Being a footwear engineer, I had an idea beforehand that I would start my own business, and hence the jobs I had before my business were all in the shoe industry; one in a development project, and another in a shoe company. I had these jobs so I could gain experience to start my business in full swing. And so, began the inception of Lace Footwear BD in late 2017.

I was inspired by my partner, who was like a younger brother to me, during the beginning of my business days. He currently lives in Germany. He was my main source of inspiration and he helped and motivated me to get started. Before this business and the jobs I had, I lived in Savar with my family. But moving to Bhairab was a well-thought plan. It was my partner who suggested I move to Bhairab and he said, “Start your business in the Bhairab region because here you can start small and leverage your key resources to grow your business faster.” This was the encouragement I needed to get going.  

In the beginning, everything was unknown. I grew up in Rajshahi and lived my adult life in Savar, hence Bhairab became an unknown territory for me during the initial stages of my business. Environmental resources, political issues, and many other factors were challenging. But at this moment, after over 4 years, I am happy to state that I provide my products wholesale to clients such as Bata and Apex. I am a manufacturer and supplier of shoes to the wholesale markets of Dhaka. Even the raw materials I use are Dhaka-based. Moreover, I export my products to Japan and am currently trying to capture this market in Poland as well. 

Collaborating with LightCastle partners was made possible through SwissContact and I will forever remain grateful for this. Even though my manufacturing company was shut down for about 5 months due to Covid and we incurred a huge amount of loss, everything now seems to be on track due to the relationship we built with LightCastle and this project, B-SkillFUL. My plans with my business are very simple. I want to be the person to create a good market in the shoe industry in my country while simultaneously generating employment for all those who are without a job.