How to grow a pharmacy business from one location to four, from the pharmacist who built it. Dr. Bessem Oben opened Gold Star Pharmacy in College Station, Texas in 2013, six miles from the Walmart pharmacy she once managed.

In Episode 45 of Small Business Success Stories, SCORE Houston mentor Dr. Jeffrey Ricken talks with Dr. Oben, a board-certified geriatric pharmacist who co-founded Gold Star Pharmacy with her husband, AJ Oben. Gold Star serves senior patients across long-term care, hospice, and home healthcare settings. The SBA Houston District named the company's founders Minority Business Owner of the Year.

The business idea came from a personal experience. After a C-section in 2008, Dr. Oben was left alone with a newborn while her husband went to the pharmacy for her post-surgery prescriptions. That moment led to an independent pharmacy built around free home delivery, a service the large chains did not offer. CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart began referring their delivery requests to Gold Star.

Dr. Oben explains how the company set itself apart further with the Gold Star Pack, a color-coded, multi-dose packaging system that helps seniors on multiple prescriptions take the right medication at the right time. Rising demand led to an early investment in pharmacy automation. She also covers how the delivery model carried the business through COVID-19, how profit sharing and a family-first culture support employee retention, and how a partnership with the Texas A&M School of Pharmacy strengthens the hiring pipeline.

Her top advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to buy an existing business rather than start from scratch. All three of Gold Star's additional locations came through acquisitions, supported by SBA resources and SCORE mentoring.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to Small Business Success Stories
01:04 Meet Dr. Bessem Oben, Gold Star Pharmacy Co-Founder
06:30 The Pharmacy Business Idea: A New Parent's Problem
07:25 Free Home Delivery: Competing With CVS, Walgreens and Walmart
11:06 Medication Adherence Innovation: The Gold Star Pack
15:57 Scaling a Small Business From 1 to 4 Locations
17:05 How COVID-19 Affected an Independent Pharmacy
21:04 Employee Retention, Profit Sharing and Company Culture
24:32 Mentorship, Texas A&M School of Pharmacy and SCORE
26:48 Buy an Existing Business, Don't Start From Scratch
30:12 Closing and Free SCORE Houston Mentoring

Links
Gold Star Pharmacy: https://www.goldstarrx.com/

Free SCORE Houston mentoring: www.score.org/houston

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About the show: The SCORE Houston Podcast shares practical lessons from successful small business owners and volunteer SCORE mentors. SCORE Houston provides free, confidential business mentoring and workshops to Houston entrepreneurs, supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Call 713-487-6565.
Series: Small Business Success Stories | Episode 45

Let us know what you think of this episode. What subjects you would like us to cover in next episodes.

Give your comments at https://scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com or write to pv.bala@scorevolunteer.org. Let us know what you like of this episode and suggest subjects on which you wish to know more.

Skincare business success from a civil engineering career — Lyndsey Brantley did it without outside investors, starting with a PCOS diagnosis and ending up on Walmart shelves.

She secured over $300,000 through pitch competitions, grants, and non-equity funding — and became the first African American woman to place a natural, alcohol-free unisex shaving solution with Walmart.

In this episode, Lyndsey shares how she built Camellia Alise, LLC — a Leaping Bunny certified natural skincare line, full-service spa, and medical aesthetics training academy in Houston, TX. She covers how a personal health struggle turned into a product, how she kept the business alive during COVID-19 by pivoting to hand sanitizer, and how she went on to open one of the first Black-owned laser institutes in Texas. She was named the SBA Houston District Woman Business Owner of the Year in 2023.

Topics covered: product launch, grant funding for small businesses, pitch competitions, medical aesthetics certification, Black-owned business, Houston entrepreneurship, and building multiple revenue streams under one brand.

0:00 Intro & guest introduction

2:07 Lyndsey welcomed to the show

2:38 PCOS diagnosis and the launch of her skincare line

6:14 Pivoting to hand sanitizer production during COVID-19

7:00 Securing $300K+ in grants and pitch competitions

15:02 Opening one of the first Black-owned laser institutes in Texas

25:47 Her #1 piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

28:54 Closing thoughts and wrap-up

🔗 Learn more about Camellia Alise: https://www.camelliaalise.com/

📅 Book free mentoring with SCORE Houston: www.score.org/houston

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SCORE Houston Podcast — Small Business Success Stories, Episode 44. Free, confidential mentoring for entrepreneurs at every stage. Call 713-487-6565 or visit us at 8701 South Gessner, Suite 1200, Houston, TX 77074.

Let us know what you think of this episode. What subjects you would like us to cover in next episodes.

Give your comments at https://scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com or write to pv.bala@scorevolunteer.org. Let us know what you like of this episode and suggest subjects on which you wish to know more.

Episodes 22–41 of the SCORE Houston Podcast distilled into one masterclass: what these Houston entrepreneurs actually did to survive early chaos, price with confidence, build closed-loop systems, and create lasting businesses — not just survive, but scale.

Founders featured: Heather Lampert (Clear Hope Counseling), Brittany Vinson (Tomé Catering), Sarah Lieberman (Dandelion Cafe), Baha Elabassi (Texas Crown Towing), Felicia Hill (H5 Strategic Alliances), Samantha Snipes (Read 3D), and more.

Timestamps: 0:00 – The origin story: from a church closet to a business empire 2:26 – Starting small: businesses born in closets and tiny kitchens 5:36 – Naivety as a superpower (and its limits) 9:42 – Why grit alone can't scale a business 11:01 – Building closed-loop systems (Texas Crown Towing) 14:17 – The psychology of pricing (and why underpricing is dangerous) 16:34 – Digital marketing survival tactics 18:21 – The guerrilla research hack every founder should try 19:31 – Why mentorship is the ultimate unfair advantage 21:11 – From an earning mindset to a creating mindset

🔗 Free business mentoring — SCORE Houston: www.score.org/houston

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYwZdflYjHJeI8oTA_fRJw

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/score-houstons-podcast/id1845697492

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3DTCZlNpp4FWgp1xdgrhQb

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Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/@SCOREHouston/shorts

The SCORE Houston Podcast features real entrepreneurs and SCORE mentors sharing practical, experience-based advice for small business owners. SCORE Houston is an SBA resource partner offering free, confidential mentoring — 150+ volunteer mentors, no cost.

Series: Small Business Success Stories | Compilation — Episodes 22–41

Let us know what you think of this episode. What subjects you would like us to cover in next episodes.

Give your comments at https://scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com or write to pv.bala@scorevolunteer.org. Let us know what you like of this episode and suggest subjects on which you wish to know more.