Corinne Jackson on Bringing Oxford Boutique Mina to Life
Corinne Jackson on Bringing Oxford Boutique Mina to Life
By MacKenna Sherer — April 24, 2026
Ole Miss Alum Corinne Jackson began her journey as a business owner in 2010, opening her first small business, Lulu’s, on the Square in Oxford with the help of her husband, Kent. Following the success of Lulu’s, Jackson opened Daisy Gift Company right next door in 2020. Only four years later, her third small business, Mina, opened its doors on the Square.
Small businesses were not as popular in Oxford when Jackson’s first location opened; the only major shoe boutique was far from the main downtown area. As soon as the space for Lulu’s became available, “[Jackson and her husband] saw an opportunity to get into the Square market and took it.” By the time she opened her second store, Jackson had gained the experience and confidence to expand to a third location on the Square.
Mina’s physical space once belonged to a friend of Jackson’s who owned Nest Paper Studio. As an ode to the previous business that once occupied the building, Jackson continued the bird theme by turning the bird species ‘Myna’ into ‘Mina.’
While Jackson swore she would never get into apparel sales, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. So with the help of her husband’s skill set in technology and mathematics, Jackson successfully entered the fashion retail space with Mina.
On her journey into fashion commerce, Jackson teamed up with Maddie Cavett, a former Lulu’s employee. With the pressure of post-grad life creeping up on Cavett, the question of what to do with her Integrated Marketing Communications degree lingered.
With the opening of Mina, the opportunity presented itself: Cavett became the main store manager following graduation from the university.
“Maddie has a skill set that does really well in a retail environment,” Jackson said regarding her collaboration with Cavett. “Lots of people are really great at fashion and terrible at numbers, or making plans or considering details, but she’s really good at both of those things. We’re a good team.”
Every day at Mina is a little bit different. Jackson and Cavett say there is always a new challenge, whether it’s the layout of the store floor and display cases or selecting new clothing to sell each season; they are constantly contemplating how they can improve Mina.
A huge part of running a business on the Square is monitoring the social calendar of the town and the campus. Cavett explains how they often think of a ‘market plan’ months before attending Market—a large space where vendors sell products to small businesses for them to resell in their storefronts.
“Everything has to fall into the calendar the right way, because that’s a big deal,” Jackson said. “Products can be awesome, but if they come in at the wrong time or too late, you don’t have time to sell them.”
The detail-oriented decisions they make about what to place on the shelves often reflect popular event seasons, ranging from football gamedays to high school dances. Not only are items carefully selected to align with the unique Mina aesthetic and branding, but they are also hand-selected to stay on trend with popular styles found across social media and throughout the general Oxford population.
Despite Jackson’s success with starting small businesses, it has not been without trial and error. She reflects on the challenges of structuring her first store’s inventory flow and adapting to the demands of apparel retail.
“Mina had some different challenges because we’ve never done apparel before,” Jackson said. “There are a lot of things that we realized the hard way, like when items are damaged, they’re done. There’s not an easy way to get rid of self-tan or makeup, or to fix broken zippers.”
Jackson and Cavett’s challenges as owner and manager are overshadowed by the daily satisfactions of being a part of Mina. They highlight the positive work environment and the pleasure of seeing their hard work pay off.
They find fulfillment not only in sales but also in their customers’ satisfaction and the success of the store operations they have built.
Jackson offers advice to young women looking to become business owners.
“My advice would be to ask a lot of questions and to go ahead and get your hands dirty and see what it takes…if you don't have the curiosity to figure out how to do it, then you probably don't have the work ethic to make it successful.”
Stay up to date with all the latest fashion trends and store activity by following @shopminaoxford on Instagram.
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All photos are credited to Ellie Eubanks.