start paying this tiny 9% tax.
Now, in comparison, in the UK,the corporation tax is 26% and a
half-ish percent at the moment, andyou pay that on all of your profit.
No matter if you've made £1000 or you'vemade a £500,000, you're paying that.
(07:45):
That said, income tax is 0%.
So if you pay yourself a salary from yourcompany, it's 0% and it's deductible.
It's a deductible expense.
It reduces your profit.
Now compare that to the UK you caneasily be paying well over 40% if
you're earning, good money out there,substantially more combined it can
be somewhere like 60-65% that you endup paying from your hard work alone
And for VAT, it's only 5% in the UAE.
(08:08):
That is on revenue, not on profit.
Now that 5% is only, you onlyhave to start paying that if your
revenues are over 375,000 dirhams,which is like $81,000 US dollars.
And for those of you who don't know thedifference between profit and revenue,
basically revenue is all of the money thatcomes in through your sales and profit is
(08:29):
the bit that you get to keep at the endthat you can pay yourself to your personal
bank account once all the bills are paid
But for a lot of people, if you're settingup a free zone company in Dubai, or just
anywhere in the UAE, because you won'tbe selling typically into Dubai, you'll
be selling to other countries abroad.
You won't be charging the VAT to people.
(08:49):
Now, why is that important?
Competitiveness, that'swhy, and profitability.
if you take two companies that do theidentical things, one's based in the
UK, one is based in the UAE, one'sa free zone in the UAE, one is just
a normal limited company in the UK.
let's just say the two companiesbuy the product for the same price
(09:10):
and they sell it for the same price.
Now, in the UK you'd pay 20% VAT,and in the UAE, you'd pay 0%.
But let's just say that you werepaying the 5%, then you'd pay 5%.
So you've got a difference thereof a margin of about 15%, which
even makes you more profitable.
Or the UAE company has the option toreduce the price even more and take
(09:31):
the customers away from the UK company.
So that's why the VAT is important.
But that aside, you don't pay itif you're not selling in the UAE.
And if you're opening a free zone,like I did, you wouldn't be doing it.
Now personally, I findDubai like extremely clean.
It's extremely safe.
The roads are huge.
The living standards are super high ifyou've come from a major city like London
(09:51):
or New York or wherever, the amountsof money that you're used to paying
in rents and stuff like that for theequivalent that you can get over here,
don't get me wrong, it's not cheap.
Dubai is not cheap, but theequivalent you get over here, yeah.
Your living standards are way higher.
Plus you're surroundedby motivated people.
You're surrounded by entrepreneurs, peoplewho are a bit of hustle and bustle who are
(10:12):
out there trying to make a living, tryingto make a better life for themselves.
Personally, I think the UAE is puttingthe West to shame and I really don't think
the West like it, but they've got to keepa nice pretty smile on their face because
tons of people are flocking out here.
People from the UK, US, Canada,Australia, everywhere around the world
are coming here for a better life andbecause people think they deserve and
(10:36):
quite rightly they do deserve to keepmore of what they worked hard for.
Now, if I could move my business back toLondon, I would, but the tax system just
doesn't make any sense for me to do that.
If you even make a £1000 inprofit in a year in the UK, the
government wants their cut of that.
Whereas the UAE, at the moment, they'veallowed you $800,000 US dollars of
(10:57):
profit before they're going to chargeyou anything and then the tax that they
do charge you is super low comparedto most places around the world
But it's not perfect out here, don'tget me wrong, there is a hustle and
bustle culture people dress really welland they're prepared to rip you off
and smile in your face while they do so
And you've just got to think that outhere there's a lot of people who are
(11:18):
only on commission only jobs or reallylow salaries and they have to earn money
through their performance in their work orthey own their own companies or whatever.
So typically estate agents is oneexample of who most people will
come in contact with at some point.
Most of those will beon just pure commission.
If they don't sell, if theydon't rent you a property.
They don't make any money.
(11:40):
Any.
Zero.
Nada.
So that does motivate some people.
Maybe they might stretch the truth a bit.
They might just tell you outrightlies to make the sale with you.
You've got to be careful.
And even when I was at Global Villagethe other day, I was literally, I
was going through this Yemen partof the Global Village, and There
was lots of these honey stalls andthen this guy with a nice smile,
(12:01):
really happy, cheery, waved me over.
He's come and try this honey, giveme lots of different types of honey.
And there was two that I likedand I thought, you know what?
I'm going to buy this one for oneof my parents and I'll get this one
for me to use while I'm in Dubai.
Cause I needed some honey.
And I just thought, yeah, it's going to bea bit more than honey would normally be,
but it's not going to be a ton of money.
I asked him for two small jars of honey.
Not only does he not give mehis small jars of honey, he then
(12:23):
pours it into two like half kilojars, so it's a kilo of honey.
And then I found out they hadthese like actual small pots,
which is actually what I wanted.
But anyway, they gave me those.
And then he comes to me with the cardmachine and it said 950 dirhams on it.
950 dirhams is about $240 US dollars.
$240 US dollars for two jars of honey.
(12:46):
And I was like, what the fuck?
There is no way.
I was like handing that thing back to him.
Then the girl I was with, she's juststarted like negotiating like the price.
And she was like, no, that's like crazy.
That's way too much.
Like literally thoughtit was a joke at first.
And there's no way I'd pay thatmuch for a couple of what were
meant to be small jars of honeythen immediately he's 500 dirhams.
(13:08):
I'm like, no, because that's still a£100 ($125) for two jars of, honey he
then come back, he was like 250, 180.
Then the girl I was with, she waslike, no, AED 150 dirhams ($40 USD).
And I was thinking at this time, look,I don't wanna give this guy any money.
Even if he said 10 Durhams, liketwo pounds, or, three, $5, I
don't wanna give him anythingbecause he's just taking the piss.
