Success and failure stories

Fourteen licences, and 10 lakh taka a year just to renew them

An e-waste business started in 2001, when dead phones and computers sold at 20-30 taka a kg, now needs 14 licences and about 10 lakh taka a year to renew them.

Started in 2001

Paper up 30 per cent in a week, and the presses stop

Paper-based inputs rose about 30 per cent in a week just before the book season: white print paper up 25,000 taka a tonne to 135,000-160,000, and newsprint from 64,000 to 85,000.

A sign-painting shop from 1983, as digital printing takes the brushwork away

A hand-painted signboard shop set up in Koyra, Khulna, in 1983 has lasted more than 36 years, but digital centres have all but ended the market for brush-painted signs and banners.

Started in 1983

Orders from 2 lakh pieces a month to 50,000, and staff moved onto contracts

The Dot Sign works held on to an Italian buyer through Covid, but its monthly order book fell from around 2 lakh pieces of cloth to 50,000 or less.

A month and a half of losses, and foreign bookings made a year ahead cancelled

Srimangal has about a hundred hotels and resorts. Tourism began falling as soon as the quota protests started; foreign guests who book six months to a year ahead cancelled, putting the November-to-February peak season at risk.

In the 1990s a watch was a gift of status; now only wall clocks come in

This repairer in Satkhira has fixed watches for decades and is known locally as the watch doctor. With mobile phones ending the wristwatch market, only a little wall-clock work now comes in, and a two-person household lives on it.

Fifty-seven years in the trade, 9am to 8pm, and 300-500 taka a day

He opened his own shop around 1975 and ran it about fifteen years, until the landlord demolished the building. He now works from a small table under an umbrella by the road, taking 300-500 taka a day.

Started in 1975

A self-built rig charging easybikes for 110,000 taka, and still no income figure

After two unpaid years learning at an electricity office, he assembled a charge controller, DC motor, dynamo and circuits of his own to charge easybikes. Getting it working cost 110,000 taka.

Capital

৳1.1 lakh

From 12-15 labs between Shyamoli and New Market to four or five, with crockery in the other room

Around 2000 there were 12 to 15 studio labs between Shyamoli and New Market; four or five are left. This 35-year-old business has shrunk into one room and sells crockery in the other.

Eight of the town's sixteen studios are shut; the rest live on passport photos

The days of families coming in groups at Eid, Puja, weddings and Boishakh are over. Eight studios in Chandpur town have closed and eight remain, with cameras bought for 80,000-90,000 taka lying unused.

Started in 1998

Three years without a single fee, a school kept open on loans, and the homestead next

The school ran profitably and with a good name before the pandemic. After the long closures no fees came in for three years; he has borrowed to keep it open and says clearing the debt may mean selling the homestead.

From 235 students down to about 150, with a fruit stall beside the school

The school had 235 students before COVID-19; after the long closure about 60 new pupils enrolled and roughly 150 remain on the books. To keep it open she runs a fruit stall alongside and sells clothing online from one classroom.