Chase_Alvarez
Chase Alvarez
My Business Training
Jabir Muhammad Sabo
About Jabir
Jabir Muhammad Sabo is a dedicated tailor from the Wunti community in Bauchi State, Nigeria. For over thirteen years, he has crafted custom clothing that blends cultural pride with modern style.
Known for his agbadas, embroidered kaftans, and contemporary designs, Jabir has earned a loyal clientele through his attention to detail and warm, personal service. Inspired by his mother, his journey began in childhood and evolved into a lifelong passion.
Now, he plans to launch Jabir Tailoring Services, offering quality garments and mentoring young tailors. His goal is to uplift his community through fashion, skill-building, and heartfelt service.
Jabir Muhammad Sabo
Business Goals
At the heart of Jabir Tailoring Services are the values of honesty, modesty, and dedication. Jabir treats every customer with respect and provides clothing that reflects quality and cultural pride.
His vision is to build a respected brand offering custom garments and tailoring supplies. He plans to open a full-service shop on Ahmadu Bello Way, a busy area in Bauchi with strong visibility.
Jabir imagines a clean, organized space with areas for cutting, sewing, design, and display. He wants to serve families and individuals seeking dependable tailoring services during festive seasons like Eid and Christmas.
Jabir Muhammad Sabo
Obstacles
Jabir has mastered tailoring over thirteen years, learning through his mother and an apprenticeship. He creates traditional garments like Atampa, gowns, and customized fashion.
Despite his skill and loyal clients, financial barriers prevent him from opening his own shop. Renting a space and buying tools like an industrial sewing machine, power generator, steaming machine, and mannequins are beyond his current income.
Family responsibilities also consume most of his profits, making saving difficult. Operating from a friend’s limited space restricts his growth. Still, Jabir works hard, determined to overcome these obstacles and realize his dream.
Jabir Muhammad Sabo
Our Partnership
Jabir is seeking Leadership Initiatives’ support through mentorship, funding, and business education. He requires financial help to rent a shop and buy essential tools like an industrial sewing machine, generator, steaming machine, working table, steam iron, mannequins, and shelves.
Additionally, Jabir hopes for guidance on money management, record keeping, and growing a business. With the right support, Jabir aims to build a tailoring business that transforms his life and benefits his community.
His long-term goals include earning a business degree, starting a family, building a home, and creating jobs for local youth.
My Grant Proposal Presentation
As part of the International Leadership and Business Internship, I collaborated with top development experts to help grow and strengthen my business partner’s infrastructure.
At the end of the program, my team presented our final proposal to a panel of judges from the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee. This formal pitch allowed us to apply our entrepreneurial skills, showcase our strategic plan, and advocate for meaningful change in our partner’s business.
Our team was awarded a grant that will fund the implementation of our business partner’s plan, providing life-changing support that will expand operations, improve financial stability, and create new growth opportunities. Over the next year, this grant will help transform the future of their business and improve the quality of life for both the entrepreneur and their community.
My Grant Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Jabir Mohammad Sabo to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Jabir has leveraged their skills and years of experience to create their business, they face obstacles hindering the expansion of their work.
Guided by their vision, we crafted a proposal detailing the infrastructure materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Jabir to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Jabir to allocate funds toward essential materials and equipment, supporting the optimization of their services. Effective financial tracking will be crucial for managing growing profits and preserving assets, ensuring the business’s long-term growth and stability.
Internship Highlights
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Jabir Mohammad Sabo, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Jabir’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Jabir gave us the insight we needed to begin brainstorming practical, personalized solutions. Each morning, our team held focused discussions to refine our ideas, reflect on expert advice from the day before, and adjust our timeline to move our plans forward efficiently.
Throughout the process, on-staff project coordinators and business development experts guided us, helping us ask the right questions and turn our ideas into meaningful, actionable strategies.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the Swiss Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Switzerland and the United States.
The embassy functions as a center for international collaboration, working with partner countries and global organizations to address pressing issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change. Through this visit, I learned how diplomats engage in meaningful dialogue and policy development to create sustainable, people-focused solutions.
Officials from the Swiss Embassy shared how they partner with local communities to identify needs and implement programs that empower individuals and strengthen long-term development. This commitment to community-driven impact inspired my team and me as we worked to develop our own business proposal focused on creating lasting change.
During my visit to the Embassy of Guyana, I explored how diplomacy shapes international cooperation and development. The experience provided a deeper understanding of the embassy’s role in promoting peace, fostering economic partnerships, and addressing shared global challenges.
Embassy representatives discussed how their work supports cross-cultural exchange, advances policy priorities, and strengthens relationships between Guyana and the United States. I learned how embassies serve as bridges, connecting governments, communities, and organizations to create innovative solutions for global issues.
This visit broadened my perspective on international leadership and inspired me to think critically about how collaboration, cultural awareness, and strategic planning can drive meaningful progress, principles we applied while developing our business proposal.
Throughout the internship, our team had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with top experts in business and economic development from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
One of the highlights was a session with Carla Brooks, Business and Development Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She gave us a crash course in marketing and advertising, breaking down the key elements of what makes a campaign actually work. Her insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Ms. Brooks and other global leaders, we sharpened our ideas, refined our strategy, and built a powerful pitch deck to present at the end of the week. Their guidance helped us take our business proposal to the next level creating a plan designed not only to launch a venture, but to transform our business partner’s future.