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Selling online courses

Turning what you know into a course and selling seats. Near-zero capital, course prices Tk 1,250-8,800, but a new course's first batch enrols only 16-72 people.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Selling online courses

Selling online courses

Starting capital
৳0 – ৳90,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 3 people
First sale
14 – 90 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
6 – 18 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Online · Medium difficulty

About the business

Recording what you already know as video lessons or live classes, and selling seats. Spoken English, graphic design, WordPress, Python, Quran reading, Excel - anything teachable. The point of this business is that there is no shop and no stock to buy. Record on the phone you already own and take payment on bKash, and the starting capital is close to zero. Cost begins when you want a payment gateway: SSLCOMMERZ charges a one-time, non-refundable registration fee of Tk 25,500 and 2.5 percent on every successful transaction. On prices: on 16 September 2026, 10 Minute School's skills courses ran from Tk 1,250 to Tk 8,000, and Ostad's live courses from Tk 2,380 to Tk 8,800. The real lesson is in the enrolment numbers on the same day. A new Ostad bootcamp in its first batch had 16 learners and another course in its second batch had 72, while courses that had reached their twelfth batch had 1,758 and 1,852. The first course does not pay; it takes a year or more of repeated batches to build an audience. On top of that, 10 Minute School lists about 50 courses free of charge, so a paid course competes with free. The people who survive do so for three reasons: they genuinely know the subject, they can hold a class facing a camera, and they can keep going for the first several months with no income.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳5,000 – ৳40,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳1,250 – ৳8,800 / unitMarket quote
Variable cost৳350 – ৳2,000 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin72% – 77%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue14 – 90 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time6 – 18 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 15 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss3% – 10%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity0.5 – 2.5Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A phone or laptop with a camera, a clip microphone and internet. For live classes, something to keep going through a power cut. Nothing else is needed - no equipment and no stock, which is the whole advantage of this business.Equipment
  • There is no stock. A class recorded once sells any number of times and nothing spoils if it does not sell, so no money is tied up in goods.Starting stock
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, non-judicial stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, plus VAT and signboard fee, issued in 3-5 working days. Selling can start on a personal bKash number, but this is the first paper asked for when moving to a business account.Licence
  • Two separate skills, and both are needed: knowing the subject well enough to demonstrate it, and being able to explain clearly facing a camera. Without the second, the first does not sell.Skill
  • A way to collect money. A bKash or Nagad number at first, at no cost. For a payment gateway, SSLCOMMERZ's published rate is a one-time non-refundable registration fee of Tk 25,500 and 2.5 percent per successful transaction on standard channels including Visa, Mastercard, bKash, Nagad and Rocket (3.5 percent for AMEX).Supplier
  • A room with little noise. Traffic or a fan humming into the recording is enough to stop learners finishing the class.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Decide exactly which skill you know better than others and which people will pay for. Teach what you have earned money doing, not what you have only read about.
  2. 2Look at what already exists on your subject and at what price. If 10 Minute School has a free course on the same thing, decide first what yours adds.
  3. 3Lay the whole course out on paper first: how many classes, what each teaches, and what the learner can build at the end. Start recording without this and the course stalls halfway.
  4. 4Start recording on the phone you already have. Clear sound matters more than picture quality, so pick a quiet room and use a clip microphone if you can.
  5. 5Give the first two or three classes away free. People will not pay someone they do not know, and these free classes are your signboard.
  6. 6Sort out how you take money. A bKash or Nagad number is enough at the start. Once sales grow, consider a payment gateway: SSLCOMMERZ charges Tk 25,500 one-time registration and 2.5 percent per successful transaction.
  7. 7Keep the first batch small and the price low. A new Ostad bootcamp's first batch had 16 learners - that is the real number, so treat the first batch as proof, not income.
  8. 8Collect written feedback from the first batch and pictures of the work they produced. The next batch sells on that proof.
  9. 9Fix the course after every batch: where learners got stuck, which class nobody finished. Numbers grow batch by batch; it is around the twelfth batch that they reach the thousands.
  10. 10Once sales are regular, take a trade licence from the city corporation or municipality and a TIN from NBR, and keep income and expenses in a separate book.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitDhaka · The country's course platforms, payment gateways and advertising market are all Dhaka-centred, and so are most of the buyers who will actually pay for a course.
  • PossibleBogura · The commercial centre of the north, where small traders buy courses on bookkeeping and selling online.
  • PossibleChattogram · A large city with universities and commercial firms, where buyers for IELTS and office-skill courses exist.
  • PossibleCumilla · Many families with relatives abroad, so there is interest in language and computer courses and the money to pay for them.
  • PossibleGazipur · Universities and young factory workers together make a large audience, but with little time, so short courses do better.
  • PossibleKhulna · Universities and technical institutes are here, with visible interest in freelancing courses.
  • PossibleMymensingh · A young audience around the universities and agricultural institutions, with a distinct opening for practical agriculture and livestock courses.
  • PossibleRajshahi · A dense student population around the university and colleges, though smaller pocket money means expensive courses sell less.
  • PossibleRangpur · Many students but lower purchasing power, so only lower-priced courses move here.
  • PossibleSylhet · Strong demand for going-abroad preparation makes buyers for language and IELTS courses, and remittance income means more ability to pay.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: A new course barely sells, and that is the biggest shock. Counted on Ostad on 16 September 2026: a first-batch bootcamp had 16 learners and a second-batch course 72, while courses in their twelfth batch had 1,758 and 1,852. The first few batches will not even repay the time spent making the course, and people who expected income in one or two batches quit.
  • HighDependency: A paid course competes with free. 10 Minute School alone lists about 50 courses free of charge, and YouTube has the rest. The reason to charge cannot be the video itself; it has to be feedback, answering questions and a certificate. Without that service, nobody comes back a second time.
  • MediumWorking capital: Low capital makes people think there are no costs, but some money goes out before any sale. SSLCOMMERZ's Tk 25,500 registration fee is one-time and non-refundable, so it does not come back if the course fails, and 2.5 percent is cut from every sale. Add Facebook promotion and a small volume of sales leaves almost nothing.
  • MediumOther: A paid video can be shared in a group the next day, and once it spreads there is almost no way to stop it. How often this happens or what it costs in lost sales was not measured in this research, so it is recorded as a risk without a number. Those who build on live classes and direct feedback lose less, because that cannot be copied.

Videos and interviews

Where to buy

TrainingFrom public sources

ইশিখন.কম

A private online and on-campus training provider offering freelancing, graphic design, web development and digital marketing courses to learners anywhere in the country.

151/7, Goodluck Center (4th Floor), Panthapath Signal, Green Road, Dhaka-1205Used by 6 businesses

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