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In This Story
“I was paying literally two Lambos in taxes a year.” That is how Benjamin “Benji” Lussier, CEO of Benji Films, sums up what running a profitable business in Canada was costing him. Within an hour of his first call with GenZone he had decided to move, and in under three weeks he was in Dubai.
Benji built Benji Films, a growth marketing and video production company, from a one-man operation into a 100-person business. Two weeks after arriving, he sat down with our co-founder Kevin McKenzie to talk about the move, about scaling a team, and about what Dubai showed him straight away.
If you’d rather watch, the full conversation plays at the top of this page. Prefer to read? His story continues below.
A Trip to the Bahamas and a $1.5M Tax Bill
The idea started on a trip to the Bahamas, where Benji spent time with a friend who pays no tax. Back home, his friend and housemate Ali had just moved to Dubai, and Benji told him he was done with Canada.
“I don’t want to live in Canada anymore. It’s cold. It’s gray. The weather’s not so nice.”
Benji
Ali’s advice was simple: look up GenZone. But the real reason was the numbers. Benji Films makes two to four million dollars in profit a year, and his Canadian tax bill came to around $1.5 to $1.6 million.
“I was paying literally two Lambos in taxes a year.”
Benji
“They say they want to encourage entrepreneurs, but then as soon as you’re an entrepreneur, you make millions, the first thing you start to do is pay more taxes.”
Benji
“There’s no way in my life that I’m gonna give that much money to a government that literally doesn’t do anything for us.”
Benji
He also feels he got the timing right.
“I think I’m lucky to have done the move right now, because I know that this is something Canada is going to do in the future.”
Benji
Canada taxes people based on where they are resident, which is why a Canadian who genuinely relocates can leave the Canadian tax system. Americans can’t do the same, because the US taxes its citizens wherever they live, as Kevin explained to Benji. Leaving properly still means planning the move, so it is worth getting your Dubai residency and company structure right from day one.
Decided Within an Hour
Benji is a salesman himself, and he went into his first call with Kevin expecting a hard close.
“I’m a sales guy. So every time I hop on a Zoom with a client, I’m for sure 100% closing him.”
Benji
Instead, when he said he needed time to think, with 94 people in his business and moves to plan, Kevin told him to take it.
“We don’t hard close people. That’s just our culture. Let the person think about it, and then eventually they’re going to choose us anyway.”
Kevin McKenzie, GenZone Co-Founder
“I think one hour later, I was like, ‘Kevin, let’s do it.’”
Benji
What made the decision easy was what he found when he looked GenZone up.
“The amount of reviews, the amount of YouTube videos you had, I didn’t see anyone with the same volume and output as you guys. So my choice was easy at the end.”
Benji
Why the Cheapest Setup Costs More
Benji had a cautionary tale close to home. One of his editors had set up in Dubai with another provider.
“He told me, ‘Benji, it took like a month to set up my bank account.’ I said, ‘How much did you pay?’ He’s like, ‘$2,000.’”
Benji
Benji’s own setup took about two weeks, and his editor ended up wishing he had gone with GenZone. Kevin sees the same pattern in the messages GenZone receives from people unhappy with whoever they set up with.
“I understand that maybe sometimes people want to save, in that case, let’s say $500 or whatever. But it ends up costing them more.”
Kevin McKenzie, GenZone Co-Founder
Benji’s process had one small hiccup: he submitted part of his banking application himself to speed things up. The team took the application back, fixed it quickly, and his account opened.
“That’s not a hiccup for me.”
Benji
GenZone handles the banking application for clients as part of the setup, and follows it through until the account is open. A low fee elsewhere usually means less hands-on work, and that is where the month-long delays come from. Our roundup of the best business setup consultants in Dubai covers what to check before you choose.
9% Tax for a Service Like That
Dubai does have a corporate tax, but it only applies to profit above AED 375,000 (about USD 102,000), and above that it is capped at 9%. For Benji, that was an easy trade.
“Here in Dubai, service is amazing. It’s fast, like I’ve never seen before. I went for my driving license. It took 30 minutes. In Canada, it would have taken a month.”
Benji
“9% taxes for a service like that, I don’t mind at all.”
Benji
What Two Weeks in Dubai Showed Him
Benji had been in Dubai for two weeks when he sat down with Kevin. Three things had already stood out. The first was the standard of service.
“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, treat their colleagues at work. I haven’t seen that in Canada.”
Benji
The second was safety. When he told his mum he was moving, her first question was whether Dubai was safe.
“It’s actually the safest country in the world. There’s women walking at 3:00 a.m., 4 a.m. alone here. And that’s not a problem.”
