Click here to subscribe today or Login.
OLYPHANT — A Northeastern Pennsylvania telecommunications company, SWG Inc., has made a leap across the Atlantic Ocean, setting up its first European operation in Ireland earlier this year.
Owners Greg Kopa and Jeff Zaykowski beamed with pride as they talked about the 16-year journey from a new business start-up to a flourishing, multi-million-dollar company.
Their new office is in Kells, County Meath.
SWG Inc. is a telecommunications and broadband company based out of Mid Valley Industrial Park in Olyphant. SWG specializes in selling and servicing network equipment, point-to-point or point-to-multi-point equipment, antennas and an equipment consignment program.
The company has two area locations in Dallas and Olyphant. Employing a total of 19 local tech savvy individuals.
In January, the company opened its Ireland area.
“Ireland is becoming the Silicon Valley of Europe,” Nathan Peterson, president of SWG Inc., said. “Ireland is the gateway to Europe.”
The transatlantic office allows SWG to better service its growing European customer base, Zaykowski said.
“It was a natural progression,” Zaykowski said.
Kells is about an hour drive from a mecca of online corporations, such as Google and Facebook, located in Dublin.
Humble beginnings
In 1999 SWG Inc., started as a small home-based business in Bethlehem selling “off-net data lines,” Zaykowski said.
This was before the boom of dot-com industries, wireless technology and the development of smartphones. Zaykowski and Kopa remember helping businesses find internet connections.
As technology advanced, Kopa and Zaykowski added services and changed products to include an electronic equipment consignment service and recycling program. They also found they were competing for business on a global scale.
The two men relocated to Dallas to be closer to family, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In 2004, they opened a small office in Dunmore. During the following years, the business was moved to Larksville and finally Olyphant.
Each move provided more space to accommodate the business’s increasing operations, Zaykowski said.
Their path to success was not without its bumps and bruises.
“We had to have some difficult conversations (over the years),” Zaykowski said. “Sometimes mortgaging our homes two or three times — which is not a good thing.”
“Sometimes we had to cash-in 401k (retirement accounts),” Kopa said.
Many people think the road to success is a steady climb — but it is not, Kopa said.
“There were times when we were crying in our hands,” Zaykowski said.
Failed business relationships and bad products lie in the wake of the business’s growth.
“We learned along the way,” Zaykowski said. “And developed good business relationships.”
One lesson Zaykowski and Kopa learned is how to develop a “strong senior leadership infrastructure.”
“We have been fortunate,” Kopa said. “Our success is built through our employees and business relationships.”
Irish luck
On the advice of a close Scottish business friend, Kopa and Zaykowski pursued an idea to develop a European location to better service clients in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Both entrepreneurs found Ireland’s government hospitable.
Incoming businesses are “helping Ireland recover from their recent recession,” Thomas Ford, director of communications at SWG Inc. said.
Setting up shop in a foreign country took time, help from business friends, legal services and “hours of emails,” Kopa said.
“The biggest hurdle was understanding Ireland’s tax laws and legal system,” Zaykowski said.
The business partners reached out local legal firm Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald for guidance in navigating through the foreign government’s legal requirements.
“We had to set it up as a separate business entity,” Kopa said. “It is a separate company under the same name.”
Filing tax paperwork for Ireland consisted of 40 pages of documentation, Kopa said.
Currently, SWG’s Ireland location employs two people. Zaykowski and Kopa intend to hire more as needed.
So what is the next step for the entrepreneurs?
“This is just a start,” Zaykowski said. “We are gauging other locations in different international markets.”