Filter by capital, district and kind of work. Every number uses the same units, so you can compare businesses side by side.
202 businesses
Light manufacturing & workshopMelting scrap aluminium or buying sheet and spinning it into pots, pans and karai. Ordinary cooking pots are not on BSTI's list of 315 mandatory products, but domestic pressure cookers are (BDS 1752:2006).
Light manufacturing & workshopBringing weak lead-acid batteries back with electrolyte correction and slow charging. Breaking batteries open and smelting the lead is a completely different trade - an offence without Department of Environment clearance, and only 7 of about 1,100 such operations in the country hold one.
Food processingAn espresso machine and imported beans. A cup sells from Tk 50 to Tk 400, but a shop moves 70-100 cups a day - customers sit for hours over a single cup.
Food processingMilk split into chhana, pressed into paneer. 8-10 kg of milk makes 1 kg of paneer, which sells at Tk 900-1,200 a kg - the whole business is the gap between the two prices.
Food processingLemon, sugarcane and bael sharbat through the hot months at Tk 10-25 a glass, lassi at Tk 50. The trade stands on three things: ice, electricity and one hot season.
Food processingA winter footpath stall selling vapa, chitoi and patishapta. Chitoi Tk 5-10, vapa Tk 10-20; a stall sells 250-800 pitha a day, but the trade only runs three or four months a year.
Agriculture & farmingBreeding guppy, molly, goldfish and angelfish in concrete tanks or aquariums and selling the young. The country has one wholesale market that matters, Katabon in Dhaka, where a survey counted 40 shops.
Agriculture & farmingFattening mud crab in brackish-water pens or boxes and selling on to a depot and an exporter. Bangladesh shipped Tk 867.88 crore of crab in FY2024-25, almost all of it to China, and when China shuts the door a Tk 2,000 kg crab falls to Tk 300.
Agriculture & farmingGrowing seed, not vegetables. BADC's 2026-27 schedule prices bottle gourd seed at Tk 1,050 a kg, tomato at Tk 2,600 and hybrid tomato at Tk 26,000 — and selling it needs a seed dealer registration costing Tk 2,000.
Food processingA small shop selling burgers, sandwiches, rolls and fries. Lower capital than a restaurant, but exactly the same licence stack - trade, food safety, fire, environment and VAT.
Retail & wholesaleWholesaling medicines to pharmacies. DGDA licenses it separately - Tk 10,000 new, Tk 5,000 renewal, valid two years - but no pharmacist is required.
Home & local servicesRepairing wristwatches and wall clocks. The national watch market is over Tk 300 crore, but Patuatuli sells watches from Tk 30, so cheap watches are never repaired.
Food processingGrowing and milling Sherpur's GI-registered aromatic paddy. Paddy is Tk 2,200-2,400 a maund and the rice sells online at Tk 145-150 a kilo - no higher than aromatic rice without a GI.
Light manufacturing & workshopA unit pressing mosquito coils from sawdust and insecticide. BSTI certification is compulsory and the Department of Environment will not clear a site in a residential area.
Digital & B2B servicesTyping and list work from home. Easy to enter, very low starting pay - one named freelancer's first month was USD 13, and reaching a lakh a month took four years.
Food processingSelling kacchi, tehari and morog polao by the plate. Almost the entire cost is meat - the raw material in one pot of shahi mutton kacchi is Tk 13,265-15,054.
Light manufacturing & workshopMaking children's toys from the offcuts a furniture workshop discards. Wooden craft items sold at BSCIC's fair between Tk 100 and Tk 3,000.
Retail & wholesaleRetailing bats, balls, jerseys and rackets. Children's bats Tk 109-511, English willow Tk 2,250-3,190, footballs Tk 484-1,200. Demand follows schools, clubs and the tournament season.
Home & local servicesStitching, soling and polishing shoes. A polish is Tk 30 in Sylhet with Tk 400-500 on an average day; one launch-based repairer takes Tk 700 some days and under Tk 200 on others.
Home & local servicesSupplying guards on contract. The service charge is Tk 9,000-10,000 per guard while wages are Tk 8,000-15,000 - that gap is the whole business.
Light manufacturing & workshopMaking clay pots, planters and terracotta showpieces. Bijoypur's work is exported, but with no gas the kilns run on firewood and part of the output is spoiled.
Agriculture & farmingSeeding pond mussels to grow pearls in seven to eleven months. Grade A pearls sell wholesale at Tk 500-600, but there is no regular buyer - and that is the main risk.
Home & local servicesHenna design and bridal styling for weddings, gaye holud and Eid. In Dhaka festival mehendi is Tk 1,225-1,625 and bridal Tk 3,900-5,525 per person.
Retail & wholesaleRetailing clothes for children aged 0-12. Panjabi sets Tk 260-985, frocks Tk 150-650. Children outgrow clothes, so stock turns over far faster than in an adult boutique.
