LOVELAND – For Ken Salazar, president of Payment Solutions in Loveland (no relation to the Secretary of the Interior), the greatest competition his company faces isn’t the comparable pricing or services of other electronic payment processing agencies; it’s the empty promises they make.

“That lack of follow-through, the non-delivery is what has put all companies like mine in a bad light. It’s one of the biggest roadblocks we have to overcome with new clients,” he said.

The Great Recession hasn’t been as much of a roadblock for the company that processes credit and debit card transactions for bricks-and-mortar retailers as well as providing e-commerce solutions for Internet-based customers.

“We’ve looked at the recession as an opportunity, not an obstacle. It has helped us help our merchant clients to become more efficient with electronic payments, which has reduced their fees and made a positive impact on their bottom lines,” Salazar explained. “Overall, our processing volume was down approximately 12 percent, but we offset those losses through acquisition of new clients. Last year we grew our client base from 2,500 to over 5,000.”

And with 62 percent revenue growth from 2009 to 2010 – from $3.5 million to $5.7 million – the company earned the No. 14 spot on the Northern Colorado Business Report’s Mercury 100 list of the fastest growing companies in the region for 2011.

“Our focus is providing turn-key solutions for merchants,” Salazar said. “We partner with companies that develop technologies and products that we use to find the best-fit product suites for our clients. Technology is changing virtually every day, and there are so many different platforms, it doesn’t make sense for us to try and develop proprietary software. This way, we have the ability to choose which products and services will suit our individual merchant’s needs.”

Average Mom-and-Pop client

Approximately 80 percent of Payment Solutions clients are retail, 15 percent online and 5 percent “other.” The average merchant is a Mom-and-Pop shop.

“No doubt, the independent retailers are our bread and butter, but we work with franchise operations and other large organizations, too,” Salazar said.

In 2010, nearly $1 billion was processed through the company for clients. Payment Solutions has 16 sales regions from coast to coast, making the company a national industry player.

In January 2010, Payment Solutions moved from a 2,600-square-foot building in Greeley to a new 15,000-square-foot facility in Centerra. According to Salazar, building made more sense than buying an existing structure. He was able to get exactly what his company needed more inexpensively than what was available on the commercial sales market at the time.

“It’s put us in a good place for long-term future plans,” he said.

Salazar now has a talent pool of almost 220,000 potential employees within a 10-mile radius, compared to 85,000 within 10 miles of Greeley. The Loveland location is attractive to people as far south as Longmont, where they’ve gotten a tremendous response from potential new hires. Between 2009 and 2010, the company grew from 26 employees to 84. The new facility has room for 60 more projected team members this year. Salazar credits his “phenomenal leadership team” with Payment Solutions’ rapid growth. The team focuses on being at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, with mobile technology squarely in their sights.

The future of mobile technology has Salazar very excited for his company’s potential growth.

“It’s a game changer,” he said. “Mobile payment processing is expected to exceed Internet transactions by about three times. It’s a huge market, and we’re not even at the starting line yet. This next year is going to be very big for us. The sky is the limit.”