(13:30):
He's obviously looked at meand thought, here's an idiot.
Let me rip this idiot off.
But anyway, they eventually agreed onthe 150 that the girl was saying and I
reluctantly paid it, for those of youwho might be interested to have a look
at different things you can do in DubaiI recorded a four days in Dubai vlog
when I came here for the first time.
So you can have a look for those.
I think there's four or five likeshortish videos on that, which just
(13:52):
shows you some of the stuff I gotup to in my first time visiting.
You can always have a look at that,leave some comments or whatever.
when I first set up the companyhere, I used the help of one of my
longterm assistants called Belle.
She also has, 15 years experience inrecruitment in the Philippines for like
remote workers working with US, UK, andother English speaking countries abroad.
(14:13):
She was really excited about theproject as well, but for me, something
just didn't quite feel right.
I just didn't really feelthat excited about VAs.
I think it was just one of the thingsI got an idea in my head and I thought
yeah, I could probably do a betterjob than, some of the companies that
I've been involved with So I built thewebsite, then I got the SEO going I
got my team to start working on that,because I knew it would take a long
(14:33):
time before the SEO started to work, Iprovided services remotely for many years,
particularly in the cleaning industry.
And I just literally started thinkingabout all the terrible things that could
go wrong, the headaches that is going tocause me dealing with the remote workers.
After a few months, I started to get afew organic leads coming in and, I just
was basically saying we're not providingservice at the moment or whatever.
(14:55):
we take their details and I've gotthem in a database should I need them.
And that was comingthrough the organic SEO.
It just started to work a little bit
I could easily place someone,but I didn't want to just
place someone and then be like.
I can't be bothered to manage them, orif I've only got a couple of clients
the resource that I need to use tobe able to, service those clients.
It just, it's disproportionate to theamount of clients that I might have.
(15:18):
So I just felt like if I'm not fullybehind it, I'm not going to do it.
But something wasn't quite rightfor me at that point to be pushing
with that as a service on its own.
But meanwhile, something elsewas going on in the background,
which I hadn't anticipated.
And that video that I'd created,which I've mentioned a couple of times
on setting up the company in Dubai.
(15:38):
In that video, I offered to introducethem to one of the managers the free
zone I set up with so that peoplecan set up directly with them rather
than going for an agent or whatever.
So I was getting a fewleads a week from that.
I started getting people from all overthe world, particularly, a lot of Europe,
actually, but places all over the worldcontacting me through my Instagram,
through email, even through my WhatsApp.
(16:00):
God knows how they find my number.
But whatever, I've had peoplecontact me in various ways asking
me questions, asking me for a quickvideo call and stuff like that.
Normally the calls and stuffI just declined and just said
I wouldn't be able to do them.
People would email meand text me or whatever.
I didn't mind responding to a fewof them, but I was getting a lot of
requests and I'm still getting themeven now, but it's less so thank God.
(16:22):
Some were like really polite, somewere like really demanding, as if I'm,
a mentor they've just paid $100,000to and expect answers from me.
But, moreover, the majority ofthe comments I was getting, like
people messaging me, was justsaying thank you so much for
taking the time to put it together.
And, you're welcome guys.
But it ended up becoming so frequentthat I actually set up an automation
(16:44):
to deal with it, because I justcouldn't deal with all the queries
that were coming through all the time.
And the FreeZone actually then startedsending me a small referral fee, about
$300 US dollars for the leads thatI'd send over to them that actually
then went and set up a company.
And again, that wasn'tsomething that was expected.
in March 24, I was starting to thinkactually it's coming up to the point
(17:04):
where I'm gonna have to renew my license.
It costs a few thousand pounds,dollars, whatever you want to
use to be able to keep it active.
You have to pay thelicense fees every year.
And I was really consideringactually just closing it down
and I just thought, look, I do like Dubai.
There are other ways that I couldget visas to be able to just come
out here and stay something like agolden visa and be able to come out
(17:27):
here when I want to for a holiday.
But I was just thinking do you know what?
I haven't done anything with thecompany, the VA stuff on its own
just is not that interesting to me.
on its own, I don't want to do that.
And so I was really thinkingabout closing the company down.
Then the FreeZone sent me therenewal documents and I was sat there
thinking, I'm going to cancel these.
And then Switty just mentionedto me one day why don't you
become a professional partner?
(17:48):
You've sent us a ton of leads, why don'tyou just become a professional partner?
You can do that through your company.
You just need to changeyour trade activities.
And then you can set up thecompanies yourself because literally
I've been helping so many people.
with the questions before theywere setting up, during and after.
I just then started thinkingabout it like, should I?
And I thought about it, and I didn'twant to get into that thing of yet
(18:10):
basically another startup idea that Idon't run with, that then just going to
cost me thousands of pounds, and thenI don't actually do anything with it.
But I did really like speaking to someof the entrepreneurs that contacted me.
Some really interesting people havebeen in touch, And it's just been
really interesting meeting differentpeople from around the world who
are, similar sort of mind to me.
And that's one of the hardestthings that I found out in Dubai
is like, when I come here on myown, I don't actually know anyone.
(18:33):
I just felt like those people,once they're here, would be
great to catch up with them.
But then I startedthinking that thing again.
I don't just want to bea company set up service.
I literally created that video becauseI wanted to avoid using agents.
And I wanted to avoid using agentsbecause of all the bad things I've
heard, not just online, but actuallyfrom someone I know as well about, where
they're just dishonest, how they set up.
(18:54):
They'll, some charge literallyextortionate fees in the initial year.
Some charge, smaller fees in the firstyear, and then they will blast you the
next year with a humongous admin feethat you have to pay, or you have to
close your company down potentially.
I didn't want to just have the companyset up and the visa services on its
own, because just setting you up, itdoesn't help you for the long term.
