Filter by capital, district and kind of work. Every number uses the same units, so you can compare businesses side by side.
64 businesses
Digital & B2B servicesStoring, packing and delivering online sellers' parcels and collecting the cash. Couriers charge Tk 55-190 a parcel, and a marketplace must pay its seller within 10 days of receiving the money.
Digital & B2B servicesBuying and selling foreign currency notes under a Bangladesh Bank licence. On 21 September 2026 the dollar was bought at Tk 125.60 and sold at Tk 126.60 — one taka a dollar. Doing this without the licence is a criminal offence carrying up to seven years in prison.
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).
Agriculture & farmingCooking gas and organic fertiliser out of cow dung. This is not an income business but a cost-saving one: the plant costs Tk 28,000-50,000 and saves about Tk 4,000 a month in fuel plus Tk 2,000-2,500 from selling the surplus fertiliser.
Agriculture & farmingTapping date palms in winter and boiling the sap into gur. In the 2025-26 season granulated gur ran Tk 350-400 a kg and patali Tk 450-600, but the work lasts only three or four months a year and the gachhi who can climb are disappearing.
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 & 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.
Agriculture & farmingSown in March-April, cut and retted in July-August. National average wholesale in August 2026 was Tk 98.75 a kg for white jute (Tk 3,950 a maund) and Tk 91.84 for tossa (Tk 3,673), against a production cost of Tk 2,600-3,200 a maund.
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.
Retail & wholesaleSelling hooks, rods, reels, nets and fish medicine. Rods Tk 455-1,552, reels Tk 641-6,705. Current jal and China duari nets are illegal - stocking them means seizure and a mobile court.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Food processingPopping paddy into khoi and boiling sugar or gur into batasa and kadma. Wholesale sugar is Tk 102-103 a kg and batasa sells at Tk 190-300. Very low capital and no BSTI CM licence.
Light manufacturing & workshopA factory making vests, socks and sweaters from jhut cloth. Pabna has about a thousand units making 180-200 million pieces a year, but with the land route to India closed 65 percent of the workers are idle.
Light manufacturing & workshopA unit making corrugated cartons and boxes. Small parcel cartons retail at Tk 24-40 each, and the 350,000-400,000 parcels moving daily are the biggest market.
Agriculture & farmingDense fish farming in tanks. High output from a small space is possible, but in Thakurgaon one farmer put in Tk 4 lakh and sold only Tk 60,000 of fish.
Retail & wholesaleSpare parts for power tillers, shallow engines and sprayers. Machine sales fell 80-90 per cent when the subsidy was suspended in June 2024, but the machines already in the fields still need parts.
Light manufacturing & workshopMelting old shoes and waste plastic into cheap sandals. Bangladesh has 300-400 such factories making over a crore pairs a year, and they retail at Tk 100-500 a pair.
Light manufacturing & workshopTwisting jute fibre into rope and twine. In September 2026 raw jute was about Tk 86-99 a kilo while finished twine listed online at Tk 390 a kilo - that gap is the business.
Light manufacturing & workshopCasting concrete posts and pillars in moulds. It shares a mixer with concrete block making, and the rising price of rod and cement is the main risk.
Retail & wholesaleSelling and fitting tyres and batteries for cars and motorcycles. Car tyres Tk 11,000-29,000, bike tyres Tk 1,750-15,650, bike batteries Tk 1,050-1,950.
Food processingBuying winter tomatoes and cooking them into bottled sauce and ketchup. Sauce sells at Tk 320-430 a kg, and the BSTI sample test alone is Tk 11,100 for ketchup and Tk 12,200 for sauce.
