Tag Archives: giving back

Just another Friday at ABG

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It’s Friday and you know what that means… Your weekly ABG Capital recap! This week we have a good bit of things to share with you. Let us first give you an update on a few of our portfolio companies:

VoIP Innovations:

Last week while members of our Executive Team were in Orlando for the Gazelles Fortune Leadership Summit, we had two VoIP Innovations employees, Tim Linn and Joe Aponick, attend an invitation only training session with Sansay. They got to spend time with the Sansay Engineers and other engineers like themselves, from all over the country. We’re proud to say that both Tim and Joe are now Sansay Certified Technicians.

InspiraFS:

As you know, we have recently launched a brand new ABG Capital website. That’s not the only website that has seen a facelift! Inspira has been growing very quickly over the past few months and it was time for their websites to reflect that growth. So far, we’ve updated Total IRA and Pinnacle IRA. We’re planning to release a new Payday IRA website in about two weeks and their Twitter account is already up and running! You might want to take a second to go and follow them. 🙂 The main Inspira site is the next one in line to be updated and we’ll be posting more details and a completion date soon. In the meantime, you can visit them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Google+.

We’d like to mention a few more company announcements before we let you go for the weekend. We’re HIRING! ABG Capital, along with all of our portfolio companies are experiencing extremely rapid growth and we need more “A Players” to add to our team. Below is a list of the positions we are looking for. If you think you might be a fit, please email your resume to our HR Manager, Sharon Kolesar, at sharonk@abgcapital.com. She’ll be able to get you more information on these positions.

  • Technical Services Representative – VoIP Innovations
  • Customer Service Representatives – InspiraFS
  • Website Designer (with a concentration in website coding) – ABG Capital
  • Java Developer – ABG Capital

Giving back to our community is something that we value very much here at ABG Capital. We’re always doing something that can benefit the organizations we support. The biggest giving back initiative that we focus on each is granting wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Last year we were able to grant two wishes and this year we’re shooting for three! The current fundraising effort we have going on is selling raffle tickets for a basket full of Martini related items. Unfortunately we can’t sell tickets for this basket to everyone in the world, but if you’re interested in supporting this fantastic organization on your own, visit the Make-A-Wish website and make a donation!

ABG Capital Martini Basket

Speaking of our giving back initiatives, today is the day that we’ll be heading to the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies to volunteer. We went last year and it was such a great experience. We’ll be cleaning headstones and helping to construct the Avenue of Flags in preparation for their Memorial Day services. Stay tuned for pictures of the day. We’ll be posting them on our Facebook page later today.

Next week, you can expect to see some great blog posts showing up on the ABG Capital blog. The first will be on how Big Data can help to improve the customer experience and the second will be on choosing the best health plan for your employees. If you don’t want to miss these great posts, then simply enter your email in the subscribe box and you’ll get them delivered right to your inbox!

That’s all we have for you this week, we hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

Just another Friday at ABG

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Happy Friday to everyone! 2014 is looking like it’s going to be a great year for ABG Capital and its portfolio companies. Business is going great and we’re planning some awesome things for our employees to take part in this year. As you read in our blog post last week, we were planning on volunteering at the Great Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Unfortunately though, it looks like we maybe have to cancel that volunteering opportunities due to scheduling conflicts with the Food Bank. Our Giving Back Committee will be meeting soon to discuss the initiatives that ABG Capital can take part in in 2014. Some of the things that will definitely be on our list again are the employee payroll deductions that go towards our Make-A-Wish contributions, Headstone cleaning at the National Cemeteries of the Alleghenies and other raffles and fundraisers throughout the year. We’ll be keeping everyone informed of any new activities that we’ll be getting involved in this year!

This week the ABG Capital Office Decoration Committee met to discuss the final touches for phase one as well as get phase two in the works. If you remember from November, we had an Open House to show off our brand new office since the build out was completed. We were able to get a few things on the walls before the Open House, but now we’re kicking it into overdrive and planning on some great things including employee awards, company awards, collages, and much more! Here are a few pictures of the things we currently have displayed in our office…

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“The 12 Chimes of Life,” from a book called Live a Thousand Years by Giovanni Livera

 

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A Timeline of our Success: Looking to the Future, Remembering our Past

Stay tuned for more pictures as the art continues to fill our office!

The last thing that I want to mention that you’re going to start seeing more great blog posts coming from us. The first one we have in store for next week talks about how to develop a positive corporate culture. This is something that we put a great deal of focus on and we want to make sure we have employee appreciation day 24/7, 365 days a year!

Have a great weekend!