(19:17):
There isn't the support afterwards.
It doesn't helpentrepreneurs grow long term.
It doesn't help build those connections,build the network, anything like that.
And then I realized the obviousthere was something big missing
when you set up a free zone companyeither directly or with an agent.
And that's the support to all theanswers, to all the common questions
before, during and after setting up.
(19:37):
Building those connections withother entrepreneurs, because it
can be a lonely place if you moveout here and you don't know anyone.
Other sort of business growth services,like why they're not offering them?
other business growth services,which can really help the
entrepreneurs to grow theircompanies for the long term out here.
And also, integrity is importantto me, always has been.
And being, a trustworthy sourcewhere you can actually trust that the
(20:01):
company that I set up and my staff,anyone that is working with me,
is not going to attempt to rip youoff, not going to throw in some like
random admin fees and stuff like that.
Literally, transparency and integrityis like non negotiables for me.
It's been inbred in me froma young age of, these are the
principles that you must live by.
And that is what I live by.
(20:22):
And then I realised why don't Ijust combine them all together.
I can offer the company setupservices, the visa services.
I can offer my Handlr SEO services,digital marketing stuff, and
I can offer the VA services.
All of those things help businessesto grow for the long term.
It's something that, I use in myown businesses to grow all of them.
So why not offer that toother people under one roof?
(20:45):
But also have systems in place to beable to provide the support for the
entrepreneurs with navigating, the legalside of things here, just generally how to
get on when you're moving here into Dubai.
Building that little networkof that community of people.
That's what I thought
really would be something really strongthat is missing across the board.
(21:05):
And I think that's something that.
is really important to do because yes,building that community, you might
not make money from it, but I thinkthat would really support people,
give people a lot, I don't know,like a better time coming out here.
Cause honestly, me personally, I've hadsome times where I've just been like on my
(21:25):
own for days and it's really depressing.
So that's the pivoting thing that I did.
just thought I'd give it a shot.
Let's combine, a number of myservices together as something that
can really support people who wantto set up businesses in the UAE
without ripping them off basically.
So like always, I had to think of a name.
I didn't know what to call it.
What do you think I called it?
(21:46):
I'll give you fiveseconds to think about it.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Okay.
I called it Handlr Zone.
I decided that after about 15 minutes.
Why?
Because the Handlr brand issomething that I've already used.
I did Handlr SEO then Handlr VA,I've done the Handlr version 1.
0.
So I just thought whycome up with another name?
Handlr seems to make sense.
Actually, it's quite similar towhat the original Handlr was about.
(22:10):
It was about supporting businessesin that sense, so that's why
the brand was even created.
I then immediately did my thingof starting to build the website,
getting that, trying to get that up.
And then I thought, hold on, son.
There's one principle that you'vebeen living by for quite a few years.
use VAs to support me.
I hire other staffmembers for other things.
(22:30):
I'm thinking, why are you going tospend your time building a website?
It's going to look shit.
It's going to take up a load of yourtime, you're not going to enjoy it,
you're going to rush it, and why bother?
I read this book last year, whichreally reinforced something that I'd
already started to do but really didn'tunderstand possibly what I was doing.
It's called Who Not How.
Who Not How, for me, I think,is the most important book for
(22:57):
entrepreneurs particularly.
The most important book.
I've read and I've listenedto that thing, I don't know,
five, six times now, maybe more.
The principles behind it areso important for you to be
able to expand your businesses.
To be able to expand yourgrowth as you move forward.
That is so important because it'sso common for Entrepreneurs, to
(23:18):
try and do everything themselves.
And then you limit, you've only gotso many hours and you've got burnout
and all that to contend with, youlimit yourself on what you can do.
So I decided, look, screw this.
I'm not building a shitty website.
This is what the website looked like.
it looked like a pile of shit.
So I decided that I would go andget a professional web developer.
I instructed them, gave them a bitof a brief, and let them crack on.
(23:39):
It's not yet finished at thetime of this recording, but I'll
give you a little sneak peek.
This is the new websitethat, is being built.
It is still in development stage.
This is not actually builtas a proper website yet.
But this is eventually whatit's going to look like.
The first iteration, it's notperfect, but you know what?
It's going to be a lot betterthan I would have done.
And it's not taking up my time stressingme out So, well done to these guys
(24:03):
who've done a great job in my opinion.
So what's next for me?
I'm heading back to London at theend of June in time for summer.
To avoid the summer in Dubai becauseit's super hot, like 40c (>100f) plus.
And in the meantime, what I'mgoing to do is I'm going to contact
some of the leads that I sentthrough to the free zone before.
Who didn't set up their companiesto offer them, to have a chat with
(24:23):
them and see are you interestedin still setting up in Dubai?
Would you like this?
This is, the new thing that I'mtrying to offer out and building
that community because I think that'sreally important, building like a
network or at least the infrastructureso that people have the opportunity
to do that with other entrepreneurs.
As soon as the new site is ready forits soft launch, we're going to start
(24:43):
aggressive SEO on it because that is wherewe're going to win in terms of being able
to get new business in for the long term.
I'm always thinking about businessfor the long term, not the short term
wins with, crazy expensive Google ads.
Facebook ads are even crazynow for generating leads.
So that's where we'regoing to be focusing.
I really think that people, we'rejust so impatient these days.
(25:06):
You know that story aboutthe turtle and the hare?
And who wins the race or whatever.
everyone wants to be the hare.
They start off, they want to throw alltheir budget and all their money into
Google ads, Facebook ads or whatever.
It just doesn't work, For mostpeople, the budgets are too small.
It doesn't work.
They don't want to invest insomething like SEO because it takes
too long to start getting results.
new website, 12 months, 18 months.
(25:29):
For good, consistentresults, maybe even longer.
