Mississippi Entrepreneurs Adapt to Keep Businesses Afloat During Pandemic

In partnership with: Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce

When disaster strikes, the people of Mississippi have a reputation for pulling together and helping one another make it through. That could be one of the reasons Mississippi is known as the hospitality state (as well as one of the most generous states). It should come as no surprise that when COVID-19 arrived on the scene, Mississippi’s innovative entrepreneurs and business owners quickly shifted their business models to combat the impacts of the pandemic.

Queen’s Reward Meadery

“When COVID-19 first hit our state, it nearly shut us down,” says Jeri Carter of Queen’s Reward Meadery.

An elementary-school-teacher-turned-entrepreneur, Carter now runs the Tupelo-based meadery. Carter launched her business in 2016 before opening her tasting room to the public in May 2018. She and her team work tirelessly to produce mead using honey harvested exclusively within the state.

While Carter says she had to send her employees home at the start of the pandemic, she gives credit to the state for jumping in and allowing businesses like hers to start serving their products curbside.

“It helped, but our sales dropped drastically because we couldn’t offer tours or tastings,” Carter says. “It was around that time that we heard that similar businesses had transitioned to making hand sanitizer.”

The team already fermented its honey and water to anywhere from 13% to 14% proof, but it needed to reach the 80% to 90% range in order to make hand sanitizer. It didn’t take long for Queen’s Reward Meadery to purchase a still and get to work.

“When we shifted to making hand sanitizer, the demand was incredibly high because the products were sold out virtually everywhere,” Carter says. “We were thankful for the opportunity, though, because it meant we could bring our employees back to work, bring in much-needed revenue and serve the community.”

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Fortunately for Carter and her team, mead sales have started to rise once again. They’ve also renovated their outdoor seating area to accommodate social distancing, which means business is steadily on the rise.

“It’s critical for small-business owners to adapt in situations like this,” Carter says. “You have to sink or swim in order to survive, and that forces you to come up with creative solutions to your problems.”

Blue Delta Jeans

In 2011, Josh West and Nick Weaver purchased a long-forsaken garment factory in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved it 100 miles south to Tupelo, Mississippi. Since its establishment as a Mississippi staple in 2012, Blue Delta Jeans has grown to an internationally recognized custom brand that caters to many top athletes and artists all around the world.

When COVID-19 struck at the beginning of 2020, the founders saw an opportunity to make some adjustments to their business model.

“In early March, we switched our operations to 25% daily jean production to devote the remaining 75% of daily production to face masks,” Co-founder and CEO Josh West says. “We were producing 20,000 masks per day to support health-care providers on the front lines in Mississippi and across the country.”

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Even though its jean sales have started to increase once more, the company has continued to add employees to assist with personal protective equipment production, adding both disposable and washable gowns to their product list.

“Mississippians know how to make things, and I think that sets us apart in times like these,” West says. “Our team also understood that we weren’t just making masks because it was good for our company. We knew we were doing something beneficial for those throughout our state.”