First Global Merchant Services and my story:

Hi I am Alan Nathan, a small business owner just like you. I have been in business for myself for a more than 26 years. If you have time I would like to share a shortened version of who I am, and how First Global got its roots. I am the 4th of 5 children of my mom and dad, Marion and Joseph Nathan. While my parents were not college educated, they were the hardest working people that you could ever meet. For example: My dad, a carpenter by training, taught me the most important things that I live by today, no matter what you are doing in life:

Measure twice and cut once.
Take 100% responsibility for your actions.
You must always tell the truth.

Mom, on the other hand, would always say that I was able to get along with everyone around me, and I was also always lending a helping hand. Needless to say, these are some of the principles that guide me today and every day to come. After guiding me and giving me the opportunity to get a good education in West Hartford, CT, graduating from William H. Hall High in 1976, I entered the University of Connecticut. After 4 wonderful years at UConn I graduated with a Bachelors of Science Degree, in Accounting.

Ok now the "real" world. In 1980, with my Accounting Degree in hand, I started in ABB Combustion Engineering's Financial Training Program, headquartered in Connecticut. This was an excellent program for a young professional, as it offered me a chance to travel, and as you can imagine being from a family of five children we did not wonder to far from home. The travel allowed me to see the entire country. Next, I went to work for Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), then one of the "Big 8"CPA firms. Two quick observations about PwC, 1) all accounting graduates should work in a major accounting firm, and 2) Public Accounting is my calling. After a few awesome years at PwC, I knew it was time for me to work for myself… when the partner's sent me to Montpellier VT, in dead of the winter, because they "needed me" on this audit. Ordinarily not so bad, except my wife was in her 9th month with our first child, over five hours away at a time when the wheels of my car would stick to the ground, due to the cold! (Yes, I made it home with a day or 2 to spare!)

So I began with a local Certified Public Accounting firm (and the real experiences begin). Our firm, Nathan Accounting Group, is known for serving many individuals and business owners with preparation of their income tax returns, and more generally with the profitability of their business. As you know, you cannot just shake yourself loose of your history, no matter how hard you try: so I now had clients who needed additional help with their business' which lead us to create a bookkeeping division a few years later. This division continues to grow rapidly as we are able to help clients get rid of this very time consuming burden. Then, I found over and over again that clients were unhappy with the inconsistent service of the "large" payroll companies. So, naturally being the help my mom says that I am, I found the best people and we began a full service payroll bureau known as (NPD Payroll.) Needless to say, that the clients of the CPA, bookkeeping, payroll companies are happy knowing that these tedious tasks are now handled professionally and efficiently.

The union of these financial services clearly made sense for the clients on so many levels. And as importantly all of these services are now being handled by me, a CPA. We would not have started the Merchant Services business, if we did not find such discrepancies amount our accounting and bookkeeping clients. From one client to the next we were always finding that the credit card charges would fluctuation; we found that credit card statements were nearly impossible to decipher. So, we asked our clients "if we offered a payment processing service that was informative, clear and well priced, would you use it?" Overwhelmingly, clients said collectively "we would very much appreciate you helping us with this credit card mystery." Since we began, First Global Merchant Services, we have helped hundreds of clients save money, and become more educated how to lower their fees on their own and read their statements. That's the story on how we began.

Thank you for taking the time to read the shortened version of the First Global and essentially my story. If you would like to tell me all about why, how, and when you started your business, I would love to hear about it. Thanks again.