Meet Kenyan Businessman Who Quit KSh 320k Monthly Salary Job to Start Nuria Book Store

 

Bulle is the founder and chief executive officer of Nuria Book Store, an online shop. Why Abdullahi Bulle started the Nuria Book Store Bulle studied accounting at Nazarene University. After completing his studies, he applied for internships in several companies. He landed an opportunity at the defunct Chase Bank, where he earned KSh 10,000 monthly as a salesperson in the Department of Islamic Finance. After graduating, the lender employed Bulle, and he steadily climbed up the ladder to become the credit manager. As the credit manager, Bulle earned a whopping KSh 320,000 monthly salary. During his free time at the workplace, he loved reading books and got the attention of his colleagues, who would often borrow some to read. One colleague suggested that he should start selling books, which is how the idea of selling them came to be. How Abdullahi Bulle started Nuria Book Store According to its website, Bulle established Nuria Book Store in 2015. He started by creating a Facebook page to sell ebooks. Bulle named it Nuria after his mother.  The shop sells a wide variety of books, including the categories of motivation, fiction, and business management. "Nuria Online Bookstore is a one-stop shop for books of a wide range of categories such as self-help & motivational, religion & spiritual, fiction & non-fiction, business & management, African literature as well as kids & teens," it states. The company, which works with more than 700 local authors who have published 15,000 titles, has sold books to over 2,000 customers. Following the demand for international books, he invested $1200 (KSh 125,000 at the time) to import books and stored them in his house for sale. Why Abdullahi Bulle hired an assistant Even though the business was slow initially, the workload increased, and he had to hire an assistant to help him. "Marketing consumed plenty of resources, sometimes we did 15-20 social media posts and made only one or two sales,” he recalled, as quoted by Who Owns Kenya. The accountant was forced to foot some expenses from his pocket to ensure the business remained afloat. Aggressive marketing enabled him to expand his customer base. Besides Facebook, he marketed books on X (formerly Twitter). Why Abdullahi Bulle resigned from Chase Bank Three years after launching Nuria Book Store, the business peaked but did not realise its full potential. Unfortunately, he lost the employee he had trained to another firm and faced a dilemma. He resigned from his managerial bank position as Chase Bank merged with JPM. His proceeds from the lender amounted to KSh 1.7 million. He invested part of the money in Nuria Book Store by purchasing stock and renting a shop in Nairobi's central business district at the Bazaar building. "I really wanted the business to work. I had spotted a niche that had not been filled by local book publishers. I also wanted to help self-published authors. They needed a platform where they could display their books," he explained his resignation. Bulle ran out of money a year later and was forced to sell his Toyota Mark X car to keep the business running. The businessman defaulted on loans, and it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that he made good sales as the demand for online books soared. Why Bulle was forced to sell goats Earlier, TUKO.co.ke reported that Bulle added goats and beehives to the catalogue alongside books. This resulted from a struggling economy that shrunk the number of clients, which calls for him to diversify to remain afloat. In a humorous yet insightful post on Twitter, the entrepreneur explained that business has taught him things that no school can.