How to give and get support for small businesses in Dubai

As Dubai reopens, businesses are scrambling to make up for two months’ worth of economic slowdown during the Covid-19 lockdown. Yet, for small and home-grown businesses, and for many expats who depend on them to live in the UAE, this phase can be what decides if their business will continue or close down, especially in a competitive shopping hub that happens to be the fourth biggest luxury shopping destination in the world.

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In a survey conducted by Dubai Chamber in April, 70% of businesses across a range of industries in the emirate expected they would close within the next six months, three-quarters of them were small enterprises that have less than 20 employees.

While Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the UAE Central Bank have announced economic stimulus packages that can help SMEs, the questions we are left with are: What can residents do to support small businesses? And, taking one step back, what and where are they?

Local businesses: The list

David Hammond, a Dubai-based entrepreneur and business owner, along with a friend rolled their sleeves and worked on answering that second question. The result was an independent online directory called Support Local DXB, a website that lists, free of charge, more than a 100 UAE-founded businesses in categories like food, fashion, health and fitness.

I spoke with David who told me that the directory was built in 48 hours and then the team “started to promote it via Instagram and the feedback has been amazing. Support Local is about giving some awareness to these companies and start building a strong community. As when this is all over, they will need our support more than ever, as owners just need to focus on what they do best: innovate, creating jobs, and getting the local economy back up and running,” he said.

“Dubai has a reputation at times for the glitz and the glam. However, when you have a look there are so many small homegrown businesses that most people do not realize.” – David Hammond

David is a business owner himself and, to him, the priority of his business post-pandemic will be to innovate creative ways to keep the cashflow coming.

“The good thing being a local and smaller company you can be nimble and more flexible, listen to the market and then use your strengths to fulfill what the market or consumer wants by keeping your ear to the ground,” he said.

How can local businesses get listed on the platform?

Provide your logo, a 120-character description of your business, location, and your website details to the email on the website. Your business will be added in 48 hours after passing a reviewing process.

Supporting local restaurants

The tension between food and beverages outlets and delivery apps has been brewing for a while, restaurants have been demanding lowering commission fees by food aggregators, those fees can go up to 35% of an order. It was a difficult model to work with in a time when restaurants had zero traffic during lockdown. For smaller and local restaurants and food outlet, the high commission fees proved more trying to handle.

Dubai food blogger Food Sheikh and online ordering platform ChatFood teamed up and created DeliverDXB, an ordering platform that lists and allows you to order directly from local restaurants for food take away and delivery. This eliminates fees on these local restaurants which increases their profits.

How can local businesses get listed on the platform?

Through this link on the website’s homepage, you can add the info for your restaurant to be added.

Shopping local from your supermarket

You can always opt for the locally sourced option when grocery shopping. To offer more opportunities for local producers to get there, locally-owned supermarket Spinneys has been offering small F&B producers a chance to have their products sold at its stores around the UAE for a year, as part of its incubator program to help mitigate the Covid-19 economic drop for small businesses.

Brands that get selected need to be owned by a UAE resident or local and manufacture products within the country. They will also receive monthly coaching sessions and marketing support from Spinneys.

How can local businesses register?

Criteria and full process can be found here.

If you’re a business owner in Dubai, how is your business doing right now? How are you supporting locally based businesses? Know of any initiative or other ways to support? Share them in the comments below along with what you’d like to read about in the next installment of #ThatExpatLife.

Edit - June 9: Check out the comments section for more initiatives shared by members that can help your local business in Dubai.