Wooden furniture workshop

About the business

A furniture workshop takes orders and builds beds, wardrobes, tables and sofas. The work looks simple; the money does not, because the timber is bought first and the full payment arrives after delivery. That gap is what kills small workshops. How wide it is can be read off a big brand's own terms: HATIL's billing conditions say that if it misses the delivery deadline it pays the customer 0.5 per cent of the value of the goods per week after a 15-day buffer, and that a customer who does not take delivery of completed goods pays the same 0.5 per cent a week as an inventory holding cost, again after a 15-day buffer. Two to three weeks between order and delivery is treated as normal in this market. Prices: one Dhaka furniture firm's 2026 list puts a plain MDF single bed at Tk 12,000-22,000, a queen bed in Malaysian processed wood at Tk 25,000-45,000, a semi-solid teak and gorjon box bed at Tk 45,000-85,000, and a solid Chittagong teak king bed at Tk 60,000-1,80,000. Change the timber and the price changes three or four times over. The real skill is knowing timber and accounting for it - how much of a cubic foot ends up in the furniture and how much is lost in the cutting is what decides the profit.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Table saw, planer, router, drill, sander, clamps and hand tools, plus a spray gun or polishing kit. Machine prices could not be verified here.Equipment
• Timber - Chittagong teak, gorjon, sil-koroi, Malaysian processed wood or MDF. Which one you use changes the price of the finished piece three or four times over.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Issued in three to five working days.Licence
• Selecting timber, cutting to size, joinery and finishing. Miss damp or under-seasoned wood and the piece cracks later, and the warranty work comes back to you.Skill
• A reliable sawmill or timber depot, plus a hardware supplier for hinges, handles, channels, glue, nails and finishes.Supplier
• An open shed with room for saws and machines, racks to keep timber dry, a separate corner for finishing, and a way to move goods out.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Take a shed where saw and machine noise is tolerated and finished goods can be got out. A workshop inside a residential block gets shut down by the neighbours.
2. 2Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality with 'furniture manufacturing' as the trade.
3. 3Decide where the wood comes from - sawn timber from a sawmill, or imported processed wood and MDF. The price, the work and the customer are different for each.
4. 4Install the machines: table saw, planer, router, drill, sander and spraying gear. Polishing or lacquering needs its own space.
5. 5Hire one good carpenter. In this trade the workshop's name rests more on the carpenter's hands than on the owner's.
6. 6Build samples. Customers do not read drawings; they understand a finished piece.
7. 7Take an advance on every order and cost the timber first - which wood, how many cubic feet, at what rate. You pay for the timber before anyone pays you.
8. 8Give the delivery date in writing and keep it. Big firms pay a 0.5 per cent a week penalty for being late; a small workshop that is late simply loses the customer.
9. 9Keep the offcuts and use them for small pieces - stools, racks, children's cots. The offcuts are part of the profit.
10. 10Chase work from showrooms and interior contractors. One set order gives more certainty than a string of retail orders, though the money comes later.
11. 11Build stock ahead of the wedding season, and keep timber dry in the rains - furniture built from damp wood cracks later.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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