In my earlier years of my career I had the luxury of working for a passionate entrepreneur who became a mentor to me very quickly. He helped me to learn the ropes of managing a business but more importantly saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. He pushed me to take risks and promoted me into roles that I didn't think I could handle. During my career at Tangarine Payment Solutions, I found that I had a knack for building strong and critical business relationships. I am proud to say that I am still in touch with most of these partners through one way or another and have turned to some of these for additional mentoring. As most of us do, I have tried to build a network around me of other strong business men and woman that I can turn to at any time.
One of those relationships was with a vendor we used at that time called Now Prepay. I always loved having meetings with George DeMarchi and Grace Caputo as they were a no nonsense duo but were also truly interested in how they could be the best solution for us. I remember feeling at that time that they built their business around the same foundations and passion as we had done at Tangarine. It was a true start up business at a time when the technology was just starting to advance - each Company had a vision of the future and that excited me.
When it came time for me to leave Tangarine, I looked to the relationships that I had made over the many years and after a few adventures, I was lucky enough to be selected as the Manager of Customer Service at Now Prepay. I was incredibly excited to be able to work with these two amazing people again and had a burning desire to soak up as much as possible. Fast forward seven years and A LOT of changes, I am now the Director of Customer Service and Sales and am feeling incredibly blessed that I work for such an amazing Company. The Company is now known at Payment Source and spans across three offices in Canada - one in Toronto, one in Ottawa, and one in Vancouver. We still offer retailers across Canada a prepaid program under the brand Now Prepay, but this is not all that we do. The advances we are making for the payment and prepaid market are tremendous and the solutions that we are able to offer to both retailers and consumers is only getting better as we focus on key areas like convenience, ease of use, and of course demand. I wish you could all spend a day here to understand what we do and to hear George explain it in his most passionate way that just makes you have goosebumps when he is finished.
I often get asked why I deal with the 3.5 hour round trip commute (living in Niagara but working in Etobicoke can put some miles on the car) and my response is always this, 'I would think it would be obvious - it is because of the Company itself and the passionate people I work for - no one would be crazy to do a 3.5 hour commute if they didn't love what they did and are surrounded by like minded people!' But it is more then that, so if you are still with me, I hope you don't mind but I am going to share with you the top reasons why I work for such an amazing group of people.
- The passion is contagious and widespread! Whether you sit in the Customer Service team or are creating code for the latest innovation, our team is exceptionally passionate for the role they are playing.
- Entrepreneurial mindsets are leading the Company to bigger and better things. I am constantly reminded of how skilled our team really is and how we have the ability to adapt and pivot to move projects through. I mean, how many people can say that they work for a Company that is helping to pave the way for alternative payment solutions by partnering with such names as Canada Post and Canada Revenue Agency (hears a little secret, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what we can do)! We are providing solutions for the local convenience/retail store for value add prepaid programs, to the unbanked or new to Canada consumer that needs to make a payment online or using cash to pay for their taxes.
- We are family, all my brothers and sisters and me….ok so maybe this is a little cliché but we really do work together like a family. As an example, every Thursday or Friday each office ‘breaks bread’ together with a Company supplied lunch where we take time to celebrate our colleague’s successes, birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, you name it. The other six days of the week we help support each other in and out of the office. From helping a colleague move to their new house on the weekend, giving advice on how to handle a service situation, adding suggestions on how to implement a new product or service, to whooping it up together celebrating the years successes. I can also personally attest to the many treats from jars of homemade tomato sauce, Italian cookies, to lots and lots of Timmies and Starbucks!
- We are a very transparent Company so you will share in our successes and also understand our hiccups or bumps in the road. More importantly, you have a voice here – really, you do. We have a team of idea generators and we take this very seriously. We are making changes to our systems, tools, programs, incentives, you name it, on a daily basis based on the feedback from our team. There is no idea too small or too big or too stupid.
- The benefits are in the benefits! Included in our employment package, we receive a full benefits program (including those pesky eyes for those of us that have four of them), a group RRSP program with a Company matching component, additional days off for volunteering and personal days outside of vacation time, a healthy (and not so healthy) snack cupboard to help for those times you need a pick me up, and special staff functions a few times a year to take a step away from the hustle and bustle to have some fun.
There are so many other reasons why this is a great place to work for but please trust me when I say this, I feel incredibly supported here and don't ever feel that I am not valued. For all of the reasons above and the many more that I don't have enough time or space to share, I encourage you to look at the Payment Source website, check us out on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and of course here on Linkedin, and if you feel that this sounds like a place you would want to work then send your resume along. Please take a look at our Careers page for more information as we are currently looking for some great candidates within our Sales and Customer Service teams (in Toronto and Ottawa), as well as Business Development, Card Services, and Key Account Managers.
In conclusion, I want to thank those who have helped me get to where I am at today and feel incredibly blessed to have worked for some pretty awesome people. As one of my other mentors used to remind me, 'Do you want to quack like a duck, or soar like an eagle?' If you are an eagle, then here is where you need to be!