It depends on how competitiveyour industry is, how much budget
you're putting into it, but peopledon't want to wait for that.
And yet the businesses that, survivefor the longterm are ones who've
invested for the longterm, notjust the short term little wins.
I was literally at the pool the otherday, and this is the thing where
(25:49):
you just speak to random strangers.
someone's kid just jumped in, intothe pool right in front of me.
I'm sat on the sun deck thingwith my laptop out and the
water's gone all over it.
I was like, shit.
And the dad's come over and he's oh,sorry mate, sorry, we didn't realise.
I was like, don't worry, I'm theidiot sat by the pool with a laptop.
So we started speaking anyway, itturns out he's looking at, setting
up a company out in UAE he's wantsthe visa and stuff like that.
(26:13):
And literally just from that oneinteraction, we're now connected and who
knows, in the future, he may actuallythen decide to come out here, set up a
company and move his family out here.
Who knows?
He may not, but whatever, just speakingto like random people and just finding
out about the sort of stuff that they do,the interests that they have or whatever.
I just find talking toother people interesting.
(26:34):
hopefully some of the lives of thenew entrepreneurs coming out to
Dubai are going to be made a bitsmoother for those who come with us.
And that's really why I decidedto pivot my Dubai startup.
That's it.
And of course, I'm going tolet you know how it goes.
If there's any questions that youhave, put them in the comments
because that would give me an ideafor another video to make for you.
That's something that you actuallywant to know that I can also talk
(26:57):
about from my own experience.
And another thing I'd like to knowis have you set up a company in
the past anywhere in the world?
And have you If you don't mind sharingit with me and with other people who
are on YouTube wanting to have a look,put your story in the comments, that
might inspire other people to thinkor maybe give other people ideas.
If someone's doing a business at themoment that it's not really exciting them,
(27:18):
or they're just not making traction withit, they might be doing a similar business
that you've already done in the past.
And equally, have you ever had a businessand you've never done anything with it
and just ended up having to shut it down?
Or maybe it's been a big failure.
I know people don'tlike to talk about them.
I'm probably going to share astory with you, which I haven't
really gone into depth on before.
I'll do that another day, potentially.
(27:39):
If I can bring myself tospeak about it on camera.
But yeah let us know in the comments.
If you're watching on YouTube, thenclick up here to watch this video next.
Since you stayed with me this long,if you want to hear for future stuff,
subscribe, like the video, or even better,share it with someone who you think would
really benefit from hearing this today.
Bye.
I'm going to give you a bit of a sneakpeek behind the scenes about what
I'm doing with this Dubai companyand things we've been up to recently
because it's changed quite a bitsince the original video that you'd
have seen when I set up in Dubai.
For those of you who don'tknow me, I'm Aaron Henriques.
I'm from London in the UK.
I've been running, failing and startingbusinesses for about the last 15 years.
(00:21):
I left a 10 year career as apolice officer in London in 2017
And soon after I experienced myfirst major business failure.
I'm currently in an Airbnb in EMAAR Beach.
And you might be able tosee the palm behind me.
I've got a nice view of thepalm, But anyway it's great.
I'm glad to be back.
I've experienced in a range ofsectors and I'm sharing some of my
(00:42):
own experiences so that you don't makesome of the same mistakes that I did.
I woke up in London a few weeks ago.
I looked out the window and it wasabsolutely pissing with rain again.
And I was just like, screw this.
I got on my laptop, bookedthe flight to Dubai, booked my
Airbnb, and I was like, I'm off.
Generally what I found is if I'm stayingparticularly in London for too long, I
(01:04):
just start feeling a bit depressed andlike I have no motivation to do anything
and it doesn't help where we've gotbasically an anti entrepreneur government
with crazy high taxes low opportunity,dirty streets, crazy people, and it's
basically raining all of the time.
I am actually really glad to beback in Dubai for the third time.
(01:25):
I was slightly delayed, however,because ironically, I was just
talking about the rain in London.
You might've seen the rain in Dubai.
That was crazy.
You literally had cars floating down theroad, people on jet skis on the highway.
Nuts.
And British airways canceledmy flight the night before.
So I ended up a couple of dayslate, but I've been here a couple
of weeks now and all is good.
I'm staying in an apartmentfor nine weeks at EMAAR Beach.
(01:48):
It's like a new project being builtout here and it's a much more positive
environment for entrepreneurs or anyonewho just likes better things in life.
And this new environment has givenme a boost of energy to go ahead
and just do a load of stuff thatI just wasn't doing when I was,
feeling all depressed in London.
I've been using VAs in my companiesfor years to help me with the
(02:10):
growth of my own companies.
I had a few consistent issues thatwould pop up every now and then when
I'd have a new VA placed with me.
I'm sure one day when I was sat inthe bath, if I had this brainwave
where I have all my brainwaves,or when I'm asleep at night.
Does that ever happen to you?
You get this like crazy idea whenyou are asleep and you just have to
wake up and write it down quickly,or you'll forget in the morning.
(02:32):
But anyway, I thought I would be ableto make it better for the end client
with, providing more support, moretraining for the VAs, more supervision
of the VAs and a number of other thingslike smoother processing and stuff.
for those companies who had likemultiple VAs like I did, have smoother
processing where they have to makemultiple, international payments to
(02:54):
the individual VAs, being able to bringthat into one sort of single payment.
And that was the idea that Ihad then had floating around.
My big failure, which I mighttell you about sometime, was
I just called it Handlr 1.
0 because it was the first iterationof one of my Handlr companies.
And basically, because I was too lazy tothink of a new name and I also don't think
(03:17):
it's that important when no one knows you,is I decided to just call it Handlr VA.
I remember initially I really wantedto do it from the UK, but the numbers
just literally just didn't stack up.
Now I'm a big believer that the UKsystem, it's really anti entrepreneur.
