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AyRojgar

Data entry service

Typing and list work from home. Easy to enter, very low starting pay - one named freelancer's first month was USD 13, and reaching a lakh a month took four years.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Starting capital
৳15,000 – ৳90,000
Market quote
Manpower
1 – 4 people
First sale
90 – 180 days
Practitioner verified
Break-even
12 – 48 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Home based · Medium difficulty

What the business is

Typing data, building lists, moving PDFs into spreadsheets and collecting names and addresses from websites for clients at home or abroad. It is the easiest door into freelancing, which is exactly why it is the most crowded and the worst paid. The opening months look nothing like the training-centre advertisement. Tania Khalil of Khagrachhari got her first job in December 2021 - a logo design - and earned USD 13 that month, less than two thousand taka. It took her about four years to reach a lakh a month. Shafiqul Islam of Jashore bought a laptop in 2016 with money his father raised by breaking his DPS savings, then had three straight years with nothing to show. The first year is not an earning year; it is a year of learning and hanging on. The good news is fiscal: in the 2026-27 budget all freelance income was made fully exempt from income tax and the 15 percent VAT on these services was waived, so money brought home through a bank is now untaxed. Those who survive rarely stay in data entry - they move into design, SEO or writing, and that is where the income actually rises.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳900 – ৳3,000Official source
Selling price৳1,600 – ৳1,00,000 / unitPractitioner verified
Variable cost৳1,200 – ৳23,000 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin25% – 77%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue90 – 180 daysPractitioner verified
Break-even time12 – 48 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle7 – 45 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss5% – 15%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity4 – 10Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A broadband connection: the lowest package under BTRC's One Country One Rate policy is Tk 500 a month for 5 Mbps.Equipment
  • A computer: on Daraz desktop PCs are Tk 9,471-18,500 and new laptops Tk 29,500-65,900 (September 2026), plus a desk and chair and some way to keep working through a power cut.Equipment
  • 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. Many working alone at home skip it, but it is needed to open a business bank account or to contract as a firm.Licence
  • TIN from the National Board of Revenue. The 2026-27 budget exempted all freelance income from income tax and fully waived the 15 percent VAT on these services, but a TIN is still needed to file a return.Licence
  • Typing speed, Excel or Google Sheets, and working from written instructions in English. The Department of Youth Development's six-month Computer Basic and ICT Application course costs Tk 1,000 and requires an HSC pass.Skill
  • Knowing how to bring the money home - bank account, remittance and the marketplace's payment method. The budget's tax exemption only applies to money brought through the banking channel.Skill
  • A source of work: a marketplace such as Upwork or Fiverr, or a larger local freelance team that subcontracts.Supplier

How the work runs

  1. 1Get a computer that can do the job. On Daraz desktop PCs run Tk 9,500-18,500 and new laptops start around Tk 29,500. A second-hand desktop is enough to start.
  2. 2Take a broadband line. The lowest BTRC package is Tk 500 a month. Mobile data does not work for this - the files are large and deadlines are fixed.
  3. 3Learn three things first: Excel or Google Sheets, typing speed, and following instructions in English. The Department of Youth Development's six-month computer course costs Tk 1,000 and the Bangladesh Computer Council's 90-hour office application course Tk 2,000-2,500.
  4. 4Open a marketplace profile, but do not bid on everything. Upwork suspends profiles whose proposal-to-response ratio is wrong; one Bangladeshi writer took three months to get his back.
  5. 5Take the first job however small and however badly paid, and deliver it on time. The first rating is what brings the second job.
  6. 6Sort out how the money comes home before you need it - a bank account and a remittance route. The 2026-27 budget waived both income tax and VAT on freelance income, but you only get that by bringing the money through the banking channel.
  7. 7Hold on to a client once you have one. Hunting for new clients is the real cost; repeat work arrives without bidding.
  8. 8Do not stay in data entry. After six months move to a skill that pays - design, SEO or writing. Everyone earning a lakh a month got there that way.
  9. 9When the work grows, build a team of two or three and do the quality control yourself. One writer in Sunamganj runs a four-person team and makes Tk 2,00,000 a month.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it fits

  • Strong fitChattogram · Good connectivity and many IT firms; two of the Youth Development computer course centres are here.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Internet, training centres and the larger teams that subcontract work are all here.
  • Strong fitJashore · A software technology park has made the district unusually dense with freelancers; Shafiqul Islam's story comes from here.
  • PossibleBagerhat · Muhaiminul Islam of Morrelganj reached Upwork's top rating from here, so a village is no barrier.
  • PossibleBogura · The education centre of the north, with decent broadband and low rents.
  • PossibleCumilla · Close to Dhaka, with plenty of educated young people and lower costs.
  • PossibleKhagrachhari · About 500 women have trained at Tania Khalil's and her husband's centre - proof that a remote district can do this.
  • PossibleRajshahi · The Bangladesh Computer Council's regional office runs cheap courses here and there are plenty of university students.
  • PossibleSylhet · Expatriate connections make foreign clients easier to find, and there are more English speakers.
  • Weak fitRangpur · Connectivity and training are both thinner, but there is a Youth Development centre and costs are the lowest.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: The opening income is nowhere near what training centres promise. One named freelancer's first month was USD 13 and it took four years to reach a lakh a month; another had three empty years from 2016 to 2018. The person who quits a job assuming a living income within six months is the one who gets hurt.
  • HighDependency: The whole income rests on an account with a foreign platform. Break a rule - bidding too much and wrecking your response ratio, for instance - and the account is suspended. One Bangladeshi freelancer took three months to get his profile back, with no income at all in between.
  • HighDemand: It is the most crowded work precisely because it needs no qualification, so prices are pushed down and hundreds bid for one job. On top of that, plain typing and copying is increasingly done by software, so this step is not somewhere to stay.
  • MediumLate payment: Money arrives well after the work is done - the platform's holding period, then the bank transfer. Take work directly outside a marketplace and there is no way to recover payment if the client simply does not pay.
  • MediumOther: No power or no internet means no work, and an overseas deadline does not move for it. One writer working from a village struggled just to upload articles until he got a high-speed line.

Sources

What changed

No corrections have been published yet.

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