Serviced Offices in Dubai: The Dynamics of Office Setup

serviced offices in Dubai

Setting up a business in an unknown place is a high-risk challenge for any entrepreneur. But if that place is Dubai, without a doubt, it is also a great break due to its extraordinary performance as an investment center. Still, when the situation is closely analyzed, many support mechanisms have been developed in the country for foreign investors to succeed. Business centers are an important part of these mechanisms, where you can also find serviced offices in Dubai.

In this article, concerning those mechanisms, we will talk about serviced offices in Dubai and the formation of new companies in the emirate. Let us see the following subjects:

  1. The formation of new companies in Dubai
  2. What exactly are serviced offices?
  3. What are the keys to finding the best-serviced office?
  4. How can we help you find the greatest serviced offices in Dubai?

1. The Formation of New Companies in Dubai

Dubai is one of the most thriving business spaces thanks to its suitable commercial and financial policies. It even takes advantage of its geographical position between the western and the eastern hemispheres. With such a liberal business environment, investors are reaching many successes by taking advantage of the platform provided by the Emirate. Those triumphs are even abroad from the territory of Dubai as headquarters.

However, although Dubai has extraordinary legislation to facilitate investments, there are still many legal procedures that investors must attend. So there are problems that require solutions. For this reason, there are many business centers in Dubai for providing services to other firms.

Thus, among those services are who support the inception of new firms in Emirati land. In particular, are the so-called Public Relations Officer services (PRO services), whose personnel is very familiar with the environment of the Emirate and has contacts at all private and public levels.

Due to that, these Officers help resolve any obstacles with the legal and administrative framework that faces any foreign investor. Thus, the Public Relations Officers will personally attend to what appears as strange contingencies for foreign investors clueless about the region.

1.1 Business centers offer serviced offices

As with PRO services, many business centers in Dubai provide entrepreneurs with state-of-the-art workspaces in prime locations to attract customers and business partners.

Of course, this industry is part of the mechanisms that in Dubai support the success of many foreign investors. These offices are very affordable spaces with all the services required so that foreigners (or natives if that is the case) can establish physical offices and start working in a short time.

Like any authentical serviced office, these places must have professional-level equipment and services. Finding a serviced office space in the right location offers expert visibility and access to diverse business networks.

Frequently, the contacts to settle a firm in Dubai start remotely. The main is done online from the country of origin without one person moving from its place. Thus, countless preliminary procedures pass from afar. Later, everything progresses with intense activities in the business center where on-site PR officers are in charge. With this dynamic, in a few days and before the arrival of the foreign investor to the UAE, most main things are ready.

1.2 Face-to-face interaction in the business center

In Dubai, foreign investors work directly with the business center staff. Usually, the preferred approach is addressing the needs as clients manifest them. Often, the first issue is the setting up of the new company considering the necessary legal and administrative aspects. Subsequently, detailed questions on the firm operation raise: whether or not it requires employees, their contracts, their legalization if they are foreigners, questions on residences, and the like.

Even the most particular personal problems, those of the daily life of the investors and their families, are touched. For instance, Public Relations Officers attend concerns about schools, training places, recreation areas, acceptable and impermissible modes of behavior, and the like.

Given that, other issues are posted immediately, including the election of the place where the firm will install. In Dubai, this is a very relevant issue because it is different to settle in the Mainland than in a free zone (there are also offshore companies, but in this analysis, we will leave them aside since they do not require -in fact, they are not allowed- to have physic headquarters in the Emirates).

The point now is what activities the company will perform and the licenses required. This entire field of decisions works smoothly with the support of the PRs Officers, who must find the solutions to these issues using all their skills, experience, and contacts.

2. What Exactly are Serviced Offices?

Now we can move on to the core of this article: how a supposed only real estate dynamics to get offices, intervene in a rapid and successful setup of a new company. Firstly, we must be aware that not everything is arriving, buying, and settling in the most luxurious building in Dubai. On the contrary, the vast majority of foreign investors know that the best decision is to seek the support of a business center. Then, they can provide access to high-quality rental offices with all services, meaning significant savings for the new investor.

Similarly, do not think that only small business owners use these services. The cooperative qualities of these office setups are also coveted by corporations keen not only to reduce their overhead but also to establish a working model that is both remote and collaborative.

Indeed, this offer of workstations is not at all conventional. They are places that provide offices and services to companies that wish to take advantage of the flexibility of a new organizational scheme at a low cost. We will delve into that topic below.

