Dubai Business Podcast

Lately, many SMBs noticed a drastic drop in the leads and inquiries they would organically get. This was either because of decreased demand or increased competition. This implies going out there and looking for the right customers yourself is becoming a must. If you want to increase your customers, doubling down on your sales process is one of the most effective ways to do it. Today, I am speaking with Josh Yates, sales director of Saphyte - UAE based CRM solution for small and medium businesses. He will take you through the main mistakes SMBs make in the sales process, we'll discuss how to identify the ideal customer or how to hire a salesperson to your team. This episode includes: - What are the typical mistakes SMBs make in sales - How should the proper sales process look like - Why and how to use CRM - How to choose the right one - How to hire salespeople

What is the biggest difference between a B2B and a B2C eCommerce? Customer acquisition. In B2C, reaching customers happen mostly via media and marketing channels while in B2B the whole approach is more omni-channel and includes direct sales. Small shops and restaurants, and even the big businesses can save a lot of time spent on procurement as well as money when they start buying their supplies online. It helps sellers to remove friction points and make it as convenient for buyers to purchase the products they want. Its a win-win situation here. “Bringing a delightful B2C shopping experience to B2B is our core value,” says Muhammad Chbib – CEO of B2B marketplace Tradeling, our guest for today's episode. He also speaks about challenges they had to overcome as one of the first B2B eCommerce players and also why he'd be very skeptical about launching just another B2C eCommerce brand. This episode includes: 4:50 – How we reacted to our audience's change of needs 7:38 – B2B eCommerce vs B2C 13:56 – Augmentation of clients' business rather than disrupting 21:48 – How to start building a network of sellers for the marketplace 25:49 – Importance of (digital) marketing for B2B 31:39 – How to select a vertical for your eCommerce business 34:09 – What to consider when starting an eCommerce business

Do you know what is the major mistake startups make when it comes to digital marketing? Many don't have a well-sorted plan that will obtain customers and let them expand their business. With an average attention span of humans being 8 seconds on social media (which is shorter than a goldfish), users need multiple touchpoints before they can buy a product or service from you. A good marketing plan will act as a guide to create those touchpoints and scale businesses. Within 15 minutes, Lukas has managed to summarize the importance of a strong marketing plan, what a marketing plan shouldn't be, by means of a client's past experience. Tune in to learn more! This episode includes: 3:15 min - Catch about impressions on FB and IG 5:20 min - Users need multiple touchpoints before making a purchase 6:15 min - What is a Marketing Plan? 9:50 min - What your marketing plan shouldn't be 10:40 min - Two things to keep in mind when working with a digital marketing agency

Influencer marketing today is what radio was 15 years ago, Feras Arafe – Founder of Expin says. We have discussed finding the right influencers, avoiding scams, not getting caught up with numbers, tactics to measure the results, and much more, tune in to learn more! This episode includes: 8:40 min – Role of influencers in a marketing plan 10:40 min – Using discount coupons 15:50 min – Follow up tactic 20:00 min – How to find relevant influencers and avoid fake numbers 25:40 min – How to identify fake numbers 28:38 min – Do not stick to 1 brand ambassadors

What comes to your mind when you think of SEO? Do you consider it a scam? Do you think it is dead? Do you think it cannot work for small businesses in Dubai? With such false ideas and thoughts, many businesses tend to overlook the need for SEO and completely focus on paid advertising only. While that can help you scale quicker, it also costs a lot of money, and in the longer run, relying on a few paid channels is a risky strategy. SEO often seems extremely technical and complicated. But if you keep basic principles in mind, you can't get wrong. "What businesses forget is that Google's main customer is the searcher and Google wants to deliver the relevant results for every search," says our guest in this episode of Dubai Business Podcast. If you start from there, you will never fall for things like stuffing your page with keywords, buying non-sense backlinks, etc. Mazen Aloul is a Founder of WebQuest SEO, whose main goal is to “demystify SEO” in the UAE. Mazen has put together a Business Owner's Guide to SEO that you can find on his website and in this conversation, we will go through the main things you as business owners should consider when it comes to SEO in 2020. Mazen also shares with us some interesting tools that can up your SEO game. Tune in now! This episode includes: 12:50 min - Red flags: How to identify SEO scam 15:25 min - What can I do myself to improve SEO 22:05 min - How can small business work with content 27:00 min - Google wants to think like a human 28:00 min - Understand this and you will understand SEO

