Filter by capital, district and kind of work. Every number uses the same units, so you can compare businesses side by side.
80 businesses
Digital & B2B servicesRunning a news website. Registration with the Ministry of Information is compulsory at Tk 10,000, renewed yearly at Tk 5,000, and there is still no fixed government advertisement rate for online portals.
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 servicesWriting for others for money. The capital is close to zero: a computer, a Tk 500 internet line and electricity. But writing job postings fell 21 percent within eight months of AI arriving, and demand is down 20-50 percent.
Digital & B2B servicesBuilding mobile apps to order. The capital is a computer, internet and electricity, plus a one-time USD 25 on Google Play and USD 99 a year on Apple. The cash incentive is 2.50 percent for an individual and 6 percent for a firm.
Digital & B2B servicesGetting a client's website higher in Google. The capital is a computer, a Tk 500 internet line and electricity. Most of the money comes in dollars, and the cash incentive for an individual freelancer is now 2.50 percent, not the 4 percent everyone quotes.
Retail & wholesaleBuying used books and selling them on. In the Purana Paltan market in Dhaka used books went at roughly Tk 20-30 a book in May 2024. In Nilkhet shop rents ran from Tk 12,000 to Tk 50,000 a month on advances of Tk 2 lakh to Tk 8 lakh.
Retail & wholesaleA retail shop selling cable, switches, sockets, holders, lamps and fans. Fifty of the 315 products on BSTI's mandatory certification list are electrical, and selling uncertified cable brings a fine and a sealed shop.
Retail & wholesaleBuying frames and lenses and assembling spectacles over the counter. A complete ordinary pair retails at Tk 649 to Tk 5,400 (online prices, 21 Sep 2026). No BSTI certificate is needed; the trade licence is the only paper.
Home & local servicesA private primary school up to grade five. Registration fee Tk 8,000-15,000, a fixed deposit of Tk 25,000-100,000 in the reserved fund, and registration valid for five years.
Home & local servicesInstalling rooftop and ground solar. In September 2026 a grid-tied 10 kW plant listed at Tk 449,000-700,000, and net metering now allows a system up to the consumer's full sanctioned load.
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 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.
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 & farmingSold at the price the Cotton Development Board sets, Tk 3,900 a maund of seed cotton in 2025-26. At the national average yield of about 7.6 maunds a bigha that is roughly Tk 30,000 a bigha for six to seven months of land.
Agriculture & farmingA ten to eleven month crop where the biggest slice of capital is seed rhizome: 375-400 kg a bigha, which at today's prices is Tk 45,000-70,000.
Agriculture & farmingA single winter crop, sown mid-November and cut in March. The government bought wheat from farmers at Tk 36 a kg in the 2025 procurement, against a reported Tk 6,000-7,000 to grow one bigha.
Agriculture & farmingPlanted in winter, lifted in February-March. National average wholesale in August 2026 was Tk 29.80/kg for local potato and Tk 20.53-20.71 for Holland varieties, but at harvest the field price fell to Tk 3-7; cold storage rent is now Tk 6 a kg.
Home & local servicesSelling animal medicines and giving treatment. Treatment needs Veterinary Council registration, the establishment needs Council recognition, and the licence to sell medicine comes from DGDA.
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.
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.
Agriculture & farmingGrowing basok, kalomegh, tulsi and arjun. The buyers are medicine companies, so the price is set by contract or tender: a bigha of kalomegh costs Tk 15,000, yields 20-22 maunds and sells at Tk 2,400 a maund.
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.
