Business Owner Moves Shop to Childhood Hangout

Editor's note: Main Street and More, our weekly business profile, has moved to Saturdays.

After a decade in the downtown Novi area, Tiffany Zendejas, owner of Sincerely Yours, was looking for a change of scenery. Businesses around her, which had provided a lot of foot traffic, were closing. She was forced to make a decision: close or move elsewhere.

“I drove through Northville every day heading to Novi thinking I wish I could move here, but at the time, they had other stationary stores,” Zendejas said. “When our lease was up two years ago, I started seriously looking in this area. I happened to meet the landlord. He’s just a great guy, who I felt was very trustworthy and we literally signed a lease and moved in, in about six days to open. It was really fast.”

The transition to Northville was natural for Zendejas. Growing up in Canton, the downtown Northville area was a place she often would visit with friends and family.

“As a kid, I would visit Northville all the time,” Zendejas said. “It was such a great place that my mom could drop us off here for the day. We could shop in all the stores and eat in town. So I’ve always had memories as a kid just kind of bouncing around the town.”

While you’ll find lots of great imported stationary and other gifts at Sincerely Yours, invitations and announcements are their specialty.

“Our main part of our business is for weddings,” Zendejas said. “We do everything from invitations to calligraphy. Pretty much any printed, personalized products for weddings; favors, programs, menus, attendant gifts. We do things like personalized stationary and holiday cards. We do all the baby stuff: baby showers and birth announcements. Right now we’re doing a lot of graduation stuff so we stay busy.”

Regular customers drop in all the time.

“I have some people that just come in for our greeting cards,” Zendejas said.

Dort Burtch, a Northville resident, has been a regular customer at Sincerely Yours for several years.

“I’ve been coming here since she’s been here in Northville, but I use to go to her place when she was in Novi too.”

Burtch said one of the main reasons she continues to shop at Sincerely Yours is Tiffany’s bright smile and kindness. She also loves the unique gifts and other stationary she finds at the shop.

”I’m a big card sender,” Burtch said. “Her cards are just beautiful. Her stationary, everything that she has, is just so unusual. It’s very unique and beautiful.”

Zendejas’ appreciation for her customers and business philosophy is what helps her business thrive from lessons learned from family. Surrounding herself and her shop with loved ones keeps the work place more like a happy home.

“My whole family works here,” Zendejas said. “My husband and my mom work here. I used to be a competitive skating teacher and one of my students from 15 years ago works for me too. We all like to get to know our customers. My grandfather started a business in Livonia and that’s just how it’s supposed to be. You start the business and you get to know your customers. You care about them because they really become sort of like a family to you.”

Zendejas couldn’t be happier with her decision to move from Novi to Northville and has no plans of leaving.

“It’s a great town. I can’t say enough about it,” Zendejas said. “I don’t think we would ever move from here.”