by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Joseph Dagher started life over in 1984.
“We left our accomplishments behind for a safe life,” he said. “Beirut was not safe. Where we are is America.”
The long road from Lebanon has led to a successful printing business at Atlantic Beach and, earlier this month, the honor of being the Chamber’s Small Business Person of the Year. He was selected from nine nominated by the Area Councils, the Beaches Division and the Small Business Division.
Dagher was nominated by the Beaches Division.
He is from a family of printers but made the decision to move to America when he saw what Middle Eastern life was becoming.
“I knew that I could be successful because this nation lets people be what they can be,” he said. “We started the company in 1986 and we have grown every year. We started with three people; now we have 19.”
Dagher’s commercial printing shop can produce virtually any kind of printed material including four-color work. It’s on Mayport Road and serves the rapidly expanding Beaches community.
“I thank this society which has accepted us,” he said. “I am proud to be an American.”
Since Dagher started his business in 1985, revenues have grown from $90,000 to $1.6 million and he hopes to have a patent for his invention of the four-color printing press with a coater early this year.
His new 20,500-square-foot building is scheduled to open March 17.
As Small Business Leader of the Year, Dagher will serve a one-year term on the Chamber’s Board of Governors and receive a one-year complimentary Chamber Trustee membership, a one-year membership to the CEO Roundtable and a $500 cash gift as recipient of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network’s Quiet Achiever Award.
Dagher is also the Chamber’s nominee for the Small Business Administration’s 2002 Small Business Leader.
The other nominees were Barbara Banks, West Council; Steve Burnett, North Council; Arch Copeland, Mandarin Council; J.R. Faris, South Council; Arlisa Jackson, Small Business Division; Oday Mickel, Arlington Council; Doug Wilder, Downtown Council; and Bernard Williams, Northwest Council.