ABOUT

MISSION STATEMENT

Successful Business Owners (SBO) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the economic futures of immigrant and minority entrepreneurs through free business education, one-on-one mentorship, and workforce development. Through Covenant Business Academy — a free, seven-module entrepreneurship course on YouTube — and a U.S. Department of Labor-registered Pharmacy Technician Apprenticeship, SBO removes the barriers that have historically kept underserved communities from building sustainable enterprises. We also mentor veterans transitioning into business ownership. We exist because talent is equally distributed — but opportunity is not. We are here to close that gap.

DR  JOY'S BIOGRAPHY

Born in Nigeria, Dr. Joy Ayodele Tekobo arrived in the United States in 2003 with a pharmacy degree, a determination to succeed, and no roadmap for what came next. She navigated professional equivalency examinations, cultural adjustment, and the isolation so many immigrants face when building a new life in America. There was no mentor waiting. No free course. No one who understood both where she came from and where she was trying to go.

She found her way anyway — becoming a licensed pharmacist, founding Covenant Health Pharmacy, completing Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and the SBA THRYVE program. Then she built the roadmap she wished she had been given — and gave it away for free.

The immigrants and minority entrepreneurs SBO serves are not abstractions to Dr. Tekobo. They are who she was in 2003 — full of potential, short on pathways. She did not wait to be given a seat at the table. She built one. And then she built enough seats for everyone.