r/SmallBusinessUAE

Welcome to our weekly thread for agencies, freelancers, and those hiring!

To keep the main feed focused on SMB discussions, please post all opportunities and offers here. This includes:

• Hiring: Job openings or project opportunities.
• Agencies: Offering your professional services.
• Freelancing: Looking for work or seeking freelancers.
• Collaborations: Any other business-related services.

Keep it local and relevant to the UAE/MENA, thank you!

My company has 11 people - 1 bangladeshi and 1 sri lankan and 9 indians (incl owner), are we not going to get visa because of diversity law for more indians?

I’ve been thinking about whether I should post this, but I figured it was worth giving it a try.

The current situation in the region has affected a lot of people and businesses. I’ve personally felt the impact as well.

I work as a tax consultant on a commission basis with a Dubai-based tax and accounting firm. Before the recent situation, I had built a small client base and things were going well. But some of the businesses I was working with were badly affected, and I ended up losing clients.

Since I work on commission, losing those clients also means losing a significant part of my income.

So I'm currently trying to rebuild what I lost.

I work with a team that provides accounting and tax-related services for businesses across the UAE, including Corporate Tax, VAT, bookkeeping, accounting, audit support and other compliance-related work.

I'm not posting this just to advertise a service. I'm genuinely trying to rebuild my client base, and I thought there might be a better way to do that than endlessly calling random businesses.

If you're a business owner and you're currently looking for reliable accounting or tax support, I'd be happy to have a conversation and see whether we can actually help.

And even if you don't need these services yourself, you might know someone who does. An introduction would genuinely help me, and if it turns into a client, I can arrange a referral commission as well.

I'm not looking for sympathy or asking anyone to give me something for free. I'm trying to rebuild what I lost by creating something useful for other businesses at the same time.

If nothing else, I hope everyone here manages to get through this difficult period and comes out stronger on the other side.

Hi everyone — I’m looking for advice from Amazon UAE sellers on how you handle GTINs/barcodes.

I’m launching products under my own brand and Amazon is currently not approving my GTIN exemption, so I’m considering getting official GS1 GTINs instead.

I’ve looked into GS1 UAE and also noticed that GS1 US has different pricing/options, but I’m not sure what differences actually matter when selling on Amazon UAE.

For those who have gone through this:

- Where did you get your GTINs from?
- What did you pay, and are there recurring fees?
- Is there anything important I should know before choosing a GS1 provider/package?
- Does it matter which country's GS1 organization issues the GTIN if I plan to sell internationally?
- If one company owns multiple brands, can the GTIN allocation be used across those brands?
- GS1 US seems to offer a single GTIN for around $30, while GS1 UAE appears to use annual fees/packages. Is there a reason a UAE-based company should specifically use GS1 UAE?

Would really appreciate hearing what other UAE sellers are doing and whether there are any pitfalls I should be aware of. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I run a small e-commerce brand based in the UAE selling activity/sensory kits. Currently, I use Jeebly for local deliveries within the UAE, which works great, but I’m looking to start fulfilling orders directly to Saudi Arabia.

Aramex and DHL retail rates are way too expensive for small order values, especially since sensory kits can weigh anywhere between 1 kg to 3 kg.

Since I ship on-demand as orders come in (pay-as-you-go, no massive guaranteed daily volumes yet), I’m looking for reliable, affordable door-to-door options.

A few questions for fellow e-commerce business owners shipping from UAE to KSA:

1. Which couriers or aggregators are you using for pay-as-you-go cross-border shipping?

2. What rates are you typically getting per shipment for a 1–3 kg box?

3. How do you handle KSA customs clearance / DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)? Do these couriers integrate smoothly with Shopify/WooCommerce for auto-generating labels?

4. Is GCC road freight fast enough, or does it cause high delivery failure rates compared to air express?

Would love to hear what's working for your store or any specific sales rep/account manager contacts you’d recommend reaching out to.
Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I'm a freelance creative designer and social media manager (branding, content creation, social media management/strategy, that kind of thing). I've also got a small team on standby whenever a project needs extra hands, so we can scale up pretty quickly if needed.

Lately I've been struggling to consistently land new clients and wanted to pick the community's brain, how do you all go about finding clients as a freelancer/small team? Are there platforms, communities, or approaches that have actually worked for you?

Side note, I've started offering new clients a 1-week free trial just so they can see the quality of work before committing to anything, not sure if that's a good strategy long-term or if there's a smarter way to build trust with new leads. Curious what's worked for others here.

So this is a bit of an experiment.

I've been working with AI for about 3yrs now, built a few things with it, talked to friends and my network about how to actually grow with it, sat with businesses trying to figure out wha they should do with AI.

I'm involved in AI in education too.

And at this point I've had basically the same conversation about AI so many times with different people that I think there's more demand for it than there is time for it, despite so many "AI consultants" out there.

