Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle
210603_Shelby_chamber2
Shelby County Chamber President Kirk Mancer, at right, and Kyle Mims of Edward Jones announced the winners of the Shelby County Chamber Small Business of the Year Awards during a chamber luncheon in Columbiana, Alabama, on Thursday, June 3, 2021.
The Shelby County Chamber recently honored five small businesses with its 2021 Small Businesses of the Year awards.
The 2021 winners were:
- Category 1 (one to five employees): CPC Office Technology
- Category 2 (six to 10 employees): Sawyer Solutions
- Category 3 (11 to 20 employees): Shunnarah Family Dentistry
- Category 4 (More than 21 employees): Charles Dixon Industries
- Category 5 (Open less than one year and less than 25 employees): Creations Galore & Moore
Winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges based on five criteria: staying power, growth in numbers of employees, increase in sales, response to adversity and evidence of contribution to the community.
The winners were honored at a luncheon at The Grande Hall at Old Mill Square in Columbiana on June 3 as the chamber celebrated the positive economic impact that small businesses have on Shelby County.
Traci Fox, owner of T. Fox Salon Spa and a 2019 recipient of the Small Business of the Year Award, was the featured speaker. She told her story of how she got to be where she is and the hardships she faced along the way.
“My grandmother always said that everyone matters and everything matters,” Fox said.
With a passion to serve the community, Fox opened her first salon, Tangles, in Sumiton in 2000. In 2009, she opened T. Fox Salon in Shelby County on Valleydale Road.
Despite an eight-week shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic, she and her staff made over 2,500 phone calls to elderly people, offering free prescription pickup and delivery, and also hand-wrote hundreds of encouraging cards to shut-ins.
Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle
210603_Shelby_chamber1
Traci Fox, owner of T. Fox Salon Spa, was the guest speaker at the 2021 Shelby Chamber Small Business of the Year awards luncheon in Columbiana, Alabama, on Thursday, June 3, 2021.
Despite COVID-19, Fox said the salon finished with a record year. They also made the 2020 Salon Today top 200 salons in the country.
“If you discover your purpose, you can make a difference,” she said.
Other nominees for the 2021 Shelby Chamber Small Business of the Year awards were:
- 4th and Inches Nutrition (Chelsea)
- 24e Fitness (Pelham)
- Adventurers Coffee Co. (Calera)
- Alfa Insurance (Chelsea)
- Brownstone Marketing Solutions (Pelham)
- Bob Butterworth State Farm (Montevallo)
- Cajun Boys & Our Poboys (Chelsea)
- Exit Prime Realty (Alabaster)
- Fusion One Marketing (Eagle Point)
- Gifted (Pelham)
- Ground Up Coffee and Smoothies (Chelsea)
- Jones and Associates, LLC (Calera)
- Pelham Dental Care (Pelham)
- Pitts Media (Chelsea)
- Plant Gifts & Decor (Calera)
- R.O.E. Hobby (Calera)
- Tyler Rutledge, State Farm Insurance (Chelsea)
- Southern Realty Specialists (Helena)
- Temperature Pro (Pelham)
- Therachem Research Medilab (Chelsea)
- Vinehouse Nursery (Alabaster)
- Vineyard Family Services (Pelham)