Why Us

We speak to the bank directly about the company before we set it up, so the activity, the structure and the documents line up with what they need, and we stay with you year after year. If the UAE is not the right move for your business, we will say so.

What actually makes the difference

Plenty of firms will sell you a licence. The difference shows up later, at the bank, at renewal, or when something needs fixing.

The company formation agent you deal with

Gareth has been opening companies since 2009 and has worked in the UAE since 2013, and started Start Business Services in 2021 to bring the whole job under one roof.

Everyone on the team worked inside the large UAE free zones before joining. They used to be the people issuing the licences. They have seen the process from the other side, so they can read how a free zone or a bank is likely to respond to a company, and what tends to make either of them uneasy, before anything is sent in. Most of the time, you are dealing with Gareth himself.

We build the company around the bank

The bank account is the part of moving to the UAE where most people come unstuck. The way the company is set up — the activity it will trade under, who owns it, how it is structured — decides which banks will work with you, so that is where we start.

At Start Business Services we look at the formation, the activity and the ownership, then speak to the bank's compliance team about the company — the people who decide on new accounts — before we apply to the free zone. They tell us if they see a problem and what they would want in place to open the account. Then we build the company to suit.

We have spent years working with banks including Mashreq and Emirates NBD, so we know how each one tends to respond, and where an application usually runs into trouble.

One firm for the whole job

We handle everything you and the company will need, and we do not disappear once the licence is issued. The company, the bank account, the visas and Emirates identity cards — and then the bookkeeping, the yearly accounts and the tax.

We take you, your staff and your family to the appointments. For tax back home, we work alongside qualified tax advisers in the UK, the UAE and Australia, or with your own adviser if you have one — and we keep in touch with them directly, so you are not left holding the two sides together. Most of the real work comes in the first year, and that is where we stay involved.

Who we work with

Owners with a real business, moving to the UAE as part of a longer-term plan — whether the business is well established or just starting out. People who have already decided the UAE is right and just want it done properly. They come from the UK, Ireland, Australia, Europe, South Africa and Asia. We know the UK well, but we are not limited to UK owners.

Who we turn away — and why we say so

We are straight about who the UAE does not suit. We turn away two kinds of enquiry: people whose only reason for coming is to lower a tax bill, and anyone who is not really going to run a business — a company on paper and nothing more.

A new business or a startup is fine; what matters is that there is a genuine business behind it. A setup built only around tax tends to fall apart later, at the bank and at renewal, so we would rather say so at the start.

"Working with Gareth and the team was the best experience I could have asked for. I really value simplicity and efficiency, and the team delivered both."

"The bank account opening process was simple — Gareth helped me with some of the questions at the application stage I would have got wrong. The entire service was worth the money and, more importantly, caused me no stress whatsoever."

"My wife and I decided to close our business in Australia and relocate to Dubai to reopen it — on very short notice. We couldn't have managed everything without Gareth and his team. We've since started a second business with them too."