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To put that sum in context: daughter Ashley also got a job as a recruiter. The call cen-
at 50 basis points the residual payout ter was used primarily to set up appointments for outside
on $1.6 trillion for the three months sales reps, as well as some telesales.
of the second quarter would Eventually, the center was shuttered, and rather than re-
have been $8 million. locate, the mother-daughter duo became the Credit Card
Ladies. A second daughter, Christina, helps out the duo in
customer service.
Ashley remembers vividly the first time she landed a deal
Tapping into a $100 billion market on her own. "I approached it just like you said, Mom," she
Much of the draw for potential merchant services sales relayed to her mother during a joint interview with The
agents is tied up with the earnings opportunities. In a Green Sheet. "And when they brought up an objection, I
2021 report, the consultancy McKinsey & Co. predicted used the response you gave me, and it worked. I was so
U.S. merchants will spend more than $100 billion on pay- excited. I couldn't wait to call and tell you about my very
ment services by 2025, fueled largely by small and midsize own first sale."
businesses.
Morris hopes his daughter, who is just 11, eventually will
The Visa network, alone, processed nearly $1.6 trillion in make her way into the business. "She talks with the serv-
credit and debit card payments during the second quar- ers at restaurants already about the equipment they use,"
ter of 2023. To put that sum in context: at 50 basis points he said. "She's like, 'Oh, you use Clover, what do you think
the residual payout on $1.6 trillion for the three months of of it?' Things like that. She thinks this is a fun job."
the second quarter would have been $8 million. And that's
just one card brand, and then there are the residual oppor- Emily Karawadra said all three of her daughters started
tunities from value-added services. out in their teens working at Impact. They began with
"odd work, like data entry, filing and customer service,"
In its report, Merchant acquiring and the $100 billion op- she said. Morgan Withee, her oldest, began working at the
portunity in small business, McKinsey noted that many of office when she was just 12; today, she is vice president of
the value-added services ISOs and agents are selling come operations.
out of buyers' marketing budgets, which are less austere.
"Meanwhile, as the payments business becomes more in- "Ironically [as a youngster, Morgan] used to beg me to
tegrated into software, merchant-services providers can answer the phone. She doesn't beg any more," Karawadra
address larger value pools," the consultancy wrote. These quipped. Here's what makes her the proudest, though:
pools include financial and non-financial services, like Morgan, she said, "shares the same passion for our cus-
software, payroll services, financing, loyalty and advertis- tomers, sales agents and partners! We could not be better
ing. represented with her running operations."
Building legacies
As McKinsey's consultants see things, the successful ac-
quirers, ISOs and sales reps going forward "need to focus Kyle Thorpe, president of Infinity Payment Systems, got
on tailored solutions that go beyond payments." Some of into merchant services by walking in his father's footsteps.
the most attractive verticals, based on McKinsey's analy- His dad entered the industry in 1999 and established an
sis, include restaurants, a segment that charted a com- ISO in 2001. "When I graduated from high school I de-
bined annual growth rate of 10 to 12 percent between 2015 cided to learn the business from A-Z, and I've been in it
and 2020, subscriptions (12 to 15 percent CAGR), and gov- ever since," Thorpe said in response to a Facebook query.
ernment and nonprofits (8 to 10 percent CAGR). "Now with a team of 35, and growing, I wouldn't have it
any other way."
Sharing a passion for sales and service

Emily Karawadra entered merchant services at the age of He is not alone. "We are second generation, and when my
19, working in the chargebacks department at Concord daughter graduates from college in a year, her plan is to
EFS, which was eventually acquired by First Data Corp., join the business, too," Trisha Van Ornum Handrich re-
which is now part of Fiserv. Karawadra worked her way sponded to a query.
through various departments and acquisitions, until she
left as a director of sales. Today, she is chief financial of- Looking to the future, both Ashley and Cheryl, the Credit
ficer at Tennessee-based Impact PaySystem; her husband, Card Ladies, are hopeful that other family members will
Dee, is CEO. Their three daughters also work there. join them, and not just the women. "We're building this
business for the kids," Cheryl said. Ashley added, "This is
Cheryl Lewis has had a long career in sales. "I've sold something I can pass on to my son."
timeshares, I've sold PIN pads, and I sold ATMs until we
seemed to cover the market," she recalled. Lewis moved to Morris has a similar game plan. "Eventually, I hope to turn
Oklahoma to run a call center for Ameribanc, where her things over to my son and daughter," he said.
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