And let's just say you're an entrepreneurin the United Kingdom, and you're
(03:37):
following all the rules, and you aredoing your 40, 60, 70 hours, whatever it
is you're doing a week, for some reasonthe government then think that they're
entitled to about 60-65% of your money.
Now to me, that's a crazy deal.
And you still find them crazy peoplethat are still like, Oh, then rich
business people don't need to pay more.
(03:59):
No, we don't.
In my view, the UK government reward lazypeople who are not really doing much,
not really advancing themselves,
and then instead go and penaliseentrepreneurs and other people who
are investing in stuff, who aretrying to generate wealth, trying
to generate jobs, trying to generatea better life for themselves to
give themselves more freedom.
(04:19):
spoke to my accountant aboutthe idea and quite simply, it
just didn't stack up for me.
The margins were way too lowfor me to get excited about it.
I would need extreme numbers of VAs beingplaced and it just wasn't gonna work.
And of course, the wholething may never have worked.
It would have been my investmentmoney going into it, my personal
(04:42):
money that I've managed to save fromwhat the government allow me to keep.
And I just felt, quite simply,the greedy government in the UK
wanted too big a chunk of my pie.
So I just thought I'mjust not going to do it.
Simple as that.
For those who know me well, they knewthat I was, quite patriotic from a young
age, I was indoctrinated, let's just say.
I was a boy scout, then a sea scout, thena air cadet, then I joined the police.
(05:09):
And it's, I still do some stuffnow for the state, let's just say.
And, I have my businesses now, butpro UK, really proud of being British.
That British brand and stuff thatthey make you feel so proud about.
But now I literally think it's ashit show run by absolute morons
who just need to disappear.
And let the adults take over.
so when I was talking to one daycomplaining about, the amount of
(05:33):
taxes that the UK government want totake, they take from your corporation
tax, they take from your income tax,the dividend tax, all the stealth
taxes that they do and whatever.
Anyway, I was complaining about that.
And my accountant, I think as ajoke suggested why don't you go and
set up your company in Dubai then?
And really I felt a bit forcedout of my country, to be honest.
(05:54):
It's shit to think the only realoption for me to make a business
work is to literally do it ina completely different country.
So eventually I found out how to setup the company without being scammed,
ripped off or having to use an agent.
And I did a ton of research andso I thought after doing all that
research, I put a video together andmade it available to you guys, which
(06:16):
you can watch on YouTube after this.
And after I got my company set up, Iwent through the UAE investors visa
process to get my residency visa.
And again, because therewere so many steps to it, I
just thought, you know what?
Let me put a video together.
So you can watch the two videos afterthis, which shows you the steps of
how to set up the company and then thesteps of how to get your visa sorted.
(06:37):
Now, personally, I foundthe UAE extremely welcoming.
It's safe.
It's clean.
everyone's entrepreneurial.
They don't have bums out herebecause bums are not allowed to stay.
You either pay your way.
And when I say pay your way, Idon't mean in taxes as in like you
can support yourself or you leave.
That's the two options that you have here.
The tax system is super cheap forentrepreneurs and it's 0% if you're
(07:00):
a salaried staff member out here.
for entrepreneurs, It's literallyjust 9% tax, which was bought in just
in 2023, but it's 9% tax on profits.
Now at the moment, the small businessesit's on profits of over AED 3 million
Dirhams, which means you get tohave about $815,000 US dollars of
(07:24):
profit, not revenue before you haveto start paying this tiny 9% tax.
Now, in comparison, in the UK,the corporation tax is 26% and a
half-ish percent at the moment, andyou pay that on all of your profit.
No matter if you've made £1000 or you'vemade a £500,000, you're paying that.
(07:45):
That said, income tax is 0%.
So if you pay yourself a salary from yourcompany, it's 0% and it's deductible.
It's a deductible expense.
It reduces your profit.
Now compare that to the UK you caneasily be paying well over 40% if
you're earning, good money out there,substantially more combined it can
be somewhere like 60-65% that you endup paying from your hard work alone
And for VAT, it's only 5% in the UAE.
(08:08):
That is on revenue, not on profit.
Now that 5% is only, you onlyhave to start paying that if your
revenues are over 375,000 dirhams,which is like $81,000 US dollars.
And for those of you who don't know thedifference between profit and revenue,
basically revenue is all of the money thatcomes in through your sales and profit is
(08:29):
the bit that you get to keep at the endthat you can pay yourself to your personal
bank account once all the bills are paid
But for a lot of people, if you're settingup a free zone company in Dubai, or just
anywhere in the UAE, because you won'tbe selling typically into Dubai, you'll
be selling to other countries abroad.
You won't be charging the VAT to people.
(08:49):
Now, why is that important?
Competitiveness, that'swhy, and profitability.
if you take two companies that do theidentical things, one's based in the
UK, one is based in the UAE, one'sa free zone in the UAE, one is just
a normal limited company in the UK.
let's just say the two companiesbuy the product for the same price
(09:10):
and they sell it for the same price.
Now, in the UK you'd pay 20% VAT,and in the UAE, you'd pay 0%.
But let's just say that you werepaying the 5%, then you'd pay 5%.
So you've got a difference thereof a margin of about 15%, which
even makes you more profitable.
Or the UAE company has the option toreduce the price even more and take
(09:31):
the customers away from the UK company.
So that's why the VAT is important.
But that aside, you don't pay itif you're not selling in the UAE.
And if you're opening a free zone,like I did, you wouldn't be doing it.
Now personally, I findDubai like extremely clean.
It's extremely safe.
The roads are huge.
The living standards are super high ifyou've come from a major city like London
(09:51):
or New York or wherever, the amountsof money that you're used to paying
in rents and stuff like that for theequivalent that you can get over here,
don't get me wrong, it's not cheap.
Dubai is not cheap, but theequivalent you get over here, yeah.
