A New York-based credit card processing company, which views Florida as a promised land for new merchant customers, is looking to hire up to 1,000 people around the state to capture new clients.
The firm is Merchant Industry, which set up a Florida headquarters in Plantation last February.
In a statement, the company said it is offering “1,000 high-paying jobs in the coming year, with 100 positions open immediately.” Around 500 people would work in South Florida.
The jobs are in direct sales — essentially hitting the bricks and knocking on potential customer doors. The base annual salary is $50,000, a sum that can grow through bonuses and commissions, said Christopher Benabu, co-founder and chief operating officer, in a telephone interview.
Founded in 2006 in Long Island City, N.Y., Merchant Industry says it provides processing services for more than 100,000 merchants across the U.S.
The company set up shop in South Florida, Benabu said, because the region “is very pro business” and offers a large pool of talent.
“We believe this is a friendlier place to do business” than in New York. he said. “We needed to get down here and we wanted to physically be present. There’s an absolute ton of opportunity. We feel there is less competition here than in the tri-state [New York-New Jersey-Connecticut] area.”
Processing companies help businesses such as retailers and restaurants accept credit and debit card payments by connecting the card networks, the issuing banks and a business’s own payment processing account. When a customer swipes a card at a store or pays for a product online, the processing company enables the secure transfer of customer data for payment approval, collects money from an issuing bank and deposits the funds into the merchant’s account, usually within one or two business days. For each transaction, the processor is paid a fee.
Benabu expects to dispatch sales representatives not only in Broward, but also into Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to drum up new business. Orlando, Tampa and Naples are also in the company’s sights. He said close to two dozen people are pitching the company’s services in the region now.
“We probably only have about 500 merchants here,” he said. “In New York, we have a little over 20,000. Our team is out there door-to-door. We give them Zip codes and they’re physically touching doors.”
“We have very vast referral systems,” he added. “Hopefully over time we’ll be a very well-known brand.”
In Plantation, the company currently has a dozen people working in various roles such as customer support, technicians for terminals and risk and underwriting.
A formal opening of the company’s new headquarters is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday. Job applicants can visit https://www.merchantindustry.com/about-us/careers/#JOB for information.
