Why Benji Films’ Founder Left Canada for Dubai With GenZone After a $1.5M Annual Tax Bill – Entrepreneurship Life

“GenZone Co-Founder and Co-CEO Kevin with Benji Films CEO Benjamin Lussier.”

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Image: GenZone Co-Founder and Co-CEO Kevin with Benji Films CEO Benjamin Lussier.

Plenty of founders discuss leaving high-tax international locations. Benjamin Lussier, the CEO of Benji Films, really did it, and accomplished the transfer in below three weeks. He will not be a way of life entrepreneur chasing higher climate. He constructed an organization with actual headcount, actual shoppers, and actual income, and when the numbers in Canada stopped working, he acted on a choice most individuals solely talk about.

This is the story of what pushed him to depart, how the mathematics modified as soon as he checked out Dubai, and the way GenZone dealt with the formation, banking, and compliance that made the transfer potential.

Who Benji is, and what Benji Films does

Benji constructed Benji Films, a development advertising and marketing and video manufacturing firm, from nothing. Over two years he scaled it from $5,000 a month to greater than $200,000 a month, and from two workers to 1 hundred. The shopper listing consists of names like DJI and Honda.

This was by no means a aspect venture on the lookout for a tax break. It was an working enterprise with real scale behind it, which is what makes his relocation totally different from the standard story of a solo founder chasing a decrease fee overseas.

The tax invoice that modified every little thing

Running two to 4 million {dollars} in annual revenue, Benji was paying roughly $1.5 to $1.6 million a 12 months to the Canadian authorities. “I was paying literally two Lambos in taxes a year,” he stated.

The frustration was not solely the scale of the quantity. It was the sense that the system labored in opposition to the folks constructing the financial system it relied on. “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 view of the nation’s tax construction was blunt. “Canada is good for salaried people who don’t have businesses,” he stated. For founders producing critical revenue, he felt the mathematics merely stopped including up.

The set off got here on a visit to the Bahamas, the place he was visiting a pal who paid no taxes. Returning to Canada, the distinction was laborious to disregard. A mutual connection talked about Dubai, Benji seemed up GenZone, and inside an hour of the primary name he had made up his thoughts.

Finding Dubai, and doing the mathematics

In Dubai, company tax applies solely above a revenue threshold of AED 375,000, roughly USD 102,000, and is capped at 9% even past that. Set in opposition to what he had been paying in Canada, the distinction was fast.

“9% taxes for a service like that, I don’t mind at all,” he stated. He additionally noticed the timing as a bonus quite than luck. “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.”

Three weeks after that first name, Benji was in Dubai. The firm was shaped, banking was open, and he was already referring different Canadian founders to GenZone. The pace got here not from speeding the method however from the truth that there was little left to deliberate as soon as the numbers have been clear.

What he present in his first weeks

Benji had solely been in Dubai a short while when he shared these observations, however they have been particular and drawn from expertise quite than expectation.

On the security misconceptions he hears most frequently 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 usual of service he encountered, and the way it formed his fascinated with his personal firm: “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 tradition round seen success, recalling a shopper assembly again in Montreal: “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 broader entrepreneurial setting: “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.”

Built to scale: how Benji runs a 100-person firm

For 4 years, Benji ran his enterprise alone, dealing with each shoot, script, and shopper name himself. He earned round $20,000 a 12 months and was going nowhere quick. A mentor advised him to study advertisements, advertising and marketing, gross sales, and automation, and he did.

The first month after launching a paid advert technique and hiring a commission-only nearer, income jumped from $5,000 to $100,000. The month after that, it doubled once more.

Growth created a brand new downside. Benji was nonetheless the one individual delivering the work, and the enterprise was successful shoppers it couldn’t correctly serve. “At that time I needed to delegate, because otherwise the business can’t grow anymore,” he stated. So he employed administrators, scriptwriters, and advertisements managers, and saved scaling.

His strategy to hiring, developed whereas constructing a 100-person crew, is direct. “Hire slow, fire fast. If you think it takes a week to hire, take three.” He weighs small indicators as a lot as solutions. “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?”

He not runs interviews himself. “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 function now’s narrower by design. “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.”

The referral impact

Benji discovered GenZone by a private referral, and the sample has continued since. He has already referred different Canadian founders, all of whom are actually shoppers themselves.

“Your service was amazing. I got referred, and I referred someone else. It’s like a spiderweb,” he stated.

What different founders can take from Benji’s transfer

Benji’s story factors to a couple classes that transcend his personal numbers. Tax publicity compounds shortly at actual revenue ranges, and it’s price operating the comparability earlier than it turns into unavoidable quite than after.

Speed issues too. His whole relocation, from first name to totally operational in Dubai, took three weeks, not as a result of the method was rushed however as a result of there was nothing left to weigh as soon as the numbers have been clear.

And a service tradition constructed for development, whether or not in hiring, supply requirements, or shopper expertise, tends to journey with the founder wherever the enterprise relies.

Conclusion

Benji’s transfer displays a broader shift amongst founders operating actual working companies, not simply digital ones. When the tax math and the expansion trajectory cease lining up at residence, Dubai gives a structural different, offered the formation, banking, and compliance are dealt with correctly from day one.

For Benji, that groundwork took three weeks. For the Canadian founders he has since referred, it began with the identical cellphone name to GenZone.