Your living standards are way higher.
Plus you're surroundedby motivated people.
You're surrounded by entrepreneurs, peoplewho are a bit of hustle and bustle who are
(10:12):
out there trying to make a living, tryingto make a better life for themselves.
Personally, I think the UAE is puttingthe West to shame and I really don't think
the West like it, but they've got to keepa nice pretty smile on their face because
tons of people are flocking out here.
People from the UK, US, Canada,Australia, everywhere around the world
are coming here for a better life andbecause people think they deserve and
(10:36):
quite rightly they do deserve to keepmore of what they worked hard for.
Now, if I could move my business back toLondon, I would, but the tax system just
doesn't make any sense for me to do that.
If you even make a £1000 inprofit in a year in the UK, the
government wants their cut of that.
Whereas the UAE, at the moment, they'veallowed you $800,000 US dollars of
(10:57):
profit before they're going to chargeyou anything and then the tax that they
do charge you is super low comparedto most places around the world
But it's not perfect out here, don'tget me wrong, there is a hustle and
bustle culture people dress really welland they're prepared to rip you off
and smile in your face while they do so
And you've just got to think that outhere there's a lot of people who are
(11:18):
only on commission only jobs or reallylow salaries and they have to earn money
through their performance in their work orthey own their own companies or whatever.
So typically estate agents is oneexample of who most people will
come in contact with at some point.
Most of those will beon just pure commission.
If they don't sell, if theydon't rent you a property.
They don't make any money.
(11:40):
Any.
Zero.
Nada.
So that does motivate some people.
Maybe they might stretch the truth a bit.
They might just tell you outrightlies to make the sale with you.
You've got to be careful.
And even when I was at Global Villagethe other day, I was literally, I
was going through this Yemen partof the Global Village, and There
was lots of these honey stalls andthen this guy with a nice smile,
(12:01):
really happy, cheery, waved me over.
He's come and try this honey, giveme lots of different types of honey.
And there was two that I likedand I thought, you know what?
I'm going to buy this one for oneof my parents and I'll get this one
for me to use while I'm in Dubai.
Cause I needed some honey.
And I just thought, yeah, it's going to bea bit more than honey would normally be,
but it's not going to be a ton of money.
I asked him for two small jars of honey.
Not only does he not give mehis small jars of honey, he then
(12:23):
pours it into two like half kilojars, so it's a kilo of honey.
And then I found out they hadthese like actual small pots,
which is actually what I wanted.
But anyway, they gave me those.
And then he comes to me with the cardmachine and it said 950 dirhams on it.
950 dirhams is about $240 US dollars.
$240 US dollars for two jars of honey.
(12:46):
And I was like, what the fuck?
There is no way.
I was like handing that thing back to him.
Then the girl I was with, she's juststarted like negotiating like the price.
And she was like, no, that's like crazy.
That's way too much.
Like literally thoughtit was a joke at first.
And there's no way I'd pay thatmuch for a couple of what were
meant to be small jars of honeythen immediately he's 500 dirhams.
(13:08):
I'm like, no, because that's still a£100 ($125) for two jars of, honey he
then come back, he was like 250, 180.
Then the girl I was with, she waslike, no, AED 150 dirhams ($40 USD).
And I was thinking at this time, look,I don't wanna give this guy any money.
Even if he said 10 Durhams, liketwo pounds, or, three, $5, I
don't wanna give him anythingbecause he's just taking the piss.
(13:30):
He's obviously looked at meand thought, here's an idiot.
Let me rip this idiot off.
But anyway, they eventually agreed onthe 150 that the girl was saying and I
reluctantly paid it, for those of youwho might be interested to have a look
at different things you can do in DubaiI recorded a four days in Dubai vlog
when I came here for the first time.
So you can have a look for those.
I think there's four or five likeshortish videos on that, which just
(13:52):
shows you some of the stuff I gotup to in my first time visiting.
You can always have a look at that,leave some comments or whatever.
when I first set up the companyhere, I used the help of one of my
longterm assistants called Belle.
She also has, 15 years experience inrecruitment in the Philippines for like
remote workers working with US, UK, andother English speaking countries abroad.
(14:13):
She was really excited about theproject as well, but for me, something
just didn't quite feel right.
I just didn't really feelthat excited about VAs.
I think it was just one of the thingsI got an idea in my head and I thought
yeah, I could probably do a betterjob than, some of the companies that
I've been involved with So I built thewebsite, then I got the SEO going I
got my team to start working on that,because I knew it would take a long
(14:33):
time before the SEO started to work, Iprovided services remotely for many years,
particularly in the cleaning industry.
And I just literally started thinkingabout all the terrible things that could
go wrong, the headaches that is going tocause me dealing with the remote workers.
After a few months, I started to get afew organic leads coming in and, I just
was basically saying we're not providingservice at the moment or whatever.
(14:55):
we take their details and I've gotthem in a database should I need them.
And that was comingthrough the organic SEO.
It just started to work a little bit
I could easily place someone,but I didn't want to just
place someone and then be like.
I can't be bothered to manage them, orif I've only got a couple of clients
the resource that I need to use tobe able to, service those clients.
It just, it's disproportionate to theamount of clients that I might have.
(15:18):
So I just felt like if I'm not fullybehind it, I'm not going to do it.
But something wasn't quite rightfor me at that point to be pushing
with that as a service on its own.
But meanwhile, something elsewas going on in the background,
which I hadn't anticipated.
And that video that I'd created,which I've mentioned a couple of times
on setting up the company in Dubai.
(15:38):
In that video, I offered to introducethem to one of the managers the free
zone I set up with so that peoplecan set up directly with them rather
than going for an agent or whatever.
So I was getting a fewleads a week from that.
