Table of Contents
How to Start a Business Advisory or Strategic Consultancy Services Business with Meydan Free Zone
A business advisory or strategic consultancy firm sells judgement. You put specialists in front of another company and help it fix what is not working: a marketing strategy that has stopped pulling customers, an operation with bottlenecks, a financial position nobody has modelled properly.
Five activity codes sit under that umbrella and they are not interchangeable. Two need regulatory approval before you can get the license at all, and one carries anti-money laundering duties the other four do not. This guide covers what each permits, what each excludes, and which approvals attach to which.
Key Stats at a Glance
What This License Covers
Code 7020.11 is the core of a consultancy practice. It covers strategic and organisational planning, financial decision-making, marketing objectives and human resource policies. It also takes in production scheduling and control planning, advice on public relations, communication and lobbying, and the design of accounting methods, cost accounting programmes and budgetary control procedures. One license, covering planning, organisation, efficiency and control across a client business rather than one function of it.
What 7020.11 excludes
- Creating computer software for accounting systems
- Providing legal advice or representation
- Accounting, bookkeeping, auditing or tax consulting
- Architectural, engineering or other technical advisory services
- Advertising activities
- Market research or public opinion polling
- Executive placement or search consulting
- Educational consulting
No third party approvals are needed for this code.
Financial and Investment Advisory
Two codes cover the money side and they overlap in scope but not in approvals.
6619.02, Investment Advisory Services
This covers auxiliary financial activities not classified elsewhere: transaction processing and settlement including credit card transactions, investment advice itself, mortgage advisers and brokers, and trustee, fiduciary and custody services on a fee or contract basis. It excludes insurance agents and brokers, and it excludes fund management. No third party approvals are needed, but this is the one code of the five that carries AML duties.
6619.13, Financial Advisory and Financial Analysis
Closely related and often sold alongside investment advice, covering the same auxiliary activities plus financial analysis. The exclusions match: insurance agents and brokers are out, fund management is out.
The difference that matters is the approval. You need Securities and Commodities Authority sign-off before you get the license, not after. Build that into your timeline rather than assuming the license comes first.
Tax and Security Advisory
6920.05, Advisory Before Tax Authorities
This covers recording commercial transactions, preparing and auditing financial accounts, certifying their accuracy, preparing personal and business income tax returns, and representing clients before the tax authorities. Accounting, bookkeeping, auditing and tax consulting all sit inside it. It excludes data processing and tabulation, management consultancy including the design of accounting systems and cost accounting programmes, and bill collection. No third party approvals are needed.
8110.11, Security and Safety Advisory
This sits inside facilities support services and is broader than its name suggests. It covers activities delivered inside a client facility: general interior cleaning, maintenance, trash disposal, guard and security, mail routing, reception, laundry and related services. You supply the operational staff but carry no liability for the client core business. It also covers managing facilities such as military bases and prisons, though not computer facilities management.
What 8110.11 excludes
- Providing only one support service, such as interior cleaning or heating, in which case you pick the code for that specific service instead
- Providing management and operating staff to run an entire establishment for a client, such as a hotel, restaurant, mine or hospital, in which case the unit is classed under its own activity
- On-site management and operation of a client computer systems or data processing facilities
- Operating correctional facilities on a fee or contract basis
This code needs approval from the Security Industry Regulatory Agency of Dubai before you get the license.
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Choosing the Right Activity Code
- Step 1, describe the work honestly: Write down what you will actually sell before you look at the codes. Most mismatches happen because a founder picks the code that sounds impressive rather than the one that describes the job.
- Step 2, read the exclusions first: They are more useful than the headline descriptions, because that is where the boundaries between the five codes sit.
- Step 3, check for a pre-license approval: Financial advisory and analysis, and security and safety advisory, both need a regulator sign-off before the license.
- Step 4, check your AML position: If investment advisory is in your model, you carry AML duties. If not, you probably do not.
- Step 5, confirm scope with Meydan Free Zone: Take your shortlisted codes to the team and get the scope confirmed before you submit.
Compliance and What You Need in Place
Pre-license approvals
Two codes gate the license behind a regulator. Financial advisory and analysis under 6619.13 needs Securities and Commodities Authority approval first, and security and safety advisory under 8110.11 needs the Security Industry Regulatory Agency of Dubai. Neither can be done retrospectively, so both belong at the front of your timeline.
Anti-money laundering
Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions must comply with the laws on anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing by meeting the Ministry of Economy needs. Existing licensees registered for goAML after the awareness campaign closed on 30 April 2021, and new licensees must comply once licensed to avoid fines. Only investment advisory under 6619.02 is subject here. The other four are not.
Getting the scope right
The exclusions do the real work here. Advising on the design of an accounting method sits under strategy advisory, doing the bookkeeping sits under the tax code, and building the accounting software sits elsewhere again.
Market Opportunity
The commercial appeal here is that the product is expertise rather than inventory. You sell what your people know, so the capital you need at entry is low and the thing that scales is hiring rather than buying.
The breadth of the five codes is the other advantage. Strategy, financial position, tax representation and facilities security are different buyers inside the same client organisation. Three of the five carry no third party approval, so for a straight management consultancy the path from application to trading is short. Meydan Free Zone also supports remote setup, which suits a practice where the work travels to the client rather than the client coming to you.
Conclusion
Business advisory and strategic consultancy in Dubai is one of the more accessible professional services to license, provided you pick the right code and know which gates apply to it.
Three of the five need no approvals and carry no AML burden. Two do not have that luxury: financial advisory and analysis needs the Securities and Commodities Authority first, security and safety advisory needs SIRA first, and investment advisory carries AML duties of its own. Work out which of the five describes your actual practice, read the exclusions rather than the titles, and confirm the scope before you apply.
Talk to the Meydan Free Zone team to confirm your activity code and start your application.
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