Success and failure stories

Twelve years on the tools, and 1.5 lakh taka of wages never paid

A mason who worked twelve years in Dhaka was never paid about 1.5 lakh taka of his wages; another lost 90,000 over ten years, and one contractor left 30 workers stranded together.

Started in 2007

From repair hand to garage owner, and 1,000 taka a month per rickshaw for a token

A battery rickshaw returns 300 taka a day in rent against 100 for a pedal one, which is why a repair hand opened his own garage - but each rickshaw needs a 1,000-taka monthly token to run at all.

Started in 2016

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

A 15-day rush, and 5 lakh taka of orders for a single press

A district convention held after 23 years kept more than 13 digital presses in Patuakhali running for 15 days; single presses took around 5 lakh taka of orders, and the district total came to roughly half a crore.

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 decade-old print works sold at a loss, 45 workers down to 17

A ten-year-old screen printing works in Mirpur that printed cloth for export garment factories was sold at a loss in November 2020 as orders fell away; the new owner has no work either and has kept 17 of the 45 staff.

A one-lakh first attempt failed; the second started in a drawing room and reached 3,000 square feet

The first attempt in 2009, on one lakh taka borrowed from an uncle, did not survive. She restarted in 2013 in a drawing room in Uttara with two employees and second-hand equipment; the centre has grown from 500 to 3,000 square feet with 23 staff.

Capital

৳1 lakh

Started in 2009

A month without a single guest and seven staff let go, once the ships stopped

Tourist ships on the Teknaf-Saint Martin's route stopped from 16 November, in the middle of the season. This hotel had no guest in a month and laid off seven staff; all 36 residential hotels and 40 cottages and bungalows on the island closed.

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.