Benji is the CEO of Benji Films, a growth marketing and video production company he built from scratch – scaling it from $5,000 a month to over $200,000 a month, and from two employees to one hundred in just two years.
He is not a lifestyle entrepreneur chasing sunshine. He is an operator who built a real company, with real headcount, real clients, and real revenue. And when the numbers stopped making sense in Canada, he made a decision most founders only talk about.
He came across GenZone through a personal referral, got on a call, and within one hour had committed to relocating his business to Dubai. Three weeks later, he was here – company set up, banking open, and already referring other Canadian founders to us.
The speed of the move surprised even him. What did not surprise him was the reason behind it: he was handing over $1.5 million a year to a government he felt was working against the very people building the economy.
This is his story – how he built the business, why he left, what he found when he arrived, and what other founders can learn from a decision he made faster than most people plan a holiday.
Watch the full conversation below.
Why Did Benji Leave Canada?
It started with a trip to the Bahamas. Benji was visiting a friend who paid no taxes, came back to Canada, and the contrast hit him hard. A mutual connection mentioned Dubai. He looked up GenZone. Within an hour of our first call, he had made up his mind.
The trigger was not lifestyle. It was the tax bill.
“I was paying literally two Lambos in taxes a year,” he said. Running two to four million in annual profit, Benji was handing over roughly $1.5 to $1.6 million to the Canadian government every year – for a level of public service he did not feel matched what he was putting in.
“They say they want to encourage entrepreneurs, but then as soon as you’re an entrepreneur and you make millions, the first thing you start to do is pay more taxes.”
His conclusion was clear: “Canada is good for salaried people who don’t have businesses.” For founders generating serious profit, the math simply stops working.
Here in Dubai, the corporate tax rate only applies above a profit threshold of AED 375,000 (approximately USD 102,000), and even then it is capped at 9%. For Benji, the shift was immediate and significant.
“9% taxes for a service like that – I don’t mind at all.”
He also made a point many founders miss: he felt he was moving at the right time.
“I think I’m lucky to have done the move right now, because I know that Canada is going to do this in the future. They want their share of everything.”
What He Noticed About Dubai in Two Weeks
Benji had only been in Dubai for two weeks at the time of this conversation. But the observations he made were sharp.
On safety – the most common misconception he hears from Canadians:
“The main thing I hear is about women — ‘Oh, it’s not safe for women.’ It’s actually the safest country in the world. There are women walking at 3 a.m. alone here. Compared to Canada, I would be way more scared for a woman to walk alone at 4 a.m. than in Dubai.”
On the quality of service and professional culture:
“The quality of service here that I want to reproduce in my business, the way people respect their customers, the way people treat their employees and colleagues at work – I haven’t seen that in Canada. I know that being here, my service is going to get better and better.”
On the mindset around money and success:
“Making money here is good. In Montreal, I made the mistake of pulling up with my Audi R8 to certain clients. They saw a 23-year-old making too much money and thought – he’s probably a scammer. Here in Dubai, people are going to be proud of you.”
And on the business environment itself:
“Even if there were no tax advantages – Dubai, if you’re in the business of people, this place will level you up to the max. You’ll learn a lot more from other entrepreneurs who are willing to share. A discussion like we’re having right now – people would charge $10,000 for this in some cases.”
How He Built a 100-Person Company?
The business did not start this way. For four years, Benji ran Benji Films at around $20,000 per year. He was doing everything himself – the shoots, the scripts, the client work – and going nowhere fast.
The shift came when a mentor told him to learn ads, marketing, sales, and automation. He listened. In the first month after implementing a paid ad strategy and hiring a commission-only closer, revenue jumped from $5,000 a month to $100,000. The month after that, it doubled to $200,000.
But the growth created a new problem: Benji was still the only one delivering. He was not sleeping. The business was winning clients it could not properly serve.
“I was going on the shoots, doing the scripts, doing everything. At that time I needed to delegate – because otherwise the business can’t grow anymore.”
He delegated. He hired directors, scriptwriters, and ads managers. And the business kept growing.
His advice on hiring, drawn from scaling to 100 people:
“Hire slow, fire fast. If you think it takes a week to hire, take three. And if you’re in rapid growth and hyperscraling the business, hire a month before you need it.”
He takes the interview process seriously in a way most founders do not. Rather than a single conversation, he runs multiple rounds, gives candidates real work to complete, and reads the small signals.
“Analyse everything. The way they dress, the way they show up, how they talk, are they polite? If they’re late, are they finding excuses, or do they own it? Those are small things that are going to make a difference in two, three, four weeks.”
On setting expectations with candidates – rather than selling them the job:
“I tell them in the first meeting: if a client texts you at 8 a.m., I expect you to answer. If a client texts you at 8 p.m., I expect you to answer. If you don’t think you’re going to perform at that level, we don’t want you in our team – and that’s perfectly okay.”
Today, Benji does not conduct interviews himself. His internal hiring team handles the process end to end, and they are, by his own admission, better at it than he is.
“There are people in my business I’ve never talked to. I see them on Slack. I have a hundred people. Some of them I’ve never met.”
His entire operational philosophy now comes down to one thing: get out of the way.
“At a certain level, the only thing you want to do is make big decisions. You’re not even operating anymore. You just take decisions.”
His day is almost entirely in front of the camera – creating content that drives visibility, which drives revenue. Everything else is delegated.
“100% of my time is being in front of the camera. Attention is the new currency. The more I’m in front of the camera, the more visibility I create, the more income the business generates.”
His Rule on Ads and Why Most People Get it Wrong
Before Benji ran a single paid ad, he spent four years building organic content, landing clients like DJI, Honda, and others, and earning a reputation in the market. When he finally turned ads on, the business exploded.
His point to founders who want to go straight to ads: the foundation has to come first.
“Running ads is like putting fire on something that works – or doesn’t work. If your structure is not good, you’re just going to grow the numbers, but your clients are not going to be satisfied.”
And on what actually separates a good service business from an average one:
“It’s your standards. Especially the speed you operate at. If my competitor is delivering videos in 10 days, I want to do it in 3. If my competitor is shooting 720p, I’m going to shoot 8K. It’s about raising the bar.”
He had one more principle that he said changed his life in business:
“Under promise, over deliver – not the opposite. Everyone is doing the opposite to make money fast. But if you want to make money too fast, you’re going to burn your name in the long term. And you only have one.”
The Referral That Started it All
Benji found GenZone the way most of our best clients do – through a personal referral. A friend made the move to Dubai and recommended us. Benji got on a call, made his decision within the hour, and was in Dubai within three weeks.
Since then, he has already referred other Canadian founders – all of whom are now clients.
“Your service was amazing. I got referred, and I referred someone else. It’s like a spiderweb.”
If you are a founder considering the move to Dubai, GenZone has helped 1,100+ clients from 50+ countries establish UAE-based businesses. We help serious founders enter the market correctly – not just quickly – so that the structural advantages the ecosystem offers are fully accessible to you.
