Dubai and the UAE as a whole is experiencing another dramatic economic growth cycle.

A recent announcement by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (“DMCC”), who administer the Jumeirah Lakes Tower Free Zone area (“JLT”), proudly announced that they had become the largest Free Trade Zone in the UAE with in excess of 7,000 companies registered in this jurisdiction.

While not as spectacular, other Free Zones in Dubai and the UAE are reporting very good growth and the Dubai Economic Department has made numerous announcements about period on period increases in Trade License issuance over recent times.

Now that Dubai has secured World Expo in 2020, this should lead to some certainty in terms of Dubai’s strategic direction for the next 6 years or so, which should place it in a better position to ride out the next economic downturn, should it occur between now and 2020.

Times are looking good for Dubai in the short to medium term, barring any factors outside of its control to harm this current period of growth.

This growth does not come without consequences for the small business. The UAE has limited availability of good talent given the restriction on living here without a visa and cost of living challenges of doing so whilst out of work. Therefore, with any upturn in activity, there is a lag on the time it takes to keep supply of staff in line with the demand. The result, salary pressure from your existing staff as more opportunities arise for them and higher salaries to be paid when hiring new staff.

For your finance and accounting needs, this can be mitigated by outsourcing accounting services. Outsourcing this requirement can be done in many ways and can range from the full process being outsourced to only some areas of it. The growth of your business may require additional staff part time instead of full time. Where you have a sudden resignation from a staff member chasing a higher salary elsewhere, the role can be outsourced rather than a new employee engaged. If space is limited, then you may consider outsourcing the accounting services in full, thereby utilizing the space for income generating purposes rather than administration. There are numerous other examples as to how outsourcing accounting services can work for your business.

How does TLB Business Advisory Services fill that gap for you? We can manage your accounting needs without you hiring any accounting staff in-house, provide specialist staff only e.g. payables and/or receivables staff, transaction staff, manager of the accounting team only or any number of a variety of combinations. Seconding one of our professional staff to cover leaves of absence or short term emergency cover is another area where businesses can take advantage of our highly skilled team.

At TLB Business Advisory Services, you can be assured of high quality services from our experienced professionals. To find out more on how our Accounting Outsourcing Services can deliver benefits to your business contact us at gidday@tlb.ae or telephone Dubai on 04 3609477.