As the owner and president of The Mississippi Gift Company, Tyler has garnered regional and national attention for her unique retail store, which is the only business of its kind completely dedicated to offering its customers food and gift items that are made in the state of Mississippi. “For the past 10 years, we have searched Mississippi to bring our customers the best that our state has to offer,” she says. “During this time, we have collected the largest selection of Mississippi-made items available.”

Currently, The Mississippi Gift Company, which has retail locations in Greenwood and Jackson, offers more than 500 Mississippi-made products from more than 120 Mississippi companies, entrepreneurs and artists. In addition, the business enjoys the patronage of hundreds of customers from across the country thanks to its web site and on-line catalog.

In reflecting back on the early days of the business, Tyler says she is “amazed” at how much the company has grown since she and her husband, Tim, started it as Mississippi Product Sales back in 1993, only three weeks after getting married. According to Tyler, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Mississippi State University, the business began as a fund-raising company designed to help groups raise money for their schools, churches and other organizations by selling their selection of Mississippi-made food products. At the time, the Tylers were operating from a very small retail space on Washington Street in downtown Greenwood, and they offered customers a limited selection of Mississippi-made cookies, peanut brittle, pecans, and three pie mixes from Crown Foods of Indianola. The company began to expand as many customers started to express an interest in shipping items to various locations and being able to purchase baskets filled with Mississippi products to give as personal and corporate gifts.

Tyler recalls being so busy with packing and shipping orders during the first Christmas season after opening their business that her husband unknowingly lost his wedding band in one of the boxes that he was preparing to ship to a customer. She says she couldn’t help but laugh when the customer later contacted her to say that one of her workers must have lost his ring in the company’s “warehouse” when he was packing her gift. “I thought that was pretty funny at the time because we were so small that our warehouse just happened to be the hallway of our office space,” says Tyler. With an increased selection of gift items and the printing of the company’s first mail order catalog, it wasn’t long before the Tylers had outgrown their initial location. In 1995, they moved to a larger space on Howard Street and changed their name to The Mississippi Gift Company. Despite the move to a larger location, Tyler says they still had to rent a separate location every year to serve as its shipping headquarters.

The Starkville native says their growth continued as more and more companies began to approach them about selling their products, and in 1997, they reprinted and expanded their catalog and added a web site, www.TheMississippiGiftCompany.com. This brought about even greater exposure for the business, and in 2001, a second retail location was added in Jackson in the Fondren Shopping District. Although the Jackson store is much smaller than its sister store in Greenwood, Tyler says she decided to establish a location in Jackson because she discovered that she had a large customer base in the area. In 2002, The Mississippi Gift Company’s Greenwood store moved to its current location at 300 Howard Street, a 4,000 plus square foot building, which has allowed Tyler the convenience of consolidating its retail store and its shipping center.

Today, the company has 10 employees between its two locations, and its product line includes: candies, cookies, jellies, jams, preserves, mixes, desserts, coffee, tea, relishes, marinades, sauces, salad dressings, pecans, baskets, barware, books, pottery and other forms of artwork, clothing, cotton-related items, catfish items, jewelry, cosmetics, candles, and bath products. The Mississippi Gift Company also has a frozen foods section, which offers frozen casseroles, cakes and catfish. In addition, customers can create their own customized gift baskets for personal or corporate giving. Tyler says she is always looking for interesting and unique items made in the state. “The company’s goals are to continue to search for the finest foods and gifts made in Mississippi, while using technology to offer our customers the most convenient ways to order,” says Tyler. “We measure our success by striving for the highest level of customer service and product quality, and by having repeat customers, we know that we are doing our job.” Although the company has remained dedicated to its mission of selling only Mississippi-made products, Tyler admits that there have been times when she has been tempted to add other non-Mississippi items to their product line that were requested by customers. She says, “There have been some products made outside of Mississippi that I’ve been very tempted to sell, but I’ve stayed true to what we set out to do, and I think that has helped us.

”Even during times when the economy was bad, we managed to do quite well, and I think that’s because we made the decision to stick to selling quality Mississippi products,” says Tyler. “I believe that people have supported us because they feel that by buying products that are made right here in Mississippi, they are not only supporting the local economy with their purchases but also the state’s economy.” In an effort to thank her customers for their loyal support and keep them informed about new products and gifts, Tyler recently published the company’s first newsletter, which will be produced six times a year. The publication offers a different discount for every day of the month and provides readers with product recipes and details about special items that are available for purchase. “I decided to develop this newsletter because I saw it as a way to give something back to our customers,” says Tyler. “It has always been important to me to find ways to give something back to those who support us, and this was a simple way for us to offer our customers discounts and show our gratitude for their loyalty to us.” So, what’s next for this ever-expanding company? Tyler says she has gotten a lot of interest from people who want to purchase franchises of the store. So, she’s currently working on a franchise program. “No matter how much we grow, I remain committed to selling products made in the state,” she says. “We will continue to introduce Mississippi-made products to the world and be attentive to the retail customers who buy and use our products and services.” Tyler says that developing strong relationships with customers has been vital to the company’s success. She says, “Although we do a lot of work, this is a fun and rewarding job. I love interacting with our customers, and I spend a lot of time getting to know them and listening to what they want.” She stresses these same points when offering advice to other entrepreneurs who are looking to get their businesses off of the ground. “One of the biggest mistakes many people make when they start a business is in thinking that they can do it on a part-time basis. You’ve got to be around in order to get to know your customers and to know what they want. Those are the things that make a business thrive,” she says. “You’ve also got to find a niche and stick to it. Don’t try to do everything. We decided to do one thing and to do it well, and it has paid off.” DBJ