CCTV installation and maintenance
Installing and maintaining camera systems. Cameras are Tk 799-6,438 and recorders Tk 4,400-41,990, so cheap hardware has squeezed installation margins; the money is in annual maintenance contracts.
- Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
- Version 1
- Starting capital
- ৳80,000 – ৳6,00,000 Editorial estimate
- Manpower
- 2 – 8 people
- First sale
- 7 – 30 days Editorial estimate
- Break-even
- 4 – 8 months Editorial estimate
- Kind of work
- Mobile service · Medium difficulty
What the business is
Fitting cameras in shops, offices, factories, schools and homes: running cable, mounting the recorder and hard disk, and setting up the phone app. Hardware is no longer the barrier. On 16 September 2026 Wi-Fi cameras started at Tk 799, a Hikvision 6MP ColorVu bullet camera was Tk 6,438, a four-channel NVR ran Tk 4,400-4,900 and a 32-channel one Tk 18,999-41,990. Cheap hardware has squeezed the installation margin too: ten men in the same neighbourhood quote the same job and the lowest price wins it. The real money is not in the day of installation. Six months on, dust settles on the lens, rats chew the cable, a power surge kills the supply unit, and above all the hard disk dies quietly. On the day of a theft the owner opens the recorder and finds nothing from the last three months. The installer who can sign a contract to come every month or every quarter and check all of it has income in all twelve months, and new jobs come to him through those same clients. Installation is once; maintenance is for as long as the cameras hang there. That is the whole arithmetic of surviving in this trade.
Unit economics
| Item | Range | Evidence | Suggest a correction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly working capital | ৳60,000 – ৳4,50,000 | Editorial estimate | |
| Selling price | ৳1,500 – ৳9,000 / unit | Editorial estimate | |
| Variable cost | ৳799 – ৳6,438 / unit | Market quote | |
| Gross margin | 28% – 47% | Editorial estimate | |
| Time to first revenue | 7 – 30 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Break-even time | 4 – 8 months | Editorial estimate | |
| Cash cycle | 0 – 60 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Waste / loss | 3% – 8% | Editorial estimate | |
| Daily capacity | 4 – 30 | Editorial estimate |
What you need to start
- Ladder, drill, crimping tool, network cable tester, a small test monitor, cable reels, and a motorcycle or van to get around.Equipment
- Cameras and recorders. September 2026 market: Wi-Fi cameras Tk 799-2,999, a Hikvision 6MP IP bullet Tk 6,438; 4-channel NVR Tk 4,400-4,900, 8-channel Tk 5,300-6,500, 16-channel Tk 8,500, 32-channel Tk 18,999-19,300, 64-channel Tk 84,994.Starting stock
- Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
- TIN and, where applicable, VAT registration from NBR. Offices, schools and factories will not release payment without a proper invoice.Licence
- Cabling and crimping, judging camera angle and light, configuring the recorder, understanding IP addressing and router ports, and setting up remote viewing on a phone.Skill
- An importer or wholesaler for cameras and recorders, with a clear understanding of who carries the warranty, plus separate suppliers for cable, connectors, power supplies and hard disks.Supplier
How the work runs
- 1Learn the work: running cable, setting camera angles, configuring the recorder, opening ports on the router and setting up the phone app. Not knowing one of these means getting stuck at the customer's premises.
- 2Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality and a TIN, plus VAT registration if needed, from NBR. Office and school work requires invoices and bills.
- 3Build relationships with importers and wholesalers, on Elephant Road or at IDB Bhaban in Dhaka or Nandankanan in Chattogram. Cheaper hardware is what wins the quote.
- 4Write down who honours the warranty on each brand and for how long. When a camera fails the customer comes to you, not to the importer.
- 5Assemble the kit: ladder, drill, crimping tool, network tester, a small test monitor and cable reels.
- 6Survey before quoting: how many cameras, how many feet of cable, how many channels on the recorder, how many terabytes of disk and how many days of recording must be kept. Quoting without this costs you your own money.
- 7At handover show the customer by hand how to view the feed and how to pull old footage. A customer who cannot work it calls you every week.
- 8Raise the maintenance contract on the day of handover: how many visits a year, what is checked, and what is not included. Raised later, customers do not agree.
- 9On every contract visit verify that the disk is actually recording, clean the lenses, inspect the cable and test the power supply. The disk dies silently, and that is the biggest trap.
