Dawn Jones, operations and administrations manager with Resource Label Group LLC, has been named 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce. Jones has been with Recourse Label Group for 22 years and was presented this award at a recent BACC luncheon. She is the first woman ever to be awarded this honor.
“I am truly honored to be selected as Entrepreneur of the Year,” Jones said. “It is such a proud moment to become the first female ever selected. I will continue to make Bartlett proud.”
A Bartlett native, Jones has recently spearheaded a new construction project so that her company can move to the area’s corporate park from their current location off Lamar Avenue.
John Threadgill, BACC president, said, “When I first met Dawn, she instructed me that she wanted a free-standing 30,000 square-foot light industrial facility in Bartlett. She didn’t want to own the building but was interested in a term lease. Terry Emerick, planning director with the City of Bartlett, and I thought, ‘wow,’ this will be a challenge since no such space exists.”
The solution was not an easy road. The task at hand became to build a facility on a greenfield site and find an investor willing to do a build-to-lease.
“For someone in my profession, this is the type of project we live for, but seldom get to do,” Threadgill said. “Dawn was determined, and I soon realized we were going to have some fun.”
To allow this project to come to fruition, organizers pulled together a team of experts, including A2H, a firm of engineers, architects and planners; JESCO, Inc., a construction company; and Agracell Inc., industrial developers and investors willing to build and lease to Jones’s company.
Regardless, if it means relocating to a new building or starting a new project, Jones finds enjoyment in her profession and is known for an innate ability to lead. For this and a variety of reasons, Jones became a clear-cut choice for this year’s award.
“I believe in work and leading by example,” she said. “I was raised in a generation where you just work. It’s what you do. I find my job to be a lot of fun. Every day it is a new test. It’s a puzzle that needs to be solved. Some people might find my line of work stressful, but I don’t see it that way.”
Resource Label Group’s new location will be 7915 Stage Hills Blvd. in Bartlett, and it is expected to be open for business in the fall of 2017. They are a full-service label company, providing custom label design and printing for a wide range of industries. Headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., they have 14 offices throughout the United States and Canada.
