SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS OWNERS

Successful Business Owners (SBO): Turning Immigrant Dreams Into American Realities

Every day in communities across America, immigrants and minorities arrive with education, talent, drive, and determination — but without the roadmap, resources, or networks to transform their potential into prosperity. They have the idea. They have the work ethic. What they too often lack is access.
Successful Business Owners (SBO) was founded to close that gap.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Snellville, Georgia, serving immigrant entrepreneurs, minority business owners, and underrepresented community members across the Atlanta metropolitan area and beyond. Through free business education, a U.S. Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship program, and hands-on mentorship, we transform aspiration into achievement — and potential into prosperity.

Our Founder: A Blueprint Born From Personal Experience
SBO was founded by Dr. Joy Tekobo, a Nigerian-born pharmacist, entrepreneur, and community leader who arrived in the United States in 2003 and rebuilt her professional career from the ground up. She navigated professional equivalency examinations, cultural adjustment, systemic barriers, and the profound isolation that so many immigrants experience when trying to establish themselves in a new country.
Rather than leave those experiences behind, Dr. Tekobo turned them into a mission. She built the roadmap she wished she had — and then she gave it away for free.
Today, Dr. Tekobo is the founder of Covenant Health Pharmacy in Snellville, Georgia, a community pharmacy that lives up to its promise to "Restore Your Quality of Life." She is a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alumni, an SBA THRYVE program graduate, and a passionate advocate for the economic empowerment of immigrant and minority communities. Her story is not background — it is the curriculum.

The Problem We Are Solving
Immigrant and minority entrepreneurs in America face a distinct and compounding set of barriers that their counterparts rarely encounter:
Regulatory Complexity: U.S. business regulations — licensing, compliance, taxation, employment law — are complicated for anyone. For immigrants navigating them in a second language, without professional networks or legal resources, they can be paralyzing.
Lack of Access to Networks: Business success in America is often built on who you know. Immigrant and minority entrepreneurs are frequently excluded from the informal professional networks where opportunities, introductions, and investments are exchanged.
Limited Access to Capital: Traditional lending institutions have historically underserved minority and immigrant business owners. Without credit history, collateral, or connections to alternative funding sources, many promising entrepreneurs never get off the ground.
Cost of Business Education: Quality entrepreneurship training is expensive. MBA programs, business coaching, and professional courses put the knowledge that builds successful businesses behind financial walls that many in our community cannot climb.
SBO was built to dismantle every one of these barriers — systematically, practically, and for free.

What We Do: Three Pillars of Transformation
PILLAR ONE: Covenant Business Academy — Free Entrepreneurship Education for Everyone
Covenant Business Academy (CBA) is a seven-module entrepreneurship course — originally a premium paid program on the Thinkific platform, now free and publicly accessible on YouTube.
The decision to move the course to YouTube was intentional and mission-driven. Dr. Tekobo recognized that the entrepreneurs who needed this education most were precisely the ones least able to pay for it. Placing the full curriculum on YouTube at no cost removed every financial barrier between an aspiring entrepreneur and the knowledge they need to succeed.
The seven-module curriculum covers the complete entrepreneurial journey:
✅ Business idea development and validation
✅ Entrepreneurial mindset and leadership development
✅ Business planning and legal structure
✅ Marketing, branding, and customer acquisition
✅ Sales strategies and networking
✅ Financial literacy and access to capital
✅ Growth strategies and scaling a successful enterprise
This actionable curriculum is available to anyone with a smartphone and a dream. The introductory video, "From Nigeria to Atlanta Pharmacy Owner," sets the tone. This is not a generic business course. It is built specifically for people who have been told the door is closed.
Covenant Business Academy is housed on the YouTube channel @covenanthealthpharmacy1440.

