Start-ups and businesses can flourish nowadays if they get the right guide at the start of their entrepreneurial journey. While looking around for specialists who guide businesses, we came across Creative Zone. It’s a business set-up advisory firm that helps a plethora of aspiring entrepreneurs and SMEs. Soon after, we got an opportunity to interview Lorenzo Jooris, the CEO of Creative Zone.
He is a dedicated entrepreneur and has helped multiple aspiring businesses to open their branches and companies in the UAE through Creative Zone. Lorenzo Jooris has more than 20 years of experience in sales, business consultancy, management and corporate leadership in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Through Creative Zone, Lorenzo Jooris aims to streamline the business set-up procedures for entrepreneurs and businesses. He is a team-oriented person, and together with the entire Creative Zone team, they are assisting clients with their efficient business setup consultancy services. The company also has social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Learn more about Lorenzo Jooris, Creative Zone and how they are helping entrepreneurs and SMEs across the UAE.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
I worked in advertising and communications before joining Creative Zone as the CEO 3 years ago. Creative Zone is a pioneering business set-up consultancy that serves as a one-stop shop for company incorporation. It was established 12 years ago by Mahesh Dalamal, Steve Mayne and Jigar Sagar, wanting to improve the business set-up ecosystem and ease starting and doing a business in the UAE.
Creative Zone has, to date, assisted more than 46,000 entrepreneurs in starting their businesses and helped them with post-setup requirements such as opening bank accounts, providing Tax & Accounting Consultancy, Media & Marketing requirements, Co-working offices, and Corporate Concierge, to name just a few.
Additionally, Creative Zone has an extensive partner network that provides our clients with a host of other services at lower prices, like Insurance, Logistics, Legal, Sales, Payment Gateway, and IT solutions from service providers like Microsoft and Zoho DHL, Telr.
Lorenzo Jooris, what are your goals?
Our goal is to maximize our efforts to further ease and streamline the business set-up course for entrepreneurs so that they can focus on building and scaling their businesses. For instance, our recently introduced ERP system allows customers to track their applications in real-time.
They already are aware of the steps, timeline and documents required for the said company registration and can pay directly through the digital wallet. The entire system only takes a few hours and enables much better transparency with our clients.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/your company right now?
We have been the main runners in the business set-up sector for over 11 years, have a deep understanding of the local systems, and enjoy a strong partnership with government authorities and free zones. Providing excellent Customer Service is something we take pride in; Creative Zone’s Customer Relations Management has been designed considering every phase of a client’s journey with us, right from the point when they hold their first complimentary meeting with our business set-up advisors.
Every client is allotted a dedicated account manager who is available to solve their queries personally. We use solutions from ZOHO Desk, maintain Contact Centre Solution, CTI Integration, Renewal Reminders Automation, CSAT Survey automation, and SMS gateway integration with ERP system to enhance customers’ journey at every step of the way.
The CRM team is trained to solve the problem before it arises and make the customer’s experience easy. Apart from using digitized customer care solutions, our teams write personally to those clients whose issues can’t be solved through all the aforementioned solutions.
What was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
Like all successful companies, it has taken a substantial amount of time, hard work and grit to be where the company is today. It was by its 2 partners with the sole aim of assisting people in acquiring their trade licenses. After eleven years and 150 employees later, Creative Zone evolved into an overarching entity whose business plan was improvised several times to transform the company into a consolidated group that offers complete client solutions in Company Formation. We did this through years of experience and client feedback.
Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
To lead the company as its CEO is an honour. I had heard a lot of good things about the work that the company was doing and the A-list clients they were servicing. So, when the opportunity presented itself, it was a no brainer. Today I feel much more confident about myself and the company growing.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like many businesses, the pandemic brought us a lot of uncertainty. When businesses were shutting down, the prospects of opening a new company looked bleak, but the UAE’s business ecosystem is much stronger than we thought. After a lot of improvisations and optimization of our operations, we managed to overcome the challenges and, in fact, registered growth. To me, that was my true reward as a leader.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
Tenacious
What makes you excited about Mondays?
I call the day ‘Get it done Monday’. I try my best to finish last week’s unfinished business and plan the week from the top. Furthermore, it gives me a chance to manage my time better and incorporate new requests and projects into my calendar. Mondays are my high ground when the whole week is at your feet — when even a little effort on your part can pay big dividends.
What do you value most about your company’s culture and vision?
A company is as good as its people, and it is the team I value the most. Our company’s strong and progressive culture is created by our people and for our people. And it is together that we work towards achieving our vision of boosting the entrepreneurial spirit of the country and helping maximum people to excel in their business endeavours.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
In 2020, we launched UAE’s first-ever women-centric accelerator and incubator programme, She Leads. Women-led start-ups get much lesser funding and training opportunities than men, and we wanted to bridge that gap through the programme. We chose 100 female-led start-ups and provided them with weeklong training and workshops that would equip them to launch and succeed in business.
Last year the second cohort was introduced where the winners of She Leads 2.0 and Startup X (Our other accelerator) were awarded business support services worth AED 100,00. This was a passion project for us that allowed us to do something effective for our entrepreneurs.
What are the strategies of your company, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
Our strategy is simple- to outdo ourselves when it comes to serving our clients. This is how we have positioned ourselves as the Middle East’s top-performing business set-up consultancy, which is trusted by thousands of people. Along with digitizing our processes for our client’s convenience, we make equal efforts to build human connections and bonds with them.
What are the key values that helped you overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
There is a famous quote by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you’re
right.” To me, a person’s mindset is everything, the one thing that can make all the difference. In my career and in my company, I have always tried to instil a growth mindset. Staying realistic and persistent are some of the values that have helped me overcome business and career challenges.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
We plan to maximize our efforts toward our Qatar and Saudi Arabia operations. And currently, we are working to capture a dominant share of the market. And I seek to do it by improving innovation, building and solidifying customer loyalty, employing a talented, dedicated workforce, deploying effective pricing products and services efficiently.
What are the services/solutions or products offered by your company on par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
We offer entrepreneurs everything they will need before and after they start a business. Our intelligible ecosystem is devised to eliminate entrepreneurs’ pain points experienced by them throughout their entrepreneurial journey. Starting from jurisdiction advice to delivering the trade license, helping you open a bank account, visas, office lease, assisting you with tax and accounting, to even managing your marketing, legal, HR, and sales needs, our suite of services manages it all.
Connect with Lorenzo Jooris on LinkedIn!
About Creative Zone:
Creative Zone is Dubai’s largest and most trusted business set-up advisory firm. Creative Zone’s registration professionals have helped thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs and SMEs grow their businesses in the UAE since its launch by Mahesh Dalamal and Steve Mayne in 2010. The company was created with a simple yet revolutionary model for the UAE marketplace; to serve as a one-stop-shop, with flexible payment plans, for easy company incorporation. Creative Zone has now evolved to provide added business support services to create an ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs and SMEs to set up, sustain, and grow their businesses and contribute to the UAE’s position as the global location of choice for company set-up. For more details, please visit