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 & workshopBuying waste paper, folding bags by hand and supplying shops. Khaki bags sell at Tk 135-140 a kg and white at Tk 80; 60 kg of paper costs Tk 7,500 and yields 70 kg of bags for Tk 2,300 profit.
Retail & wholesaleA stationery and book shop with photocopying. A 204-page exercise book is Tk 68, a 300-page one Tk 169, and white paper Tk 34-40 a dista. Textbooks come free from the government, so the season's money is in exercise books and photocopies.
Light manufacturing & workshopA small unit making sandals and shoes for wholesalers. Sandals sell at Tk 250-700 and leather shoes at Tk 1,200. Bhairab alone has 3,500-5,000 units employing about 25,000 people.
Food processingMaking and bottling fruit juice and fruit drinks. A litre retails at Tk 80-90. Selling without a BSTI CM licence draws fines - recently Tk 30,000 to Tk 1,00,000.
Food processingMaking raw paratha, samosa and singara, freezing them and selling them in packs. Retail is Tk 12.5-19 a paratha and Tk 8.6-9.4 a mini samosa. The cold chain from factory to shop is the real condition of the business.
Food processingBoiling date palm or sugarcane sap into gur and patali through the three winter months. Gur was Tk 340/kg in Jashore and patali up to Tk 500. The hardest fight is not price but adulteration.
Light manufacturing & workshopMaking and selling cement-sand-chip blocks. A hollow block sells for Tk 32-50 and replaces five bricks. The deadline for 100 percent block use in government work expired in June 2025 and was missed.
Home & local servicesA shop that washes, dries and irons clothes. In a mofussil town it is Tk 10 a garment and Tk 1,000 on a hundred-garment day, but load-shedding drops that to Tk 300-400.
Light manufacturing & workshopCutting, folding and binding paper into exercise books. A 300-page khata sells online at Tk 169 and a 120-page one at Tk 75, while a packet of paper costs Tk 100-150 more than a year ago.
Food processingCooking and serving for three to five hundred guests at events. The booking advance comes first, but catering services carry 15 percent VAT, not the restaurant's 5 percent.
Food processingMaking mango, olive and garlic pickle for jars. Branded pickle retails at Tk 375-525 a kilo, and selling packaged food means a Tk 1,000 food safety registration even from a home kitchen.
Agriculture & farming350-400 plants to a bigha, fruit in 10-13 months. Tk 150-200 a plant to grow, Tk 350-450 a bunch to sell, and the extension department puts profit at Tk 120-180 a plant.
Light manufacturing & workshopPrinting designs on cloth. Low capital, but every design and every colour needs its own screen, so the per-piece cost climbs steeply as the order gets smaller.
Light manufacturing & workshopBuilding beds, wardrobes and tables to order. An MDF bed starts near Tk 12,000 and a solid teak king bed runs to Tk 1,80,000 - but the timber is paid for first and the money comes after delivery.
Digital & B2B servicesA small team taking foreign client work and routing the money home legally. Income tax and VAT are both waived and legal-channel earnings carry a 2.5 per cent cash incentive - but the first year pays close to nothing.
Retail & wholesaleBuying rice by the sack at the mokam and selling it to retail shops. Dhaka wholesale coarse rice is Tk 43-45 against Tk 50-55 retail, but the wholesaler keeps only 50 paisa to one taka a kilo.
Retail & wholesaleAuctioning farmers' fish on commission. The rate is about 3 per cent, and holding suppliers means giving interest-free advances - the money is in volume, not margin.
Home & local servicesShooting stills and video at events. Packages start at Tk 15,000, while a workable camera, lens and tripod cost about Tk 105,000.
Agriculture & farmingRaising saplings in poly bags for sale. Retail pays the bills, but supplying government and NGO plantation programmes is the real income — mango saplings are priced at Tk 60 there.
Agriculture & farmingSpawn packets on indoor racks yield in 25-30 days. Cost is Tk 80-90 a kilo against Tk 250-300 selling, but outside Dhaka finding the buyer is the real work.
Retail & wholesaleA shop selling phones, accessories and repairs. There is almost nothing in a handset — accessories and repair labour are what keep the shop open.
Retail & wholesaleA shop selling rod, cement and sanitary fittings. Rod is Tk 92,500-94,500 a tonne and up 10 percent in a year, but the bigger question is when the contractor's credit comes back.
Food processingBuying raw milk at Tk 45-55 a litre and turning it into curd and chhana. Yield per litre and spoilage decide whether it makes money.
Digital & B2B servicesMatching buyers and sellers for a commission. No separate government licence is needed for brokerage and the capital is a phone; Dhaka flats list from Tk 1 crore to Tk 11.5 crore.
