Business in Egypt

Several years ago I planned a long holiday from work. With all the developments around me at the time, positive and negative, my decision - after discussions with family – was I needed time to re-evaluate and re-energize myself. In short I had achieved what a lot of people thought was grand and it was, but somehow not made for me…

When I started the holiday I was very clear with myself that I would return in a somewhat new capacity to serve companies in Egypt, or so I thought!! I started planning for my return but as always I encountered many challenges similar to those mentioned by previous clients and contacts. Now I had the pleasure of encountering the same challenges. Thinking of all this, my thought process started to analyze the type of challenges and how I can assist businesses in Egypt.

To start with, setting up a company in Egypt is pretty tricky and not only when communicating with local authorities in Egypt such as GAFI (General authority For Investment in Egypt). The complicated part could be between client and service provider in Egypt such as lawyers, accountants and others, not many service providers in Egypt have strong knowledge communication skills, understanding of timely deliverables and other hindrances. So you can imagine what happens when clients are from China or East Europe. I met a couple of these companies and they were totally in the dark even though they stated that they had met several leading service providers but were still unclear about what to do.

I thought this is my chance and was convinced that I need a vehicle that would liaise between local service providers and foreign companies. I went ahead and set up in Egypt my new company FRAL Egypt. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to identify, create it and meet with various service providers to create a type of alliance that would serve all involved. My visits were welcomed and very positive that I felt energized and clear what needs to be done…

At this point I thought it wise to approach the market in a new capacity, something I had read about but not witnessed in Egypt. In essence I aimed at placing myself as a middleman between companies and service provides and thought that I could offer legal services in Egypt, accounting services in Egypt, HR services in Egypt. This would be achieved by marketing the various service providers, engaging the clients and working with the teams to ensure the timely deliverable of services in a qualitative manner acceptable to multinational standards.

Now I have managed to set up the business of FRAL Egypt aliened it with several service providers and am comfortable that the alliance can perform:

- Tax services in Egypt- Accounting services in Egypt- External auditors

- Personnel services in Egypt- PEO (professional employer organization) - Payroll in Egypt- Branding & communication

Sherif Mansour, Corporate Advisor and General Manager at FRAL EGYPT. Visit us at www.fral-egypt.com or on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.