[caption id="attachment_165447" align="alignright" width="385"] Photo by Eric Crossan[/caption]

Mercantile Processing, Inc.
Location: Frankford
Mpiprocessing.com

Mercantile Processing Inc. is a company focused on providing businesses the ability to accept electronic forms of payment. 

What have been the biggest obstacles your company has faced over the past three years, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest obstacle was the implementation of the chip card. We were required to go back to clients and convince them to spend money on hardware and software upgrades to become EMV compliant. We spent six months working through our client base which led to more customers as other processors were not being proactive.

Looking back, what’s the biggest mistake you made and what would you do differently if you could?
Trying to go national too soon. In 2014 we attempted to recruit sales and partners on a national level before we had the capital and staffing. This growth attempt was a large spend with small return. We did learn a lot from the experience and refocused to regional sales. We are more successful in our backyard working with merchants that we also shop or eat at.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned over the past three years?
In my opinion, hiring is the hardest job of any business owner. We've learned how to sort through resumes and candidates with more diligence. We also learned if the candidates are not right, start over. Being short-staffed is better than having the wrong employee.