Turning Frustration into Action
Scraps is a bike-powered compost pickup and zero-waste event service business based in Denver, Colorado. The company got its start when founder, Christi Turner, grew frustrated by the lack of composting options in her community—condos and apartments in Denver do not have access to city composting programs. In early 2017, Christi quit her full-time office job to turn that frustration into action.
“I was waiting around for someone else to do it and it just didn’t happen, so I decided I needed to do what I could with what I had,” said Christi.
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Christi has a strong background in sustainability work and a passion for living a low-impact lifestyle, one that does not include owning a car. She knew that if she was going to start a composting business, she wanted it to align with her ideals and remain 100% pedal-powered to avoid adding any additional pollutants to the air. In June 2017, Scraps made its first pickup, and by July 2017, Christi completed her last side job and began working on Scraps full-time.
Christi now employs 2 part-time workers and an intern who help her service over 250 customers throughout the Denver metro area. The business runs with a fleet of 2 specially-designed trikes and an additional bike cart. Scraps does a mix of residential and commercial pickups, with clients including popular Denver restaurants like Beast + Bottle. They also run zero-waste stations for community events such as Slow Food Nations.
The Search for a Payment Processor With a Personal Touch
With Scraps’ rapid growth, Christi has found herself being pulled in numerous different directions. She must balance the demands of marketing the business, running payroll, managing the logistics of all pickup routes, accepting payments, not to mention keeping up with her assigned pickups. You’ll still find Christi out on the road, towing her compost cart 4+ days a week!
Constantly on the go, Christi needs all of her business systems to not only align with her mission—to do good in the world —but also be incredibly easy to use, efficient, and most importantly, mobile.
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When searching for payment processors, she wanted nothing to do with the big-box solutions that offer almost no human support or customization. Being able to speak with a real person on the phone was incredibly important to Christi, who offers the same 1:1 service to her clients.
A Solution as Mobile as Her Business
After a Google search, Christi came across PaySimple and decided to give the sales team a call. She quickly realized that the PaySimple office is actually right around the corner from where Christi lives and runs her business. PaySimple’s simplicity and commitment to service, plus the fact that it is part of the community Christi serves, made it an obvious choice.
Christi signed on with PaySimple from the get-go, and said that having a payment processor on her side that she could trust, and get in touch with whenever she needed, gave her the confidence to make the leap and go full-time with the business.
More Biking, Less Chasing Checks
With PaySimple in her back pocket, Christi can feel confident knowing her payments are being collected and deposited into her bank account seamlessly.
“I needed a payment system that allowed me to be mobile. I never want to make my way back to the office I ran from! With PaySimple running in the background, I can check in on my laptop or my phone wherever I am.”
She uses PaySimple Payment Forms to get new customers signed up, and allows her customers to opt into recurring billing, so she doesn’t ever waste time making collections phone calls or chasing down checks. On the first of the month, all customer accounts are debited and Christi automatically receives a report from PaySimple showing all the payments that have gone through.
In the past year, Scraps has grown 85X, from 1 customer using the PaySimple portal to over 250.
“I certainly couldn’t do that on my own. Receiving 250 checks a month would be a nightmare!” said Christi.
Scraps plans to continue to spread its services throughout the Denver Metro area, and is currently looking to hire more employees to achieve its mission. Christi remains committed to doing what she loves:
“I feel like I’ll never have to leave the part that I love about Scraps, which is being on the bike and interacting with customers directly. I don’t ever want to get back to a place where I’m stuck in an office all day. I won’t have to with PaySimple.”
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