Things are changing at a rapid pace these days and its human nature to get adapted to these situations pretty quickly. Which also is an indication that nothing is fixed. (It doesn't have to be as well.) Okay, so let's start from the basics, your hairstyle changes from time to time, your hobbies change based on your age, your dressing style changes based on the season, right! What does that mean? Nothing is fixed. So is your career. It doesn't have to be fixed and there is no harm in switching careers if you approach it properly. Also, don't let old beliefs trick you into thinking you have to be stuck in the same profession for the entirety of your life. You can always move on and find your 'right career' at any point in life, for good. It is often inspiring when you stumble upon career change stories, take, for example, Jeff Bezos, before building a trillion-dollar company Amazon, he was a computer engineer. The Rock, had multiple career changes before he landed on TV and movies. Today, we have for you one such inspiring career change story, where our guest Shirley D'Souza left her corporate job to become a certified keto-nutrition coach in the United Arab Emirates. She has helped a lot of people around the globe achieve their fitness goals and has enabled them to live a healthy and happy life. In this episode, Shirley touches upon how her journey as a nutrition coach started, what struggles she had to face, how she got certified, and how she is making a living out of it. This episode includes: 1:30 min: How she started as a keto-nutrition coach 8:20 min: How to price yourself when starting out 10:00 min: Mistakes beginners make in the keto diet 13:40 min: How she is managing to get clients 17:00 min: How social media benefits her business 22:00 min: Tackling low business seasons 30:00 min: Advice when you want to start business from your hobby

Are you thinking of running your contests or giveaways on Facebook or Instagram? That way you can create engagement, reach more people, and make them buy your products or services? Sounds great, isn't it? Well... YES and NO! Yes, because it will most likely accomplish the latter part. No, because Facebook has created strict guidelines for running 'contests' and 'promotions' on their platforms. Many of us don't even know about half of it. And breaking their rules will end up getting your page blocked. Now, you might be wondering how hard can these rules be! Let me give you a common example... You remember those giveaways where companies/brands or individuals ask you to do certain tasks like, follow their page, follow five other pages, complete a survey, tag your friends, etc? That's NOT ALLOWED. There's a lot more to this list of rules, many companies do this with or without knowledge, but if you want to be on the safer side and avoid any troubles, we have got you covered. In this bonus episode, Lukas Krejca, explains 3 major rules to be followed while creating a contest or promotions on Facebook and Instagram, a few things that should never be done and finishes off with a piece of insightful advice on how you can take full control of your contests without having to worry about Facebook rules. This episode includes: 1:53 min: What Facebook defines as contests 2:18 min - What's not allowed 3:59 min - 3 major rules 9:53 min - Do this instead of running contests on FB

The UAE has transformed itself into a business hub over the past few decades. This has made starting a business in the UAE much easier than it was before. But when you make something easier, it should also be followed by strict rules and regulations to ensure there are no fraudulent activities happening. While starting a business can be easy, there are many factors that need to be considered before and after you start it. Factors like having a written agreement, proper visa validity, trade license, etc. These are some of your legal requirements to start a business. While you definitely can start a company without needing a lawyer, from experience, we can say that working with an experienced legal counselor can save a lot of time, hassle and, money. In this episode, Biancka Gracia - General Counsel at Suits & Advisors talks about what startups need to consider when it comes to legal questions. What to keep in mind when you're funding a startup, how to set up agreements with your co-founders, what to do when you're getting investors on board or how to actually find a good lawyer. This episode includes: 3:00 - Steps they took to tackle the current pandemic situation 6:30 - What to consider when setting up a company 9:00 - How to choose the right free zone 11:00 - What to take care of when launching your startup 13:30 - Multiple co-founders 17:00 - How to build T&Cs for your app or website 19:00 - Privacy and SPAM in UAE 21:30 - What to consider when you want to get funding 25:00 - 3 people you need to meet when setting up a company in the UAE 26:00 - How to estimate the cost of a lawyer and choose the right one

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 hit all of us on different levels. One business sector that was particularly affected was the F&B business. Strict lockdowns were imposed and hence dine-in was not even a thought in anyone's mind. People only relied on online food deliveries during the period of lockdown, even now after the lockdown has been eased people still mostly rely on deliveries. Now, the thing about deliveries is that food aggregators like... we don't want to name them but they somewhat rhyme with 'tomato' and 'super eats' give a lot of offers to the consumers, which is great but is it actually great considering they charge huge commissions from the restaurants and these restaurants benefit very little from this. It means that the restaurants we love never get the payment in full when we order through food aggregators. But restaurants had very few options as the crisis was hitting them bad, they HAD to join one of these aggregators to sustain their business. This is where ChatFood comes into play. ChatFood is a comission-free online food ordering service, that gives full profit to the restaurant when we order through their services. Over the last 6 months, ChatFood has seen enormous growth and multiple restaurants joining them as you are reading this. We thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with the Co-founder of ChatFood about how things unfolded and that's exactly what we did. In this episode, Benjamin Mouflard - Co-founder at ChatFood speaks about how ChatFood helps restaurants get back ownership of their delivery business by providing commission-free orders, what their values are, how they provide excellent service to their customers and much more. Listen to it now, and lets us know in comments how this episode was and share with us any thoughts you be having. This episode includes: 5 min - tools they launched to help restaurants during pandemic 11 min - growth while maintaining quality 19 min - restaurant's marketing 27 min - future for online ordering 35 min - does customer loyalty exist?

