here are only 24 hours in a day, and it's up to you how you will spend them. This is one of several inspiring philosophies that Steve Pavent, Vice President of ISO 1A Best Inc., lives by.

"That's the beauty about America," Pavent said. "We're all equal. We all have 24 hours in a day, and it's what you do with that time that will define where you end up and what you feel like."

1A Best Inc. is a regional sales office affiliated with Business Payment Systems (BPS). Pavent and his wife, Jolie, founded the company in 2000, and since then have steadily produced about 100 merchant applications a month.

This team has done so well that BPS recognized them as its business partner of the year in 2004 and its fastest growing sales office in 2003.

Jolie has been doing much of the direct sales and Steve has been handling the contracts, negotiations, building referral relationships, recruiting and working with vendors.

"Steve Pavent, in my humble opinion, is one the industry's most respected and liked individuals that I have had the pleasure of knowing," said Steve Eazell, Director of National Sales and Marketing for Secure Payment Systems Inc.

"He is a consummate professional. I must also say that he and his wife/business partner, Jolie, are not just successful, but they are role models, both in their professional lives and in their personal lives."

Pavent said that part of his and Jolie's success comes from running an extremely efficient and organized office. It's completely paperless; everything, down to each e-mail and fax, is stored digitally in a secure document management system, he said.

Pavent, always the entrepreneur, began his career in payments in 1999 at Certified Merchant Services, which he said he quickly found out and "for obvious reasons, wasn't the place to be." He then worked for a while with Electronic Exchange Systems as a one-man show signing 10 - 20 merchant applications a month.

In 2000, Pavent moved to First Merchant Bankcard Services (FMBS), which iPayment later purchased and consolidated into Online Data Corp. in 2002. At FMBS, Jolie joined him, and as a husband and wife team, the two produced 20 - 30 merchant applications each month and began recruiting and supporting salespeople locally.

"I got into this business and established myself as a strong, one-man shop, and Jolie had worked in sales at a medical company," Pavent said.

"Having our own business and having a residual income stream is the way we wanted to go as a family. We've never looked back, and it's just been great."

The Pavents run their office, which is the Southeast sales office for BPS, in Tampa/St. Petersburg in the winter months and in northeast Georgia in the summer. Both metropolitan areas are hot payments markets.

Their customers include the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the entire Beaches Chambers of Commerce in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.

They started hosting local business educational seminars for the chambers, with the theme "Educating Merchants About Electronic Processing."

The seminars provide an overview of different payment methods, what to expect to pay, what to watch out for and the benefits, and this ultimately helped them win the business.

"You have to be willing to give to get," Pavent said. "Another philosophy I try to live by is 'I will bend over backward for anyone, but I will bend over forward for no one.'"

Pavent describes himself as demanding, but also matter-of-fact and extremely organized and said he will do anything for his customers and partners.

"It's hard to find people that actually do what they say they are going to do, and Steve is one of those people," said Juan Ortiz, Business Development Manager for Online Data Corp. Ortiz met Pavent about two years ago when Online Data merged with the company Pavent previously worked with.

"He's really trying to build a customer for life," Ortiz said. "He will try to get you the best deal and serve you as long as you are in business. He's very hard working and very thorough. I'm a recruiter, so I see a lot of people, and Steve is very real. I enjoy being around him."

Little Fish, Big Success

1A Best Inc. has recently expanded into working with independent contractors, or merchant level salespeople (MLSs), whom Pavent considers a vital force in the payments industry.

"Many of the companies that have exploded onto the scene in the past several years have done it working with the smaller independent salesperson," Pavent said.

From 1996 to 1998 Pavent ran his own healthcare recruiting business, U.S. Best, based in Boca Raton, Fla. He said this experience benefits him now in recruiting MLSs. "It's important to sell MLSs on what your company can do for them and then support them from that point on," Pavent said. "I know I'm a small fish, comparatively speaking, but I've always tried to be an advocate and voice for the other small fish out there, too.

"Our industry is really made up of a lot of small fish, which collectively have a lot of clout and power." Pavent writes a column for the feet on the street in an industry trade publication.

Steve has "impeccable integrity," said John Rante, President of Online Data Corp. "He has his finger on what's going on with the pulse of our industry. Any new agent getting started in our business would do exceptionally well working with Steve."

Pavent said he loves the payments industry for three reasons. First, there is the opportunity of earning residuals, which he calls "an ongoing payment for work done." Second, payment processing is a people business, and he loves working with people.

And last but not least, he feels it's also a dynamic industry, one with a lot of change and "newness" and where a variety of new technologies are always being introduced.

"There are huge companies that exist today based on ideas that weren't around only six or seven years ago," Pavent said. He used electronic gift card processing as an example.

Selling payment-processing services is actually a service that people can use. "If you drive down the street, virtually everyone is a potential customer. It's exciting," he said.

It's also very entrepreneurial and fast moving, and Pavent loves to be on the cutting edge of things, which requires him to keep his eye on the ball.

"Once you think you've got it figured out, it changes, and I like that," he said.

Early Lessons

Pavent has more than 15 years of sales experience, although not all of it is in the payments industry. He began his sales career while in college and working for a pool company in Fall River, Mass., and this is where he learned a great deal about what kind of businessperson he wanted to be.

He described how most of the pool companies in the area would come in and "low ball" customers, promising to put in a pool in two weeks, even when they knew that was impossible. "They would dig the hole in a customer's backyard and then take their money and not come back for a long time," Pavent said.

The owner of the pool company Pavent worked for, however, was a "straightforward, honest person who took time to do his work right," Pavent said. "He always did a good job and never cut corners. He believed in under-promising and over-delivering, and all that really rubbed off on me.

"If you can sell pools in the Northeast where it's cold and rains all the time, then you have to be doing something right," he said.

Pavent has remained in sales, he said, because it's a profession within itself. And through trial and error, feedback and practice, everyone will improve.

"The better you are, commission becomes a wonderful thing because you are paid based on what you produce, not on what someone else thinks you might or might not be worth," he said.

In the time when Pavent isn't working, he's either hiking or mountain biking or doing something outdoors. In 2001, he won the Florida state championship for mountain biking and last year he placed third in the Southeast's mountain biking series.

"Both Steve and his wife are incredible athletes," Ortiz said. "They train every day, eat right, work hard, and that's how they run their business."

Pavent has pursued extreme sports most of his life, but in 1996 he nearly lost his leg in a jet ski racing accident.

"When one door closes, two or three open," Pavent said. "I believe everything happens for a reason, and it's important to keep perspective. "One minute you're in the water with your leg hanging on by a couple of strings, and the next you're in a rehab clinic where you meet the woman of your dreams," he laughed.

While undergoing physical therapy, he met Jolie, who was the Marketing Director at his rehabilitation clinic. "The rest is history," he said.

"Too many people, in business, in sales or in life, when something negative comes along, they grasp and focus on it, and it can really spin you down. Attitude is everything, and if you are doing the right thing, you will be okay."