I feel there are people who know a lot about AI and there are people that just use it when they need to search for something. But there's a massive gap in the middle.

So I want to open up a couple of free slots a week, 30 or 45 mins, for anyone who wants to talk about this stuff. You don't need to be technical, you don't need to be an "AI person," you just need a question. Could be about your business, could be about your job, could be about nothing in particular, doesn't matter.

If enough people actually want this I'll turn it into something regular. If not, no harm done, I'll have had a few good conversations either way.

First come first served for now. Comment only please, no DMs.

I want to start an online business but im confused regarding the license. Im based in Abu Dhabi and have a golden visa but im not sure how to obtain a license..

so I have been building this thing called Layla

The original idea was pretty simple:

even dry cleaning/cafeteria businesses in UAE operate on WhatsApp

And then someone on the payroll sits there all day wasting his own time on:

“Price?”

“Are you open?”

“Do you have this?”

“Can I book tomorrow?”

“Do you accept insurance?”

“Send location”

“Hello???”

Then the lead get lost because nobody replied in that 2 min usual bracket

So I thought:

let me try to build this basic chatbot .... 6 months later

Layla.

Its NOT one of those ""hello 👋 I am🤖 your 🤖 AI 🤖 assistant 🤖"" bots the kind that gives you a cookie recipe when you ask if they're open after Friday prayer

i know you think it is but genuinely Layla can actually hold a conversation, understand what the person wants and his intentions from the chat pattern, pull information from the business knowledge base, handle voice notes, collect customer details, send short/long term reminders, follow up with people who ghosted or stopped replying and flag hot leads for the owner so he can contact them later by phone or give them a nudge to take action and it also quietly ranks who's worth calling back so he is not just spamming calls or guessing

NOTE: (BTW IT WORKS IN 5 LANGUAGES AS WELL, Arabic, English, Russian, Hindi, Urdu)

I originally built it for a dental clinic in jumeirah my friend knew a dude who worked there, where it can handle stuff like treatment questions, prices, insurance, appointment requests, reminders, and lead recovery

But I Knew the same concept works for basically any UAE business that makes its money on WhatsApp

Clinics, salons, real estate(i have HOT systems for this if anyone is interested), car dealerships, gyms, agencies, home services, whatever

The idea is basically:

A WhatsApp stops being an inbox and starts being a 24/7 5-lingual employee

And YES, I am currently in the slightly unhinged phase where I am trying to get actual businesses to let me try around with this in production without them paying for the service anything during the 1st week

So I am posting this here instead of doing the usual LinkedIn corporate NPC BS

If you run a business in the UAE where WhatsApp is a major part of sales/customer service, I’m genuinely interested in seeing whether Layla can handle your use case

Worst case: it breaks and I fix it instantly with nothing for you to lose

Best case: we accidentally replace half your front desk repetitive work and capture/score any lead in matter of seconds

thanks for reading and i am looking out for your thoughts here, anything can help 🙏

https://preview.redd.it/uhec9du972kh1.png?width=1805&format=png&auto=webp&s=46b054bd6382c672b5da52dda08ca6f2acce6a12

https://preview.redd.it/n5ri3cu972kh1.png?width=1835&format=png&auto=webp&s=c15cb4e1c0ecf53e19fcc03c89b34227ee1c3b0f

I have 10+ years of e-commerce experience, including working with some of the industry’s biggest players, and I’m looking to invest in and mentor an established e-commerce business.

Ideally, the business should be:

• 2–3+ years old
• Already profitable / have healthy contribution margins
• Have a proven product and customer base
• Have potential for further growth

I can bring capital, e-commerce expertise, mentorship, industry connections, and growth opportunities.

If you’re a founder looking for a strategic partner not just funding , DM me.

Happy to schedule a call and explore if there’s a fit.

Anyone knows where I can get metallic missioni fabric? I went & looked everywhere please only suggest if you know someone who can source it or is selling.
TBH I’m so tired of sourcing fabrics and going everywhere to find them for each design, if you also know someone that can source good fabrics lmk

​

For e-commerce brands: would you be interested in a physical space where you could showcase and sell your products for 2–3 months without committing to a full retail lease?

Something that brings several online-first brands together, with the ability to meet customers, run occasional events and test whether physical retail actually works for you.

Curious what founders think.

Hi everyone! I have this amazing Islamic product, I have one in my home and love it so so much!
Recently I decided to become a reseller of it, but I’m such a newbie I don’t know how to find out if people will actually be interested in it, how to start marketing etc.
I do know in my heart that whoever does buy it, will be in love with it.. all I need now is to know how to get it to the right people! Everyone I have reached out to to help me get started is asking for big amounts of money from the beginning, which doesn’t work well for me as I’m just a start up.
I do however have a website ready for it, and packaging etc all of that. Any advice would be so so soooo welcome! Thank you!