New delivery service in town

New delivery service in town

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Desmond Johnson came home from west Texas to start Neshoba Delivery, a service that delivers just about anything — this following a national trend fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Open now for about a month, Johnson has been working hard to ensure his company takes off.

Johnson has been a waiter, a club promoter, cut hair, a truck driver in the oil fields, a Pizza Hut delivery driver and a delivery driver for DoorDash, — many of these while working multiple jobs at the same time.  His DoorDash job in Texas was his inspiration for Neshoba Delivery. 

“The whole way home from west Texas when I moved back, I was DoorDashing the whole way back to Mississippi, stopping three [and] four stops a day. That’s the fun thing about DoorDashing and about this job that I started cause I like that I can do it anywhere.”

Johnson made good money from delivering, and it was something he felt he was a natural. As he admits, he is a truck driver at heart, and perhaps, he also admits, that is why he is so good at talking. Truck driving, and all delivery in some way, gives Johnson a sense of freedom and choice. 

As of right now, Neshoba Delivery is mostly focused on delivering food from restaurants, but Johnson has delivered groceries before. Ultimately, he wants the business to deliver anything that can be delivered. His friends and family have spread the word about reliable delivery on social media. 

Owning a business has been a learning experience. For the first time, his name is attached to a brand, and his behavior has consequences for the whole of that brand. A humorous example of such a realization came to Johnson when he put one of his deliveries on Snapchat, with loud rap music playing in the background.

A local pastor saw the Snapchat, hearing the profanity and reached out to Johnson to suggest he not share videos of cursing in order to project a better image. While surprising, the incident led Johnson to begin considering the impacts of even the most mundane aspects of a business. 

Stopping to comment on the yard or complimenting a customer’s home are small, overlooked opportunities to better the business’s image in the public’s eye, and now a business owner, Johnson has begun to take those opportunities wherever possible. The way Johnson sees it, all the change is for the better. 

As he trains his future drivers, Johnson urges them to be clean-cut, shirt tucked and a smile on when approaching every door. People are putting a lot of trust into their delivery drivers, in Johnson’s perspective, and that trust deserves to be reciprocated with good service. You have to be a “down-to-earth” kind of guy, Johnson says.

Many of the tricks he has picked up from his many years working in some form of delivery. After one too many times of someone saying they had asked for ketchup and Johnson not having any on the order ticket, he has all the materials he might need for a customer: plates, napkins, sauces and straws.

More so, Johnson hopes to pass on his collected knowledge of delivery etiquette to his young friend and employee Keeovis Henry. Henry met Johnson about five years ago when both were working at the Tyson Chicken plant in Carthage, where Henry still resides. 

They have stayed in contact and had always talked about getting together to start a business. Neshoba Delivery just happened to be that plan in fruition. As of right now, Henry is one of the only workers Johnson has, but they are hoping to get more.

Henry, like Johnson, enjoys delivering because it offers him a job where he is not hounded by a superior, but rather, he can work in the private space of his car. 

“I enjoy it because, through my past experience working through jobs, it’s a different type of thing cause you don’t have anybody all over your neck, breathing on your neck,” Henry said. “I kinda like it because I’m more to myself…. I like helping other people, and [delivering] is another way that I feel like I can help others.”

Henry and Johnson are both working on getting their barber license as well, and Johnson has consistently looked out for Henry and his interests, like a mentor. Johnson trains and motivates Henry to be the best he can be, and he is always there to offer advice. 

“He’s more of a dad to me than my own father,” Henry said. “Like those things he does for me, my dad don’t push me that way. [Johnson] want me to do better in life and try to help me out with this and that’s why I look up to him so much.”

Johnson wants the business to eventually include his three daughters. His family is a major source of drive, and Johnson wants Neshoba Delivery to be a business his daughters can grow up in and rely on. All Johnson needs are his boots, his car and his phone and he is off to make a future for his family. 

Contact Neshoba Delivery at 601-562-8682 or go to their Facebook page.






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