Rabih Brair, the Managing Partner of tandem, a Dubai-based full-service advisory firm for entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses (SMEs), describes what mistakes he sees entrepreneurs making when they come to him for advice.

"What we typically see is an aspiring entrepreneur that's very technically strong, very knowledgable when it comes to the core business that he's looking to start, but are lacking managerial skills, whether it's finance-related, whether it's about access to funding and structuring an investment, and sometimes it's more of a strategic gap that they have, they don't know how they're going to expand geoprahically, they don't know if they're going to deploy new product lines or how they're eventually going to exit. These are the things that we mentor."