Success and failure stories

Started on 5 bigha with Tk 4 lakh and made Tk 7 lakh profit in year one; at 31 bigha this year rain hurt the yield

A young man in Satkhira began jujube farming on 5 leased bigha in 2012 and grew step by step to 31 bigha. This year excessive rain and waterlogging cut the yield, and he is unsure about profit.

Capital

৳4 lakh

Started in 2012

Kamalpur's 25 batik factories make 500+ items a day, but sun, winter slumps and thin capital hold the trade back

About 25 batik factories in Kamalpur, Cumilla work under a few factory owners. One owner says work stops without sun, winter demand drops and paying staff then becomes hard.

A Mongla arot owner bought two rare dantina bhol fish for Tk 18.5 lakh at a Dublar Char auction

A Mongla arot owner bought two rare bhol fish, weighing 63.5 kg together, at an auction at Dublar Char in the Sundarbans. They were sent to Chattogram in hope of a higher price, but the report gives no final sale result.

Roadside tea stall on a Tk 60,000 loan; sales fall in winter but the weekly installment is Tk 3,200

A woman in Islampur, Jamalpur, left her garment factory job after falling ill and opened a tea and paan stall in front of her house on a loan. Sales are low in the village and fell further in winter, while the installments keep coming.

Capital

৳60k

Ran for

24 months

60,000 to 70,000 old books and papers; one newspaper sold for Tk 60,000, yet money is tight

A collector in Kishoreganj, alongside a paper-trading business, gathers rare books and runs a second-hand bookshop called Old Collection. Items sell through a Facebook page, but he faces money trouble and problems of dust and preservation.

Started in 2015

Capsicum on 40 decimals for Tk 70,000, Tk 1.3 lakh sold; but no local market

A young farmer on the Jamuna char in Islampur, Jamalpur, learned capsicum from YouTube and has sold Tk 1.3 lakh of it. With no local buyers, he must carry it to Karwan Bazar in Dhaka.

Capital

৳70k

A 50-year-old rasgulla shop: Tk 10 sweets, daily milk down from 350 kg to 150–200 kg

A 50-year-old sweet shop in Rajapur, Jhalokathi, keeps its name by making chhana from local milk and selling rasgulla at Tk 10–20. But with fewer customers and weaker buying power its daily milk use has nearly halved, and the owners worry about profit.

Ran for

600 months

Pens made for Tk 6 and notebooks for Tk 15, sold at Tk 10 and Tk 20; Tk 3,000–4,000 a month

A visually impaired young man in Gaibandha began making notebooks in 2023 and then paper pens to pay for his studies. Monthly sales from a small bazaar shop are Tk 9,000–10,000, but income after costs is only Tk 3,000–4,000.

Started in 2023

Two bulls of 22 and 18 maund, raised for 3 years, still unsold before Eid; below Tk 15 lakh means a loss

A farmer in Bhola raised two huge bulls on local feed for about three years, but just before Eid he had not found a buyer at his price. Big-bull buyers are few in Bhola's markets, and feed prices have gone up.

Ran for

36 months

A cycle shop of 40–50 household items, Tk 500–700 in daily sales; three daughters married in 18 years

A peddler in the coastal villages of Khulna has run a cycle-mounted shop of bowls, pitchers, toys and cosmetics for 18 years. The daily sales have kept the family going and married off three daughters, but the monsoon mud makes the work hard.

Ran for

216 months

Freshwater bagda shrimp: a Tk 5 lakh loss in 2022 when the aerator failed, then 80 maund from one acre

When a river dried up and brought no more saline water, a farmer in Dumuria, Khulna, began growing bagda shrimp in a freshwater pond in 2019. After a Tk 5 lakh loss in 2022, he harvested about 80 maund from one acre in 2023, with a profit of nearly double his costs.

Started in 2019