Mid South Business Exchange

April Armstrong of Chick-fil-A Southaven explains the small, free habits that build customer trust. She shares how intentional follow-up, the first 30 seconds of an interaction, and second mile service helped grow her catering business from a little over $200,000 a year to over $2.4 million. Every one of these habits is something a small business can start this week.

More customers are asking ChatGPT and other AI tools which business to pick, and your website may never get a click. Patrick Collins, founder and owner of Patrick Works Marketing, breaks down how AI decides who it recommends and what a small business can do this week to get found.

John Reeves, co-founder of Reeves Williams, helped build Southaven from the ground up. He explains how a town with gravel roads and one burger stand grew into one of the Mid-South's biggest suburbs, and what drove that growth.

Social media marketer Andrew Bartolotta explains how small businesses get seen without millions of followers. You will learn why your regular customers may be your strongest marketing team, and how showing up in your community turns visibility into new customers.

Most businesses that fail don't fail from a weak product or a lazy owner. They fail because nobody reads the numbers. Beth Snow of Back Office Guru explains the financial reports every business owner needs to understand, the warning signs of trouble, and why hiring an accountant alone won't fix it.

What does it actually take to become a leader before you have the title, the age, or the experience? In this episode of Southaven Business Beat, presented in partnership with the Southaven Chamber of Commerce, we sit down with two people at opposite ends of the same program: a Chamber professional serving as a mentor, and an upcoming senior at DeSoto Central High School serving as her mentee. Both are part of the Bridge Academy, the leadership program under the Southaven Chamber Foundation.

What if therapy didn't mean sitting on a couch in a quiet office? On this episode of Southaven Business Beat, we sit down with Anthony Wood and Brandy West from Desoto Family Counseling & Pediatric Therapy Center, a counseling group serving Southaven, DeSoto County, and the greater Memphis and Mid-South area. They walk us through a very different approach to mental health, one that can happen on a walking trail, on a boat, or with a fishing pole in your hand.

For 33 years it sat closed, promised to the community as a park. Today it is the DeSoto County Agri-Education Center, a 200-acre, $19 million facility on Starlanding Road in Nesbit, built without a tax increase. In this episode of Southaven Business Beat, host Cristan Engelke sits down with director Michael Lee, a former county supervisor, to walk through what is actually out there: a 2,000-seat indoor arena, an outdoor covered arena, stall barns, a teaching kitchen, a greenhouse, walking and equestrian trails, and programs from 4-H to Master Gardeners to Mississippi State University Extension.

This episode of Southaven Business Beat focuses on the real-world lessons that drive local success. We sit down with Ms. Brooke Benedict to discuss the core values that shape effective business leadership and how to apply these principles to your own professional journey. This conversation is designed for entrepreneurs, community leaders, and anyone looking to improve their operations through shared experience.

She spent nearly 30 years in a domestic violence situation without knowing what it was called. The night she moved in, she sat down with the intake paperwork and checked yes to every question on the cycle of violence sheet. That was the first time she understood what had been happening to her.