We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Christian a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After going to a refill shop in California while visiting family, and after I had recently left a job, I decided that I wanted to bring the refill shop concept to my small, Missouri college town! To avoid the expenses of a store front, and to stay within my savings budget of 10k, I decided to start the business out of my basement. The plan was to sell my products at farmer’s and artisan’s markets and to provide product delivery locally.

Bringing this plan to fruition required multi-tasking, as I hired a lawyer, an accountant, a marketing specialist and a web developer, all while also trying to figure out what products to sell! We needed a lawyer because my life partner also wanted to serve as a silent, investing partner in the business, and we needed legal expertise to form an LLC partnership. The accountant answered my banking questions and set me up with QuickBooks. My marketing specialist is someone who only works with mission-based businesses or not-for-profits and she walked me through an interactive process to establish my business vision, mission and goals before we even got to creating a mood board, choosing my brand colors and developing a logo.

Building my website proved to be one of the most difficult parts of the process. The nature of the zero waste refill concept made the home operation especially complicated, as I needed to deliver products to people’s homes in reusable containers, and figure out a way to refill them. It took me and my web developer a long time to figure out how to sell both containers and products to folks, while also having an online refill option.
Identifying wholesale products that met my quality, ethical and environmental standards was also challenging. I spent a lot of time researching online and also going to local farmer’s markets to meet local soap and body care product makers.

I was able to purchase enough products to start with a small offering. I also found a business downtown who had enough space to share with me so I could have pop-ups and in-person product drop-offs and pick-ups. As mentioned, I would also deliver new, full, refillable containers to customers. When my online customers were finished with their products I would bring them new, full containers and pickup their used, dirty containers and then clean those containers to be refilled. It was incredibly labor intensive!! But I did operate my business this way for a about a year and I did build up a small following/clientele. However, in retrospect, I should have avoided the expensive marketing specialist and the timely, costly online store and instead invested my start up capital in an actual storefront. At the time it seemed very logical to start the store out of my basement, but the refill aspect of my business just didn’t work with an at-home, online model. In this case, I should have started with more!

I was very lucky that my in-laws agreed to loan me the capital to start an actual store front, and I was able to open my store in 2023. After managing the difficult online business, the store felt really simple, and we have grown every year since being open! The one benefit I did get from starting from home was experience. Having the experience of working with vendors and customers before having an actual store, which got a lot busier than my online business, was very helpful.

Leah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The mission of my business, The Clean Refill, is to reduce single use plastic waste and to make consciously clean, zero waste products accessible to everyone in our community. I was raised to be very environmentally conscious. I spent part of my childhood on a vegetarian farm in southern Missouri that had compostable toilets and a grey water system. We made organic tofu by hand and traded it with other communities for produce and nut butter!

As an adult, I was drawn to a career of service and I received my Masters Degree in Public Policy with an emphasis in Environmental Policy from the University of Missouri. I worked in the non-profit and government sector for a number of years before realizing that the bureaucracy moved too slowly for me! I wanted to do something that would make a real difference in the world and I wanted to be in charge. I stumbled across a refill shop while visiting California and I fell in love with the idea.

At the Clean Refill, we sell almost any product you would need for your home, except food, in bulk, so customers can bring in their own containers to fill, or they can buy one from us, or they can grab one from our donation bin (we accept clean donated containers for our customers to use). We do measure how many bottles we keep from entering the landfill (measuring impact is something I learned from grad school and working for the government). After being open for 3 years, we have kept more than 80,000 plastic bottles out of the landfill (we track these numbers through our sales). I am very proud of this fact. I am also proud that nothing we sell contains parabens or phthalates, ingredients used as preservatives and in fragrances for many home and body products, which are endocrine disrupters that cause negative health outcomes. And, finally, I am proud that 70% of the products we sell are made in Missouri. As a small business, we support our local economy and we also work with lots of other small businesses who are part of our local economy!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

My business is local, so my most effective marketing strategy is word of mouth. I would say that at least 70% of my new customers told me that they heard about my store from a friend. The rest tell me that they heard about the store through social media or drove by. This means that every interaction I have with a new customer must be stellar and that we must offer quality products at an affordable price. I put a ton of work into customer service and I provide hands-on help and instruction for any new customer, since shopping at our store is a very new process for many people. I also put a lot into training new employees so they can provide the best customer service possible. I also put a lot of effort into my regular customers, and I would say that many of them have become not only loyal customers, but friends. My advice to anyone that wants to start a retail business, you must be a people person!

Any advice for managing a team?

I manage a small team of only 2-3 employees at a time and they are all pretty young: 18-22. My store is in a college town so I generally employ college students. My biggest success with employees has come from recruiting employees who have a passion for our store’s mission to reduce single-use plastic waste. Therefore, I tend to find my employees by reaching out to the environmental organizations on the local University of Missouri campus.

If you can find employees who care about what you do, whether it be skin care or car maintenance, you will have employees who work harder and better for you.

Additionally, if you own an establishment that is more likely to employ young people, like retail or food service, remember to try not to micro-manage or to be too critical. This is something that I really struggle with. It’s really hard to hand over your business that you have put so much work into, over to someone who is not nearly as detailed oriented as you are. I constantly remind myself to be patient, to remember that my employees are always learning and always getting better at their jobs and that nobody is perfect!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thecleanrefill.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_clean_refill_como/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecleanrefill.co/

Image Credits

Trischa Splitter took all of my professional looking photos.