Running a small business from home is perhaps an ideal way for women in this part of the world to contribute to the national economy. However, it is sometimes said that they tend to start companies that are difficult to scale up. How can women be encouraged to have more ambition for the companies they start – rather than always remain a micro enterprise? SG, Abu Dhabi
Over the past two years I have had the privilege of being a judge at the Gulf Capital SMEinfo awards. While performing this role and during my business life in the UAE, I have come across many successful small businesses that were started and run by ambitious women.
One inspiring business I encountered at the SMEinfo Gulf Capital awards was started by a single woman whose first year was spent cleaning residential windows in the Jumeirah district of Dubai. Today, her business employs hundreds of people and is regarded as a leader in its sector, providing award-winning service to both local government and residential customers.
I believe that the UAE, relative to the region, offers a positive environment for women to enter into and grow their business.
Without doubt getting a start-up off the ground from home would be both cost-efficient and easier for women with family commitments. However, this might not be the best way for an expatriate to get going in the UAE because local law requires a business to have a commercial lease which then generates the trade licence and the employment visas. This precludes operating a business from home.
Nevertheless, there are cost effective ways for an expat to get a small business off the ground. There are many different types of free zones across the UAE and depending on the commercial activity free zones can register a business that is 100 per cent foreign owned.
Within these zones the business can rent an office and obtain visas, which are linked to the size of that office. As the business scales up and thus acquires more commercial space, the number of visas that can be issued increase. It is also generally easier to process licences and visas within a free zone.
Over the years I have worked with a number of successful companies that were the brainchild of UAE-based female entrepreneurs.
Human resources, public relations, food and beverage, and financial services are just few of the business segments I have come across where I have had first-hand experience of expat and Emirati women growing a successful businesses from scratch.
There are a number of government-sponsored programmes available to Emirati women who run micro enterprises. The Intilaq scheme is one such programme run by the Dubai Government and is open to the Emirati SME network including women.
This programme removes the need for micro enterprises to have a commercial lease thereby allowing these businesses to operate from home. I believe a few hundred Emirati women entrepreneurs have registered through this programme and Intilaq is being actively marketed in colleges and higher training centres to encourage the small and medium enterprises sector to grow.
The Department of Economic Development in Dubai further encourages small enterprises to scale up by providing a number of business counselling and training courses.
In the capital, the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council seeks to empower Emirati women in business by providing support services that assist, nurture and train aspiring entrepreneurs to get their business off the ground.
The Mubdi’ah Programme, also under the auspices of the council, supports and licenses Emirati women who wish to practice small-scale commercial activities that are suitable to run from home.
Nearly all the women entrepreneurs I have encountered have one common thread – an encouraging family that supports her business to get off the ground and continue to do so as it becomes successful.
This, arguably, is the most important factor in encouraging women to be more ambitious with their micro enterprise.
Yunib Siddiqui started his first business in London at the age of 22. He is the chief executive and owner of Jones the Grocer in the UAE. He can be contacted at SMEbizCorner@gmail.com
GROUPS
Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)
Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Remaining Fixtures
Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
Sunday: Final
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Why your domicile status is important
Your UK residence status is assessed using the statutory residence test. While your residence status – ie where you live - is assessed every year, your domicile status is assessed over your lifetime.
Your domicile of origin generally comes from your parents and if your parents were not married, then it is decided by your father. Your domicile is generally the country your father considered his permanent home when you were born.
UK residents who have their permanent home ("domicile") outside the UK may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income. For example, they do not pay tax on foreign income or gains if they are less than £2,000 in the tax year and do not transfer that gain to a UK bank account.
A UK-domiciled person, however, is liable for UK tax on their worldwide income and gains when they are resident in the UK.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
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EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
