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2. As mentioned above, we are experiencing gains in Allen Koppelman
excess of the overall economy. Our average customer is Nationwide Payment Systems Inc.
seeing 8 to 10 percent same store volume growth which
is actually a small portion of the overall 60 percent + YOY
volume growth we are seeing in our integrated payments 1. There are record number of businesses opening and we
portfolio. expect that to continue.
We think this has a lot to do with our highly differenti- 2. We are signing up more clients; growth is always up and
ated value proposition with vertical specialization and the down as you have people going in and out of business,
fact that our merchant base, largely comprised of hospital- along with margin compression and a lot of pressure from
ity and food & beverage companies, has several tailwinds Square and Stripe both signing up card-present merchants
benefiting them: they are not easily upended by ecom- at slim margins. There are a lot of new ecommerce
merce, and the conversion rate, from cash spending to businesses as well, and that sector is a lot more stable and
credit spending, remains high. There is also a millennial more profitable.
preference to "dine out" or "order in," which always helps.
3. Hiring more sales reps to increase revenue along with
3. Our approach to merchant acquisition and servicing buying leads and advertising.
hasn't changed dramatically in the 19 years we've been
in business. We believe strongly in empowering both 4. All the signs are looking up ‒ the only thing that is
our sales partners and merchants with all the tools constant is the race to the bottom.
necessary to compete as a business and win market share.
This inevitably means eliminating as many obstacles to 5. Sell technology first!
account setup as possible, whether that be free software
and hardware or training, and always providing a high
level of support. Justin Milmeister
Elite Merchant Solutions
A great example is our ever evolving and market leading
POS-as-a-service and integrated payment offerings that 1. I believe prosperity will continue through the end of this
remain in extraordinarily high demand. If anything has year and through 2019. After that I don't see the prosperity
changed, it's that we are dedicating far more resources to like we are experiencing today. Since the 2008 financial
these efforts than we ever have in our history – and this is crisis we have seen enormous prosperity; however, it is not
a direct response to the merchant acquisition opportunity sustainable due to many factors such as very low interest
we see in front of us. rates and almost no unemployment, to name a couple. I
can only hope when rates and unemployment normalize
4. We don't see many cautionary signs at the macro level. prosperity doesn't fall off a cliff.
We're always focused on operational, regulatory and
geopolitical risks but don't anticipate any impacting our 2. We as a company have reaped economic gains as the
merchants at the moment. It's important to note that we've overall economy has experienced. The principal reason
always grounded ourselves in a low-risk merchant base is people are spending more as unemployment is at an
and have been vigilant in maintaining those standards, all-time low, which of course infuses more money into
regardless of the current economic cycle. It can be easy to purchasing goods and services. Additionally, with the
let your guard down and believe that trees will grow to stock market at all-time highs people feel rich as their
the sky – but that complacency usually creates problems portfolios show gains on paper, so they spend more. These
down the road. components mentioned above are ideal for the payments
industry as all the spending is infused into businesses
5. Taking full advantage of the current environment is a creating more volume and transactions.
delicate balancing act. You need to commit the resources
necessary to win business but also not over-invest and, 3. As a company, we are increasing our marketing efforts
most importantly, constantly grow your service standards. to insure we ride this wave of prosperity. Alternatively, we
With a growing economy comes a lot of demanding are also acting responsibly with the understanding how
merchants; meeting the expectations of those merchants the economy works and preparing for a rainy day scenario.
involves staying on top of the latest trends. To truly We are not taking on debt and putting too much risk out
be successful in this environment, ISOs/MLSs need to there just because we have experienced a tremendous
anticipate the needs of emerging merchants and exceed number of sunny days the last several years.
those expectations.
4. There are several cautionary signs of concern. The
economy simply cannot continue on its current course

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