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What workedA nakshi kantha entrepreneur in Jashore, in a Business Standard Bangla report · Started in 2011

10,000 taka to start, 50 lakh a year in sales, and 5,000 people stitching

Started in 2011 with 10,000 taka; sales now run at 4-5 lakh taka a month, about 50 lakh a year, with more than 5,000 people stitching. The same report puts a stitcher of twenty years on 3,000 taka a month.

This woman entrepreneur in Jashore began making nakshi kantha in 2011 with 10,000 taka. Her two brands now sell 4-5 lakh taka of product a month on an annual turnover of about 50 lakh taka, and more than 5,000 people stitch for her: the production system is a network of home-based workers, not a factory. Jashore holds more than 10,000 such entrepreneurs, almost all women, producing at least 5 lakh pieces a year worth around 150 crore taka, with about 500 registered units employing 20,000-25,000 people. Pieces sell between 1,000 and 4,000 taka. The same report records a stitcher in Sharsha upazila who has sewn kantha for 20 years and earns 3,000 taka a month, so the brand owner and the needleworker in one trade take home very different money. Another entrepreneur who moved to online selling during lockdown lifted her monthly sales from 80,000-1,00,000 taka to 2-2.5 lakh.

Lessons

  1. 1.A hand-craft business scales on a network of home-based piece workers: the money goes into cloth and orders, not machinery
  2. 2.In the same trade the brand owner and the stitcher earn very different money: the margin sits with whoever owns the customer

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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