I started getting people from all overthe world, particularly, a lot of Europe,
actually, but places all over the worldcontacting me through my Instagram,
through email, even through my WhatsApp.
(16:00):
God knows how they find my number.
But whatever, I've had peoplecontact me in various ways asking
me questions, asking me for a quickvideo call and stuff like that.
Normally the calls and stuffI just declined and just said
I wouldn't be able to do them.
People would email meand text me or whatever.
I didn't mind responding to a fewof them, but I was getting a lot of
requests and I'm still getting themeven now, but it's less so thank God.
(16:22):
Some were like really polite, somewere like really demanding, as if I'm,
a mentor they've just paid $100,000to and expect answers from me.
But, moreover, the majority ofthe comments I was getting, like
people messaging me, was justsaying thank you so much for
taking the time to put it together.
And, you're welcome guys.
But it ended up becoming so frequentthat I actually set up an automation
(16:44):
to deal with it, because I justcouldn't deal with all the queries
that were coming through all the time.
And the FreeZone actually then startedsending me a small referral fee, about
$300 US dollars for the leads thatI'd send over to them that actually
then went and set up a company.
And again, that wasn'tsomething that was expected.
in March 24, I was starting to thinkactually it's coming up to the point
(17:04):
where I'm gonna have to renew my license.
It costs a few thousand pounds,dollars, whatever you want to
use to be able to keep it active.
You have to pay thelicense fees every year.
And I was really consideringactually just closing it down
and I just thought, look, I do like Dubai.
There are other ways that I couldget visas to be able to just come
out here and stay something like agolden visa and be able to come out
(17:27):
here when I want to for a holiday.
But I was just thinking do you know what?
I haven't done anything with thecompany, the VA stuff on its own
just is not that interesting to me.
on its own, I don't want to do that.
And so I was really thinkingabout closing the company down.
Then the FreeZone sent me therenewal documents and I was sat there
thinking, I'm going to cancel these.
And then Switty just mentionedto me one day why don't you
become a professional partner?
(17:48):
You've sent us a ton of leads, why don'tyou just become a professional partner?
You can do that through your company.
You just need to changeyour trade activities.
And then you can set up thecompanies yourself because literally
I've been helping so many people.
with the questions before theywere setting up, during and after.
I just then started thinkingabout it like, should I?
And I thought about it, and I didn'twant to get into that thing of yet
(18:10):
basically another startup idea that Idon't run with, that then just going to
cost me thousands of pounds, and thenI don't actually do anything with it.
But I did really like speaking to someof the entrepreneurs that contacted me.
Some really interesting people havebeen in touch, And it's just been
really interesting meeting differentpeople from around the world who
are, similar sort of mind to me.
And that's one of the hardestthings that I found out in Dubai
is like, when I come here on myown, I don't actually know anyone.
(18:33):
I just felt like those people,once they're here, would be
great to catch up with them.
But then I startedthinking that thing again.
I don't just want to bea company set up service.
I literally created that video becauseI wanted to avoid using agents.
And I wanted to avoid using agentsbecause of all the bad things I've
heard, not just online, but actuallyfrom someone I know as well about, where
they're just dishonest, how they set up.
(18:54):
They'll, some charge literallyextortionate fees in the initial year.
Some charge, smaller fees in the firstyear, and then they will blast you the
next year with a humongous admin feethat you have to pay, or you have to
close your company down potentially.
I didn't want to just have the companyset up and the visa services on its
own, because just setting you up, itdoesn't help you for the long term.
(19:17):
There isn't the support afterwards.
It doesn't helpentrepreneurs grow long term.
It doesn't help build those connections,build the network, anything like that.
And then I realized the obviousthere was something big missing
when you set up a free zone companyeither directly or with an agent.
And that's the support to all theanswers, to all the common questions
before, during and after setting up.
(19:37):
Building those connections withother entrepreneurs, because it
can be a lonely place if you moveout here and you don't know anyone.
Other sort of business growth services,like why they're not offering them?
other business growth services,which can really help the
entrepreneurs to grow theircompanies for the long term out here.
And also, integrity is importantto me, always has been.
And being, a trustworthy sourcewhere you can actually trust that the
(20:01):
company that I set up and my staff,anyone that is working with me,
is not going to attempt to rip youoff, not going to throw in some like
random admin fees and stuff like that.
Literally, transparency and integrityis like non negotiables for me.
It's been inbred in me froma young age of, these are the
principles that you must live by.
And that is what I live by.
(20:22):
And then I realised why don't Ijust combine them all together.
I can offer the company setupservices, the visa services.
I can offer my Handlr SEO services,digital marketing stuff, and
I can offer the VA services.
All of those things help businessesto grow for the long term.
It's something that, I use in myown businesses to grow all of them.
So why not offer that toother people under one roof?
(20:45):
But also have systems in place to beable to provide the support for the
entrepreneurs with navigating, the legalside of things here, just generally how to
get on when you're moving here into Dubai.
Building that little networkof that community of people.
That's what I thought
really would be something really strongthat is missing across the board.
(21:05):
And I think that's something that.
is really important to do because yes,building that community, you might
not make money from it, but I thinkthat would really support people,
give people a lot, I don't know,like a better time coming out here.
Cause honestly, me personally, I've hadsome times where I've just been like on my
(21:25):
own for days and it's really depressing.
So that's the pivoting thing that I did.
just thought I'd give it a shot.
Let's combine, a number of myservices together as something that
can really support people who wantto set up businesses in the UAE
without ripping them off basically.
So like always, I had to think of a name.
I didn't know what to call it.
What do you think I called it?
(21:46):
I'll give you fiveseconds to think about it.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Okay.
I called it Handlr Zone.
I decided that after about 15 minutes.
Why?
Because the Handlr brand issomething that I've already used.
I did Handlr SEO then Handlr VA,I've done the Handlr version 1.
0.
