A 60,000-taka loan took the parlour past 40,000 a month

This woman entrepreneur built up a beauty parlour at Ganganagar bazaar in Shariatpur Sadar from her own savings. She later took a 60,000-taka loan through the SDS RAISE programme to expand it. The parlour now has five regular staff and takes in more than 40,000 taka a month, and she trains unemployed local women two at a time. The household does not live on the parlour alone, though: her husband's four mango orchards bring in about 40 lakh taka a year, and the family has bought 40 decimals of farmland. It shows what a small loan can do — taking a home-scale parlour to a five-person shop.