A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service in some way, shape, or form. For any company, it is really important to generate leads that will boost their business. Companies rely upon digital marketing agencies to generate their leads. The thing is most of these digital marketing agencies just show the volume of leads they have generated with respect to the budget given by the company. Eventually, these companies accept it seeing a huge number of leads, but what they don't know is if any of these leads are valuable to the business. What matters when it comes to leads is not the quantity but the quality. Imagine you own a bakery shop, your ideal lead should be someone who is interested in buying what you sell in your bakery, say a delicious black forest cake. So when you call such a lead and talk about your products they should show interest in it. What I am trying to say is it would be really awkward to call a stranger (who could possibly be diabetic) and talk about your black forest cake. In this short bonus, Lukas Krejca speaks about lead generation and shares five things that you can do to get quality leads from digital marketing agencies. Listen to it now, and lets us know in comments if you want to see more of such bonus episodes and possibly also suggest a topic that you want it to be about.

Let's just come to terms with the fact that - finding a job itself is a full-time job. There's a lot that goes into landing a job that you like. It starts with your CV, followed by finding a job that has realistic expectations from you (and vice-versa, then you have to apply for it, wait for the interview call... the list just goes on. While on one side of the spectrum, people land at a job rather quickly, the majority of us fall on the other side of the spectrum that has to put in extreme efforts to find a job. But why is that? What could be the reasons? What changes could we make to our CV to get an interview call? How can we update ourselves to be more presentable? Well, the changes could be as simple as having the right date on your CV to maintaining the proper attitude during an interview call and so on. Also, let's not forget this pandemic has resulted in a high rate of unemployment not just in the Emirates but worldwide. This has just put more people on the line for a new job application and it becomes really necessary to step your game up to be able to stand out in the crowd. In this episode, we have Alexandra Bogaotoiu - Recruitment Consultant at People Partners sharing with us a bunch of tips for people who now have to look for a new job. Alexandra will share what are the important things to be mentioned in your CV or how to approach remote video interviews. We've also discussed a few career change tips for cabin crew members. This episode includes: 4:20 - Try to find another role in your current company 8:10 - Mention KPI based achievements in your CV 10:50 - Have a clean CV 15:30 - Tips for videos interviews 18:23 - Energy and attitude matters 26:30 - Career change (not only) for cabin crew

Every business faces a situation where they have to decide between their employees and revenue. That's when they have to understand employees are the key pillars of growth in any business and good employees always drive good business. Some people don't understand this concept and they lay off their employees way too quickly and regret it later, while great leaders know exactly what they're doing and prioritize their employees over money, especially in times of a crisis. In this episode od Dubai Business Podcast, we have one such leader, Hisham Al Hamoudi - CEO of Kamal Osman Jamjoon Group, a retail group with a turnover of over 1.2 billion Saudi riyals. They operate almost 700 stores and are employing more than 3,000 people across seven countries. The best part? They haven't laid off any employees as a part of crisis management. Tune in as Hisham speaks about strategies their company used to protect their business during this crisis, how they communicate with employees, and gives advice for people looking forward to achieving big. This episode includes: 4:20 Our mission and vision is connected to how we reacted to the crisis 7:43 What we did to protect the business and people 16:30 Communication strategy with employees 19:30 How they digital transformed their business 24:00 Will the E-com trend continue? 32:30 Advice for people trying to achieve big in their career

It has undeniably become essential for businesses nowadays to take their game to the internet side of things. While some are still figuring out how it could be done, some have successfully managed to move their business online. Dubai is anticipating to help businesses make their stance at e-Commerce with Dubai CommerCity - a new free trade zone for e-commerce set to be opened later this year. It is a 3.2 billion dirhams development right behind the DXB terminal 3 and it is supposed to have everything the e-commerce community needs in one place. Tune in as Hassan Fayed, Head of Innovation at Dubai Airport Freezone Authority gives us insights about the upcoming Dubai CommerCity. This episode includes: 08:10 - Vision behind Dubai CommerCity 12:05 - How Dubai CommerCity will assist business with logistics 17:15 - Should you move your business to Dubai CommerCity 20:00 - How to reach out for inquiries 20:49 - Is it for big businesses or small Businesses 22:00 - What is Tradeling?