So I just thought whycome up with another name?
Handlr seems to make sense.
Actually, it's quite similar towhat the original Handlr was about.
(22:10):
It was about supporting businessesin that sense, so that's why
the brand was even created.
I then immediately did my thingof starting to build the website,
getting that, trying to get that up.
And then I thought, hold on, son.
There's one principle that you'vebeen living by for quite a few years.
use VAs to support me.
I hire other staffmembers for other things.
(22:30):
I'm thinking, why are you going tospend your time building a website?
It's going to look shit.
It's going to take up a load of yourtime, you're not going to enjoy it,
you're going to rush it, and why bother?
I read this book last year, whichreally reinforced something that I'd
already started to do but really didn'tunderstand possibly what I was doing.
It's called Who Not How.
Who Not How, for me, I think,is the most important book for
(22:57):
entrepreneurs particularly.
The most important book.
I've read and I've listenedto that thing, I don't know,
five, six times now, maybe more.
The principles behind it areso important for you to be
able to expand your businesses.
To be able to expand yourgrowth as you move forward.
That is so important because it'sso common for Entrepreneurs, to
(23:18):
try and do everything themselves.
And then you limit, you've only gotso many hours and you've got burnout
and all that to contend with, youlimit yourself on what you can do.
So I decided, look, screw this.
I'm not building a shitty website.
This is what the website looked like.
it looked like a pile of shit.
So I decided that I would go andget a professional web developer.
I instructed them, gave them a bitof a brief, and let them crack on.
(23:39):
It's not yet finished at thetime of this recording, but I'll
give you a little sneak peek.
This is the new websitethat, is being built.
It is still in development stage.
This is not actually builtas a proper website yet.
But this is eventually whatit's going to look like.
The first iteration, it's notperfect, but you know what?
It's going to be a lot betterthan I would have done.
And it's not taking up my time stressingme out So, well done to these guys
(24:03):
who've done a great job in my opinion.
So what's next for me?
I'm heading back to London at theend of June in time for summer.
To avoid the summer in Dubai becauseit's super hot, like 40c (>100f) plus.
And in the meantime, what I'mgoing to do is I'm going to contact
some of the leads that I sentthrough to the free zone before.
Who didn't set up their companiesto offer them, to have a chat with
(24:23):
them and see are you interestedin still setting up in Dubai?
Would you like this?
This is, the new thing that I'mtrying to offer out and building
that community because I think that'sreally important, building like a
network or at least the infrastructureso that people have the opportunity
to do that with other entrepreneurs.
As soon as the new site is ready forits soft launch, we're going to start
(24:43):
aggressive SEO on it because that is wherewe're going to win in terms of being able
to get new business in for the long term.
I'm always thinking about businessfor the long term, not the short term
wins with, crazy expensive Google ads.
Facebook ads are even crazynow for generating leads.
So that's where we'regoing to be focusing.
I really think that people, we'rejust so impatient these days.
(25:06):
You know that story aboutthe turtle and the hare?
And who wins the race or whatever.
everyone wants to be the hare.
They start off, they want to throw alltheir budget and all their money into
Google ads, Facebook ads or whatever.
It just doesn't work, For mostpeople, the budgets are too small.
It doesn't work.
They don't want to invest insomething like SEO because it takes
too long to start getting results.
new website, 12 months, 18 months.
(25:29):
For good, consistentresults, maybe even longer.
It depends on how competitiveyour industry is, how much budget
you're putting into it, but peopledon't want to wait for that.
And yet the businesses that, survivefor the longterm are ones who've
invested for the longterm, notjust the short term little wins.
I was literally at the pool the otherday, and this is the thing where
(25:49):
you just speak to random strangers.
someone's kid just jumped in, intothe pool right in front of me.
I'm sat on the sun deck thingwith my laptop out and the
water's gone all over it.
I was like, shit.
And the dad's come over and he's oh,sorry mate, sorry, we didn't realise.
I was like, don't worry, I'm theidiot sat by the pool with a laptop.
So we started speaking anyway, itturns out he's looking at, setting
up a company out in UAE he's wantsthe visa and stuff like that.
(26:13):
And literally just from that oneinteraction, we're now connected and who
knows, in the future, he may actuallythen decide to come out here, set up a
company and move his family out here.
Who knows?
He may not, but whatever, just speakingto like random people and just finding
out about the sort of stuff that they do,the interests that they have or whatever.
I just find talking toother people interesting.
(26:34):
hopefully some of the lives of thenew entrepreneurs coming out to
Dubai are going to be made a bitsmoother for those who come with us.
And that's really why I decidedto pivot my Dubai startup.
That's it.
And of course, I'm going tolet you know how it goes.
If there's any questions that youhave, put them in the comments
because that would give me an ideafor another video to make for you.
That's something that you actuallywant to know that I can also talk
(26:57):
about from my own experience.
And another thing I'd like to knowis have you set up a company in
the past anywhere in the world?
And have you If you don't mind sharingit with me and with other people who
are on YouTube wanting to have a look,put your story in the comments, that
might inspire other people to thinkor maybe give other people ideas.
If someone's doing a business at themoment that it's not really exciting them,
(27:18):
or they're just not making traction withit, they might be doing a similar business
that you've already done in the past.
And equally, have you ever had a businessand you've never done anything with it
and just ended up having to shut it down?
Or maybe it's been a big failure.
I know people don'tlike to talk about them.
I'm probably going to share astory with you, which I haven't
really gone into depth on before.
I'll do that another day, potentially.
(27:39):
If I can bring myself tospeak about it on camera.
But yeah let us know in the comments.
If you're watching on YouTube, thenclick up here to watch this video next.
Since you stayed with me this long,if you want to hear for future stuff,
subscribe, like the video, or even better,share it with someone who you think would
really benefit from hearing this today.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!