- 10Set your own rules about customer footage and passwords: who may view it, how long it is kept, and whether passwords are changed at handover. One mistake here ends the business.
- 11Call down your old customer list at least once a year. The cheapest source of new work is the shop next door to an old customer.
Seasons
- JanNormal
- FebNormal
- MarNormal
- AprNormal
- MayNormal
- JunNormal
- JulNormal
- AugNormal
- SepNormal
- OctNormal
- NovNormal
- DecNormal
Where it fits
- Strong fitChattogram · The port, warehouses and trading houses need cameras heavily, and being the port city the hardware arrives here first.
- Strong fitDhaka · The greatest density of shops, offices and apartment buildings, with importers and wholesalers on Elephant Road and at IDB Bhaban, so hardware is close at hand.
- Strong fitGazipur · The garment factory belt, where buyer audits require camera coverage and factories are accustomed to signing maintenance contracts.
- Strong fitNarayanganj · Dense with factories, warehouses and wholesale markets, with Dhaka's supply close by.
- PossibleBogura · The northern trading centre, with demand from shops and warehouses and reach into surrounding districts.
- PossibleCox's Bazar · Hotels and resorts run many cameras, and security pressure rises in the tourist season.
- PossibleCumilla · Demand from highway shops, filling stations and warehouses, plus the EPZ and factories.
- PossibleKhulna · Offices, bank branches and clinics in a divisional city give steady demand, though hardware comes from Dhaka.
- PossibleRajshahi · Work is available from educational institutions and private hospitals.
- PossibleSylhet · Owners living abroad want remote viewing on their houses and shops, which is this district's distinct market.
Risks and cautions
- HighDemand: Cheap hardware has made installation fiercely competitive. A Tk 799 Wi-Fi camera is something the customer can now buy and mount himself, and ten men in the same neighbourhood quote the same job. Anyone who only takes installation work watches the margin shrink every year; anyone who can sign maintenance contracts has income in all twelve months.
- HighLate payment: Hardware is bought for cash but offices, schools and building committees pay after the bill clears. A twenty or thirty camera job means buying a lakh of hardware up front, and with that money stuck for months the next job cannot be taken. With building committees several people decide, so the money comes later still.
- MediumDependency: Cameras, recorders and disks are all imported. A move in the dollar or in duty changes prices inside a month and turns an already-given quotation into a loss. If the importer refuses a warranty claim, the failed camera is replaced out of the installer's own pocket.
- HighOther: The heaviest liability is the footage. At installation the technician knows both the recorder password and the remote viewing setup, so if a customer's private footage gets out, suspicion falls on him first, and once that is said in the neighbourhood the business does not recover. The only protection is changing the password at handover and putting it in the customer's hands.
- MediumOther: Hard disks fail silently. The camera light glows, the live feed shows, but nothing is being written, and it comes to light on the day of a theft when the owner goes looking for footage. The blame then lands on the installer, not the equipment. Without a contract for regular checks that day arrives eventually.
Sources
সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ
Collected: 16 Sept 2026Supports: Starting capital, Time to first revenue · বাংলাদেশ
What changed
No corrections have been published yet.
Questions and answers
No questions yet. Be the first to ask.
Similar businesses
Video editing service
Editing product videos and content for others. The customers already exist - 200,000 online merchants on Pathao and 300,000 on Steadfast; the main capital item is one editing computer.
- Capital
- ৳62k – ৳2.5 lakh
- People
- 1 – 6
- First income
- 90 – 365 days
Online grocery delivery
Taking grocery orders on an app or page and delivering to the door. Sugar leaves about 7 percent and bottled oil almost nothing - and the cost of delivery has to come out of that.
- Capital
- ৳1 lakh – ৳8 lakh
- People
- 2 – 10
- First income
- 7 – 30 days
Software and app reselling
Installing point-of-sale and accounting software in small shops. The competition is free apps - TallyKhata alone has about 4.7 million registered traders - so the income comes from hardware and service.
- Capital
- ৳60k – ৳2.5 lakh
- People
- 1 – 6
- First income
- 7 – 60 days
Freelancing agency
A small team taking foreign client work and routing the money home legally. Income tax and VAT are both waived and legal-channel earnings carry a 2.5 per cent cash incentive - but the first year pays close to nothing.
- Capital
- ৳60k – ৳4 lakh
- People
- 1 – 10
- First income
- 90 – 365 days