As Best of Southwest Mississippi gets underway for 2025, our community starts buzzing — nominating your favorite people and businesses, posting on social media and, for local business owners and staff, reminding customers to consider them for the title of being the best at what they do.

For this year’s competition, The Daily Leader has partnered with Toyota of Brookhaven to bring you this annual celebration of local business and people that make our community such a special place to live, work, get an education, and when the time comes, depend on our local network of professional services.

Consulting with our local community leaders, we’ve learned that the Best of Southwest Mississippi is more than just a sales promotion or social media hack, it’s a vivid reminder that Brookhaven and Lincoln County has just about any goods or services you could possible want, right here. And while day trips to Jackson and New Orleans can be fun, keep in mind that is our local businesses that support your child’s Little League team, sponsor Rotary and yes, even The Daily Leader. ‘Shop Local’ may be a shopworn phrase, but the sentiment behind the movement has never been more important.

This year, The Best of Southwest Mississippi boasts more than 250 ballots on the contest, including expanded choices in the Food and Dining, Education and Professional categories. We reached out and received many of these new categories from you, through our outreach via socials and your local newspaper. We strive each year to improve our contesting portal, marketing and promotions to help ensure that everyone from Wesson to McComb is aware and actively engaged.

That’s where you come in. Getting out the vote, so to speak, is an exciting challenge, and one that some businesses take more seriously than others. But that’s exactly where a competitive edge can be gained. Each year our business market changes, and there are always new opportunities; so don’t hesitate to get involved. Keep up with the contest on www.dailyleader.com or better yet, take out a print subscription and see what else is happening that you may have missed — and for local businesses, relish the opportunity to bring more business back home.