Filter by capital, district and kind of work. Every number uses the same units, so you can compare businesses side by side.
203 businesses
Retail & wholesaleUnloading truckloads of fruit and selling by the crate to retail shops. Badamtoli turns over about Tk 40 crore a day, and opening a crate can show 25-33 percent rotten.
Retail & wholesaleBuying cheap at harvest, storing, and selling when prices rise. But 25-30 percent of the country's onion rots for want of storage, and local onion fell 30 percent in twelve months.
Digital & B2B servicesArranging appointments, visas, tickets and stay for patients travelling abroad for treatment. There is no separate licence, but a travel agency registration certificate is required, valid three years.
Light manufacturing & workshopProject work designing and building out flats, offices and shops. Materials are bought up front while payment comes in stages, so unpaid balances are the main risk.
Light manufacturing & workshopTurning a manuscript into a printed book and getting it to market. White writing paper is Tk 34-40 per dista, and keeping a press requires a declaration before the District Magistrate.
Home & local servicesA centre for blood tests, X-ray and ultrasonogram. It needs a DGHS licence, with an annual fee of Tk 15,000-50,000 by category and location.
Retail & wholesaleA DGDA-accredited pharmacy. 300 sq ft, air-conditioning, a pharmacy-grade fridge and a Grade A pharmacist are compulsory; the drug licence runs two years.
Light manufacturing & workshopSmall-workshop candle and soap making on low capital. Soap is on BSTI's mandatory certification list and cannot be sold without a CM licence; candles are not on the list.
Light manufacturing & workshopWeaving bed sheets and home textiles on power looms for the wholesale haats. One loom makes 8-15 pieces a day, and a plain double bed sheet set retails at Tk 389-489.
Food processingRoasting paddy in hot sand and flattening it into chira. A village mill charges about Tk 8 a kg to flatten a farmer's own paddy, while chira retails at Tk 70-80 a kg.
Food processingGrinding and blending bran, broken rice and cake into granular cattle feed for farmers. Company feed is Tk 55-60/kg while inputs run Tk 38-62/kg, so the gap is thin. Operating without a DLS licence carries a Tk 50,000 fine.
Agriculture & farmingCage-reared quail. Laying starts in 35-45 days; an egg costs about Tk 1.20 to produce and sells wholesale at Tk 2.80-3.50. The market is narrow, and the bigger money is in selling chicks.
Digital & B2B servicesA client's ad money is not your revenue - the retainer is. Bangladesh runs about Tk 7,400 crore a year of digital advertising at 15 percent VAT, and bKash on Facebook ad accounts is ending the middleman income.
Light manufacturing & workshopTrousers stitch for Tk 600: Tk 220 to the karigor, Tk 90 other costs, Tk 290 to the shop. One karigor does five trousers or ten shirts a day. The real money is sub-contract work, and its rules just tightened.
Food processingGoods go to shops on credit and the money comes back in 15-30 days, so working capital is the limit, not the machine. Branded chanachur is Tk 300-333 a kg; a small maker has to sell at Tk 200-250.
Home & local servicesIncome comes from government service applications, not from typing. The fixed land-service charges are Tk 200-300 for a mutation, Tk 100-150 for a porcha and Tk 20 for a printed dakhila.
Home & local servicesChair count, daily customers and rent decide everything. A Dhaka haircut is Tk 120 and a shave Tk 80-130, against one blade of material at Tk 6-23.
Home & local servicesA room, benches and someone who can teach; the capital is close to nothing. But government orders close every coaching centre for two to three months a year around the public exams.
Retail & wholesaleA shop selling fabric and ready-made clothes. Cotton runs Tk 300-700 a yard in Dhaka, and most of the year's takings arrive in the last ten days of Ramadan.
Home & local servicesHair, skin and makeover services. In Dhaka an at-home facial starts at Tk 820 and a party makeover runs Tk 2,350-2,950. Starting at home costs little; taking a shop costs a great deal more.
Food processingMaking bread, biscuits and cake and supplying local shops. A sack of flour went from Tk 2,300 to Tk 3,100 in a year, and BFSA registration at Tk 1,000 is compulsory.
Retail & wholesaleA farm input shop selling seed, fertiliser, pesticide and feed. The fertiliser margin is fixed by government at Tk 2 a kg today, rising to Tk 3 from 1 July 2027.
Light manufacturing & workshopBuying, sorting and reselling discarded plastic. The margin is Tk 2-20 a kg, and Dhaka scrap shops pay about Tk 22 a kg at the door.
Light manufacturing & workshopMaking bags, pots and showpieces from jute. Tk 2,000 of scissors and rope starts it by hand, but an export order needs a workshop, and ten machines cost about Tk 500,000.