ABG Capital to Participate in Strategic Planning Session

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ABG Capital

ABG Capital

December brings us many things.  The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is among us, the final quarter draws to a close, many businesses are preparing year-end reports, and thoughts of the upcoming New Year are in our heads.  Many people take the time to reflect, both personally and professionally, on the past year and look forward to 2013.  On a personal level, many look at what they have accomplished over the year and make new resolutions for 2013.  Corporately, businesses may draw up year-end reports and analyze numbers to determine their goals for the upcoming year.  At ABG Capital, we do all of those things.  We utilize our ideals to enhance our work and personal lives.  Our ideals are to cultivate ideas and people through our C.O.R.E. (Cultivate, Overcome, Respect, and Evolve) Values for the purpose of Giving Back.

Employees of ABG Capital utilize these ideals personally in many ways.  We participate in various activities throughout the year, where we are given an opportunity to Give Back to our community.  These activities include working at the food bank, fundraising for Make-A-Wish, and cleaning headstones at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.  In addition to Giving Back, employees also are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles.  We do an annual Biggest Loser contest, where interested employees weigh-in on Fridays, and the biggest loser receives a cash reward.  Also, we bring in an inspirational speaker/author in on a regular basis to educate our team about healthy eating habits.

In terms of business, we take our goals, or New Year’s resolutions, very seriously.  Every year around this time, our companies participate in Strategic Planning Sessions, where goals for the upcoming quarters are brainstormed and strategized.  These 2-day sessions employ strategic planning and executive education adopted from the Gazelles Growth and Leadership Summits.  As discussed in this earlier post, http://blog.abgcapital.com/?p=141, ABG Capital sends key employees to these Gazelles Summits to gain valuable training on how to lead and grow their companies.  This education, along with a Gazelles coach, enables each of ABG Capital’s portfolio companies to evolve solid annual strategic plans.

As 2012 draws to a close, employees at ABG Capital are busy preparing for holiday festivities, gathering gifts and monies for Giving Back causes, and focusing their energies on having a productive 2013.

ABG Capital Employee Brings Aid to Hurricane Affected Areas

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Hurricane Sandy

ABG Capital employee and husband with family affected by Hurricane Sandy

Those of us unaffected by Hurricane Sandy may be unaware of the devastation caused by this media-named super storm.  This huge storm affected 24 states, caused billions of dollars in damage, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electricity, and killed over a hundred people.  Even today, three weeks after the storm hit the US, there are still over a hundred thousand people without power in New York and New Jersey.

Denise Breide, the Provisioning Project Specialist for ABG Capital’s portfolio company, VoIP Innovations, was anxious to help out.  She and her husband, Ron, decided to take a trip to the East Coast to volunteer their time to those in need.  Prior to leaving, Denise collected various household items and cleaning supplies from her friends, family, and coworkers.  ABG Capital’s CEO, Jeff Tapolci, sent along a company donation as well.

Last Friday, Denise and Ron took their full trailer to the coast to distribute their collected items to those in need.  What they found was shocking, heartbreaking, and scary.

“I couldn’t believe the devastation in these hard-hit areas, “stated Denise Breide.  “The media could never portray how much loss these people have experienced.  It was truly heartbreaking to see these families have absolutely nothing left.”

Denise and her husband were so moved by their experience last weekend helping out those affected by this severely distressing hurricane that they have decided to repeat the trip.  This weekend, they will again drive over to the East Coast, trailer full or supplies, to help those in need.  They have another trip planned to December as well.

See pictures of Denise’s trip here:  http://abgcapital.shutterfly.com/229

ABG Capital Team Volunteers at Area Food Bank

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On Friday, November 2, 2012, nearly 20 employees from ABG Capital spent the afternoon at The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.  This particular Food Bank distributes 2.2 million pounds of groceries a month, so they rely heavily on volunteers to help with packaging.  The ABG Capital team worked in the Repack Center of the Food Bank and helped package up hundreds of pounds of frozen meat, poultry, and seafood items that were donated from local grocery stores.

“It’s always nice to get away from the daily grind and give back to the community that has given us so much, stated Jason Tapolci, who along with his brother, Jeff, own ABG Capital.  “Activities like these provide us all with a little more perspective on what is truly important in life.”

“Our employees had a blast,” said Jeff Tapolci, CEO of ABG Capital.  “I always enjoy giving back, and to work side-by-side with employees that I don’t normally interact with was very special.”

Located in Pittsburgh, PA, ABG Capital leverages its unique business management model to reduce costs through the consolidation of back office operations for its portfolio companies. By consolidating services like accounting, legal, IT, software development, Employees administration and HR, ABG Capital is able to eliminate redundancy among our portfolio companies and increase efficiency.

See more pictures from this giving back activity here: http://abgcapital.shutterfly.com/210

Giving Back

ABG Capital Giving Back