The Small Business Committee has announced that business woman Sharon Rivenbark will be the keynote speaker at the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce Small
Business Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Two awards will be presented at the Small Business Dinner. Any Chamber business can be nominated to receive the “Business of the Year Award.” The second
award will be “Small Business Person of the Year.”
In order to make it possible for more businesses to participate as exhibitors at the Small Business Dinner, the committee has decided to lower the price
of display space. Chamber members will be able to have a half-table display for $50 or a full-table display for $100. The charge for non-Chamber members will be $75 or $150. Sponsorships are also available.
Sharon Rivenbark spoke in Madison last summer during Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman’s “Advancing Hoosier Women in Business Seminar.”
Sharon is owner and president of For Bare Feet, a company she started in 1984 with a single antique knitting machine in a small retail shop in Nashville,
Indiana. Her entire focus and motivation was to create a workplace for her son, Tim.
Over the last 23 years, with minimal business experience and no formal business education, Sharon has grown her business into a sock manufacturing enterprise
located in Helmsburg, Ind.
Prior to 1984, Sharon had been an elementary teacher for 21 years. She earned both her bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in elementary education from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Sharon has four daughters, two of whom work alongside her at For Bare Feet. One serves as Vice President
of Sales, while the other is the Vice President of Operations and Administration. All four of her sons-in-law assist in managing the business. Even the oldest of her ten grandchildren help out on their summer breaks.
