Financing Small Business-Owners in Back-Strap Handloom Sector: A Study on Rangamati District of Bangladesh Jasmine Jaim* Introducion The handloom sector rolls its carpet back to the ancient era. There were some excavations that demonstrate the glorious history of the handloom industry of Indian subcontinent (Kumar et al., 2011). Even at present, the * Assistant Professor, Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. E-mail: jaim.jas@gmail.com Article can be accessed online at http://www.publishingindia.com Abstract Back-strap handloom represents a very early stage of cloth production and is still recognised as a symbol of the glorious past of the entire human race. The handloom products of Bangladesh have already gained popularity in the international market. Moreover, the back-strap handloom products of Rangamati now have high demand to the tourists. Therefore, these back-strap handloom products are not only important as the cultural artifacts but also as proitable sources for small entrepreneurs. However, the weavers require suficient initial capital to start the business as well as working capital to carry on the business. But the entrepreneurs confront different problems regarding acquiring loans from formal as well as informal sources. These problems include insuficient amount of loan sanction, excessive documentation, requirement of references, inability to provide collateral, unfavourable loan policy and so on. Therefore, necessary measures are required to overcome all these problems so that this glorious sector can be lourished with its promised potentiality as well as cultural signiicance. Keyword: Finance, Small Business, Handloom Sector, Indigenous Group tradition of weaving cloth by hand constitutes one of the richest attributes of Bangladeshi culture and heritage. In the Chittagong Hill tracts of Bangladesh, traditional hand weaving is a functional need as well as a professional practice among indigenous women who are “guardians of culture” at home and in the community. By preserving their clothing tradition, they show pride of their unique culture and afirm their lasting connections to their ancestors. Traditional textiles of various groups reveal a wealth of information regarding social relations and aesthetic conventions in the hill region. Since they are associated with various local rituals and are indicators of cultural changes throughout time, they are much more than objects to be handled and admired (Roy, 2005). Along with the cultural and historical importance, handloom is now the source of livelihood to several millions of artisans and their families all over the world. In Bangladesh, handloom sector consists of more than 0.183 million handloom units with 0.505 million handlooms. Manpower of about one million weavers, dyers, hand spinners, embroiders and allied artisans have been using their creative skills into more than 0.30 million active looms to produce around 687 million meters of fabrics annually. There are about 1 million handloom weavers of which about half are female workers (Bangladesh Handloom Board; Ministry of Textiles and Jute). Therefore, the underprivileged women workers are also getting opportunity for earning. More speciically, the handloom products of Rangamati are gradually gaining popularity both at domestic and international markets. There are more than nine handloom textile factories in the district (Financial Express, 2009).