Every now and then, we speak to our business customers to understand how their business works, and what we can learn from them in our journey as entrepreneurs.

For this edition, we speak to Bella Books, an Instagram book store sitting at over ten thousand followers on Instagram. Bella runs us through her business and how she has grown it to where it is.

Hey Bella, Tell us about yourself and your business.

My name is Bella and I am a bookseller and a medical student. My business, Bella Books sources and stocks books for its target market which is mostly a combination of GenZ and millennials.

We focus on stocking books that will help our audience in different areas of their lives or interest. These include books relating to career, personal development, business, fiction and even African literature. We just make books accessible and affordable.

When did you start this business?

The business started six years ago, but I was just running the business on vibes. I didn’t think it was something I would do long-term. I wanted to help people buy the books they needed.

How did you grow to become one of the Top book stores on Instagram?

I started taking the business seriously, which means I took content marketing seriously. I also did some influencer marketing and social media ads too.

Some of these things are things everyone who has a business on Instagram has done, what exactly made it work for you?

We did not just post books on social media, our content was valuable.

We did not just post books on social media, our content was valuable. We connected with our customers by recommending books for different phases of their lives. For example, if someone wants to grow in their career or look after their mental health, we would recommend books to help that customer. This made customers connect with the brand and be vulnerable with me. We always recommend good books!

We also stock trending books, like ‘All the Men in Lagos are mad’ which get us a lot of first-time customers.

Awesome! In doing all of these what is the most difficult part of running Bella Books?

The first thing is the exchange rate, the cost of books is higher. If we sell a book now, the cost of restocking that book increases.
Money is also a problem. If the business has more capital, we will be able to stock a wider range of books to serve our audience.

Lastly, Logistics! The delivery duration and affordability is a problem for our customers that affects the business. Luckily, Topship has helped us cover this front.

With all of this knowledge, what will you change if you are to start this business again?

Honestly, nothing. I didn’t plan to start this business, I had no goals or plans for the business. I was still young and I was running based on vibes. Everything that has happened brought me to where I am now, but I would have taken Instagram and my business accounting seriously.

I love how you are satisfied with your journey, what is your advice for new entrepreneurs?

Consistency and discipline are key, It beats everything! No matter how small your capital is, you can grow beyond your expectations if you are consistent and disciplined, and you don’t end up eating your money. You have to show up with the mindset of doing better than you did before. Learn and upskill. Take lessons, and pay for classes. Leverage free resources like YouTube.

Profound! What do you do when you are not doing all of this?

I love Korean movies and I love reading Romcom novels. I also love to travel, but it’s an expensive hobby and it has to be planned for, but when I have the money, I will travel so much.

Thank you very much for talking to us