Success by Chocolate

PROVO, Utah – Jun 11, 2018 – Taste-testing chocolate is just part of the job description for Sterling Jones. A BYU Marriott entrepreneurship alum, Jones co-founded JoJo’s Chocolate, a healthy treat company. And his partner? His own mother.

Jodie Jones, who goes by JoJo, had no plans to start a business. She was just trying to create a healthier treat to curb her own cravings. But when her son tried her recipe—dark chocolate, almonds, pistachios, dried cranberries, and added protein—he knew immediately that there was a market for JoJo’s Chocolate.

Sterling was the entrepreneurial mind the business needed to get up and running, but the company hit roadblocks after releasing its first chocolate bar in 2012. At one point he even road-tripped to San Francisco to try and sell the chocolate to yoga studios, sleeping in his car at night.

However, since that humble beginning, people have literally been eating JoJo’s chocolate up. Jones and his mom have outgrown their home kitchen and moved to a large factory as they’ve expanded their sales online through their own website and Amazon, in addition to four hundred retail locations. They’ve also added the peanut butter delight–dark chocolate with peanuts, peanut butter powder, and protein–to their menu.

Now Jones couldn’t see his life any other way, but he didn’t always know that entrepreneurship was the path for him. While he served a mission to Singapore and Malaysia, his mom randomly signed him up for an intro to entrepreneurship class to take during his first semester back at school.

“I’m lucky that she did because it changed my entire life,” Jones says. “It was the class that started it all.”

Even after that class, Jones didn’t start his entrepreneurship path right away. He got accepted into and started BYU Marriott’s finance program before switching to the entrepreneurship program the next semester.

Jones believes he wouldn’t have been so successful without attending BYU Marriott. The connections he made and the things he learned have driven the company since it started while Jones was a student, and the same principles and people have helped him succeed since he graduated in 2015.

“The entrepreneurship program taught me the skills I needed to start a company and go about things in a smart and resourceful way,” Jones says. “I was prepared to start lean and scale quickly without going into debt.”

He is currently working on using the skills he’s learned to continue to expand the company in larger retail locations across the nation.

“I’m a big believer that you’re not born an entrepreneur, but you can learn the skills, abilities, and traits that it takes to be an entrepreneurial-minded person,” Jones says. “It’s all about problem solving.”