Benji
Kevin shared the test he once ran himself, leaving his wallet, IDs and 4,000 dirhams in cash on a table.
“I walked around for around 15 minutes. It was in the middle of a food court, like a packed food court. I came back. It was still there, with all the cash in it.”
Kevin McKenzie, GenZone Co-Founder
The third was the attitude to success.
“In Quebec, when I pulled up with my R8 in the summer, brand new, with my sunglasses on: okay, this kid is 23, making too much money. He’s probably a scammer.”
Benji
“Here in Dubai, it’s not a problem. People are going to be proud of you.”
Benji
“Even if there were no tax advantages, I tell everyone: Dubai, if you’re in the business of people, this place will level you up to the max.”
Kevin McKenzie, GenZone Co-Founder
From $5K to $200K a Month
Benji Films did not start big. For four years the business made around $20,000 a year, with Benji doing everything himself.
“I thought that creating the perfect videos and putting all my personal time into the work for my client was it. But it was not. I need a system that generates clients on autopilot, and that I didn’t have.”
Benji
A mentor told him to learn ads, marketing, sales and automation. In the first month he started running ads and hired a commission-only closer, who is now his director of sales.
- 01Four yearsAround $20K a year, doing it all
- 02Month one$5K to $100K a month
- 03Month two$100K to $200K a month
- 04Two years onFrom 2 people to 100
The growth brought a new problem: he was still the only one delivering.
“We were closing so much that I wasn’t sleeping anymore, cause I was still the only one delivering. So I was going on the shoots. I was doing the scripts.”
Benji
So he delegated, hiring directors, scriptwriters and people to manage clients’ ads. Today his whole day goes on one thing.
“100% of my time is being in front of the camera, because attention is the new currency.”
Benji
He also waited four years, building organic content and clients like DJI and Honda, before turning ads on, and he warns founders not to skip that step.
“Ads is just putting fire on something that works or doesn’t work. So if your foundation is not good, you’re putting fire on something that is not good.”
Benji
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
Kevin runs a business setup team of 16. Benji runs 100 people and hires about five a week. His first rule:
“Hire slow, fire fast. If you think it takes a week to hire, take three. And if you’re in a rapid growth and you’re hyperscaling the business, hire a month before you need it.”
Benji
He tests candidates with real work, such as three scripts on three subjects rather than one, and he watches the small signals.
“Analyze everything. The way they dress, the way they show up, how they talk, are they polite?”
Benji
And he sets expectations in the first meeting instead of selling the job.
“If your client texts you at 8 a.m., I expect you to answer. If my client texts you at 8 p.m., I expect you to answer.”
Benji
The swapping of ideas ran both ways. Benji’s team moved client communication from email to Slack so they can see response times, and adopted a rule he took from Kevin.
“You told me, listen, Benji, every time that one of my employees doesn’t answer in 10 minutes, I have a meeting with this person. Same thing for us.”
Benji
Kevin shared how GenZone handles mistakes. A client signed their entry permit too early, despite being told not to, which meant around $1,300 to cancel it and issue a new visa.
“I could have easily said, ‘Hey, it’s your fault. You have to pay for it.’ But I felt bad for the client in a sense where I don’t want them to pay. And I just covered it for them.”
Kevin McKenzie, GenZone Co-Founder
The team then added a direct reconfirmation with every client before submitting that document, so it does not happen again.
“You Didn’t Sell Me a Dream”
One rule, Benji says, changed his life in business.
“Under promise, over deliver, not the opposite. Because 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.”
Benji
When he bought a McLaren in Dubai, the salesman told him to get the car independently checked before paying. Benji valued that honesty, and he said he found the same thing with GenZone.
“You didn’t sell me a dream. You knew my expectations. You told me, here’s the reality. We did it.”
Benji
Since then, Benji has referred other founders to GenZone. All of them are Canadian.
“Your service was amazing. I got referred and I referred someone else as well. It’s like a spiderweb.”
Benji
Thinking About Leaving Canada for Dubai?
Benji’s story is the standard we hold ourselves to. Whether you are moving from Canada or anywhere else, GenZone handles the company formation, the free zone selection, the residency visa, the medical and biometrics, and the banking, so you can keep running your business while we handle the setup. When you are ready to hire locally, our HR and staffing team can help you build it.
Benji is now expanding into the US. If your business is heading there too, we form US LLCs for globally mobile founders, handle the EIN, open a US business bank account and keep bookkeeping and compliance on track, all structured to work alongside your Dubai company.
If you are ready to make your own move, start your formation on the GenZone portal.