Leaders are the heart of a business. A leader has to be powerful enough to bring people together, inspire them, and work along with them to achieve a common goal. This episode's guest leads an IT company of 30 people, right here in Dubai. Tune in as Sanjukta Ray - CEO of Dubai Leading Technologies shared her amazing story from how she acquired the business 7 years ago to how they're handling today's crisis or how it is for a woman to lead an IT company. This episode includes: 11:15 min - Takeover process when buying the company 18 min - Don't overlook the financial aspect 29 min - Advice to business owners during this pandemic 32 min - Attendance monitoring of your employees

When times get tougher, money gets tighter. That's exactly when you realize cash is king. It's hard not to address the fact that we are all going through a very rough patch and it becomes increasingly difficult, especially for small businesses, to keep their cash flowing. Tune in as Simran Samtani - co-founder of accounting and bookkeeping company 'Xcel', speaks about what you can do to manage your personal and company finances. She will share tips on how to collect money from your clients and much more. This episode includes: 3:20 - Save money on things you don't need 10:41 - How to ask for money collection 17:17 - 5 stages of Business Criss Trend 21:38 - 10-10-10 method 29:51 - How the crisis-affected her accounting company and what actions they've taken 38:20 - Story of their 16 years old business

How do you stand out in a crowd where literally everyone's trying to stand out? In order to do that it has become important that the marketing strategy should be out of the ordinary, powerful, and innovative. That's exactly what Growth Marketing is. And, it might be more important for a business than you think, especially during a pandemic. Tune in as Nelio Leone, founder of the growth marketing agency- Urban Monks, describes growth tips he has learned during his career as well as tips to succeed on LinkedIn. And most importantly principles companies should follow during these pandemic times. This episode includes: 1:26- What is Growth Marketing? 8:05- How to use rapid experimentation for your business. 13:20- What content Nelio found works best for Linkedin. 23:00- Brands should be browsable during the pandemic. 27:00- Focus on managing churn. 31:00- 10 calls with your clients can

Remember the days when dining-in at a restaurant was the norm? With pandemic changing norms in 2020, the F&B industry also faced a significant impact as all the restaurants across the Nation have been closed for dine-in. Now, almost all of them rely only on deliveries. Aditya suggests that it is actually an opportunity for each restaurant to build its own customer base which they'd never be able to do in a normal scenario. Tune in as Aditya Mujumdar, digital marketing specialist at Domino's discusses how restaurants can activate their online presence, how to use Facebook and Google ads or SMS marketing but also how not to lose money with many scammers going around. This episode includes: 3:20 – What restaurants need to start selling online 10:15 – How can restaurants advertise on Facebook 12:40 – How to use Money Heist or Friends to prompt your offers 20:20 – Should I advertise on Google 21:45 – Best practices for banner ads 31:35 – Other channels restaurants can use 32:30 – Don't use third-party email marketing 34:00 – How to do SMS marketing 38:09 – SCAM in digital marketing and how to avoid it

All of a sudden we now live in a world that operates differently, and it can be overwhelming to a point you might feel like your business is falling apart and coming to an end. Well, according to Neeru it's not the end of the business, it's actually an opportunity to do things differently. Tune in as executive coach Neeru Sharma discusses how she pivoted her business to the current situation, what are the challenges for business leaders and how to tackle them. You will get several tools, techniques and practical actions to take to make sure your business and yourself survive this challenging time. This episode includes: 4 min - how she pivoted her business 7 min - tools she used to have her business online 11 min - What are the challenges this crisis put on leaders? 16 min - How to adjust your processes for home offices 21 min - Leader's blind spots 27 min - Remote communication with team 46 min - Use shopping cart for your decisions

Want to sell your products online? Want to increase the reach of your services? Thinking of taking your business to the next level? Well, look no further, we've got you covered. Julia Samodurova, e-commerce expert who built an open document for SMEs that need to start selling online. Whether you're selling physical products or offer services, this episode of Dubai Business Podcast gives you practical steps to move your business online. This episode includes: Min 8 - Use shopify to start selling products today Min 22 - How to start selling services online Min 29 - How to acquire first users Min 48 - Can I do it myself?

Tarek Temamy firmly believes that building a community and having good relationships with the customer can help any business to reach heights. Tune in as Tarek, ex-Souq/Amazon performance marketer speaks about how he decided to follow his passion and launched his own business - e-commerce platform Searush.ae. During the interview he describes how he built a community around his brand or how to use marketplaces like Noon and Amazon to grow your business. This episode includes: Starting a business you're passionate about (min 7) Business Model and how I had to pivot it (min 15) Why I didn't want to have an external investor (min 17) Tips for selling on Amazon and Noon (min 28) How I got my first order (min 37) Tips how to build a community around your business (min 42)

According to Vit Kodousek, the best practice for making any sort of video, is making it for what the audience want to see. Tune in as Vit shares with us his life story, how he built his network in Dubai, what questions should be answered to build a video marketing strategy, what budget to prepare if you want to hire a video agency and also what tools to use and how to succeed on LinkedIn.

In this episode our host Lukas Krejca explains what Dubai Business Podcast is and what listeners can expect from this podcast.