PILLAR TWO: Pharmacy Technician Registered Apprenticeship Program
For community members seeking a direct pathway into a stable, growing healthcare career, SBO operates a fully registered Pharmacy Technician Apprenticeship Program — approved by the U.S. Department of Labor.
This program is designed specifically for underserved populations, including immigrants, minorities, and individuals whose highest academic credential is a GED or high school diploma. It is one of the few programs of its kind that takes participants all the way from entry level to preparation for the PTCB (Pharmacy Technician Certification Board) national certification examination.
The apprenticeship model is an earn-while-you-learn structure — meaning participants gain real, hands-on pharmacy experience alongside structured classroom instruction. They build competency, earn income, and emerge from the program as work-ready, credentialed pharmacy technicians — without the burden of college debt.
Certified pharmacy technicians are in consistent demand across hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, long-term care facilities, mail-order operations, and specialty pharmacy settings. Certification meaningfully increases earning potential and opens doors to advancement within the healthcare sector.
For an immigrant who arrived with credentials unrecognized in the U.S., or a minority community member who assumed a healthcare career required a four-year degree, this apprenticeship program is a life-changing revelation: the door is open, and the path is clear.

PILLAR THREE: Mentorship, Networking, and Wraparound Support
Education alone is not enough. SBO surrounds its participants with the human infrastructure of success — mentorship from entrepreneurs who have walked the road, connections to professional networks and funding resources, and practical guidance on the real-world challenges of building a business in America.
We help participants navigate:

Business registration and legal compliance
Access to SBA loans, microloans, and alternative funding
Building business credit
Developing professional networks and strategic partnerships
Preparing for and accessing government contracting opportunities
Understanding and leveraging community resources

We do not offer theory detached from reality. Every mentor, every resource, and every lesson is grounded in lived experience and practical application.

Covenant Health Pharmacy: Community Healthcare as a Mission
SBO's work is deeply connected to Covenant Health Pharmacy, Dr. Tekobo's independent community pharmacy in Snellville, Georgia. Covenant Health Pharmacy is not just a business — it is a demonstration of what SBO's mission produces.
The pharmacy operates with a singular commitment: to restore quality of life through personalized, relationship-centered pharmaceutical care, taking time to ask questions, provide counsel, and treat every patient as a whole person rather than a transaction.

Covenant Health Pharmacy also participates as an Aids Drug Assistance (ADAP) 340B contract pharmacy for the Georgia Department of Health — a direct expression of the pharmacy's commitment to health equity and community service.
The pharmacy serves as both a model and a training ground — demonstrating to apprenticeship participants and aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs what community-centered, mission-driven practice looks like in action.

Why Your Support Matters
When you support Successful Business Owners, you are not writing a check to an abstract cause. You are:
Putting a free business education into the hands of an immigrant entrepreneur who cannot afford tuition but has everything it takes to succeed. Our Covenant Business Academy on YouTube has already reached subscribers across the United States — and is growing every day.
Funding a pathway that takes a GED holder into a credentialed, stable healthcare career — without debt and with full federal recognition. We currently have aspiring pharmacy technicians actively pursuing apprenticeship enrollment, with more inquiring every month.
Directly mentoring minority and immigrant-owned businesses — walking alongside entrepreneurs not just with knowledge, but with relationships, accountability, and real-world guidance through every stage of their journey.
Serving the men and women who served this country. Through partnerships with Fortune 500 corporate partners, SBO extends its mentorship programs to veterans transitioning into entrepreneurship. We provide the business framework and network to channel their strengths into a successful enterprise.
Reaching hundreds of community members annually through events that bring business education, healthcare awareness, and economic empowerment directly into underserved immigrant and minority communities — meeting people where they are, in the language they speak, with the respect they deserve.
This is not charity. This is an investment in the engine that has always driven this nation forward.

Since our founding, we have mentored 17 businesses. We are supporting 2 apprenticeship candidates on their pathway to PTCB certification, reached hundreds of community members through our annual events, and extended our mentorship to veterans transitioning into business ownership through Fortune 500 corporate partnerships. These numbers are growing. With your support, they will grow faster.