There has been a fast evolution of the industry of serviced offices in Dubai. Although Emirates did not create the concept, the implementation there has been the most relevant. Also, consider that the term serviced office is today considered old-fashioned. Nowadays, it is more common to call it a flexible office or cooperation space.

2.1 Why prefer a serviced office over a conventional space?

serviced office at Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), for example, is an actual physical space rented full-time or part-time. You have to consider it as a thorough headquarters, a place to do all the core tasks of the new company. In a serviced office in Dubai, the work is done even at a higher level through technology and remote work. It must be an affordable space, furnished and equipped, available even if is requested with very little notice.

Subsequent decisions will depend more on your work philosophy. Hence, you agree whether you want a lot or little interaction with other tenants, whether you prefer an executive office or a hot desk if you will require the latest technologies for telecommunication, and other similar concerns.

Based on the above, it decides the size of the space, its layout, the existence or not of private offices, the specific equipment, the level of interactions, the meeting spaces or co-working rooms, and the like. A serviced office at JLT, for example, can change its setting whenever a tenant wants.

Simultaneously, it chooses the specific place in the city where you want to install it. The business center may have rentable offices at its headquarters or partner with other providers elsewhere in the Emirate. It is a relevant decision because being in the UAE is for gaining high exposure and visibility. Perhaps in other countries, the priority could be to find a quiet town to settle employees willing to escape the noise. But the decision was to set up the company in Dubai to make it visible. Definitively, it must know that the new company is there.

2.2 Serviced offices deliver services

In short, serviced office spaces are better and cheaper than renting or buying traditional space. Thus, you can arrive and start without worrying about any move, preparation of rooms, or installation of technology equipment.

However, you need to make sure that your serviced office in JLT, or another spot in Dubai, can at least offer a highly professional business environment, top-of-the-line in-house facilities, a reputable physical address, an ambiance for collaborative behavior, charges only for the actual use of the services, and an immediate availability with utilities already existing. These are minimal requirements to demand. Below, we provide you with a list more comprehensive to evaluate a site.

Of course, the most important thing is access to new contacts and collaborators and the promotion of new relationships with enterprising people. With such a deal, it is clear that this is not a traditional rental of a conventional office. It is an opportunity to start correctly, in the right location, fully equipped, controlling expenses, and without invisible and unrealistic costs.

3. What are the Keys to Finding the Best Serviced Office?

At this point, it is time to start making your checklist and plan some visits to take a closer look at the serviced office spaces offerings in Dubai. Appreciate that finding your ideal site is a task of the utmost importance. It is an excellent time to show your willingness to succeed, even if driving everything from zero.

First of all, assess how the business center manager treats people. It is a good indicator of the treatment you will receive during any eventual inconvenience. Then, remember that you are looking for these features:

  • Starting capital almost zero
  • Promising business address
  • Ready to start
  • Innovative workspaces with personality
  • Creative environment, with spaces for working relationships
  • Spaces for reception, rooms for meetings, and rest
  • Availability of offices of various sizes
  • Office equipment under your control
  • Technologies out of the box, up-to-date, fast, reliable, with full connectivity
  • Supportive staff all the time, and you only pay if you use them.
  • With security, reception, cleaning, and maintenance staff

Those positive elements allow us to build a contrasting quasi-mirror image with the features to avoid. Forget anywhere with:

  • Lack of Personality
  • Difficult or unsafe access
  • An external environment that unpleasant for customers
  • No receptionists
  • Not enough light, no windows, no fresh air in or around
  • Only one type of people and industries, which can spoil creativity
  • Unfriendly, moody, unpleasant people.
  • gloomy, uncooperative people
  • No comforts for a good rest
  • Congested spaces with objects and people
  • A too-loud ambiance
  • No cleaning
  • A manager who is too hierarchical and distant
  • Administrators who do not accept suggestions or changes are rigid in their points of view

4. How Can We Help You Find the Greatest Serviced Offices in Dubai?

Now that you have a better idea regarding serviced offices in Dubai, it is time to move toward your dreams. You can get an affordable office without even being in the UAE, as we can act as your remote assistant, immediately.

At Connect Business Centers, we offer you quick access to many inspiring, collaborative, and flexible offices designed to help you thrive in your new firm. Talk to us and get our company on your side. We can help you find the best supplier using our office database, the best in the UAE.

Kate Williams

Avatar photoKate Williams
Kate works at Connect Business Centers as Sales Manager, She is graduated from London and moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2017, She is a specialized agent for finding Business Centers, Office space, Co-working spaces to the clients based on their requirement and in addition to it, she also happens to be specialized in UAE mainland Company formation, Golden Visa, Bookkeeping, VAT registration and PRO services.

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