Norah Muendo, the proprietor of Nila Baby Shop, has announced the opening of a new baby shop in Meru County.
The new branch is the fifth shop she is opening since getting into the business in 2018.
Nila Baby Shop which is named after Norah’s firstborn daughter, Nila, has other branches in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret.
In a video shared on the company’s TikTok page, Norah officially unveiled the new shop in Meru ahead of its grand opening on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
@nila.baby.shop Nila Baby Shop Meru Branch Take a look! What’s app no ➡️ 0791 026 070 #MeruThe5th #pregnancy #nilababyshopmeru #nilababyshop ♬ original sound – Nila baby shop
Starting off
In an interview, Norah said was inspired to get into business in 2018 after having a difficult time finding baby clothes when she was pregnant.
With the support of her husband, Norah got her initial stock from Gikomba market but she ended up using most of it on her daughter.
“I didn’t make much out of the initial Ksh 14,000 stock, I kinda gave up but my husband he gave me another money that could help get another stock,” she said.
This time, she was given Ksh 200,000 for the stock but before getting them, she first looked for a shop to rent.
“That’s when I made a mistake, I looked for a shop and it had a Ksh 95,000 goodwill. I also had to design the shop and by the time I was done, I had Ksh 20,000 left,” Norah said.
She explained that she used the balance to get some stock and after talking to her husband, she was introduced to social media marketing.
By the end of 2018, the business was good and she was in a position to stock the shop and do deliveries to customers.
Fall and rise
However, Norah was put on complete bed rest from March to August, forcing her to shut down her business completely.
“In August, I was given a clean bill of health and I resumed business. By the time I’m resuming business, I had rent arrears for five months,” she stated.
She was lucky to get good business when she resumed and she was able to find her footing once again.
All was well until she got a letter from her landlord requesting her to vacate the shop, forcing her to close down once again.
“When I closed down the shop, I told my employee that we were going to do it from home. She would come, get the clothes and make the deliveries
“We were doing so good online and we couldn’t manage to disappoint our clients,” Norah explained.
Norah worked remotely for a while before bouncing back to the scene again and opened another physical shop.
The shop did well and years down the line, she expanded and she currently runs shops in five locations.
