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

Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Scrap2Home started during the Covid pandemic when everyone was at home looking for something to do. I noticed at construction sites in my neighborhood how much wood was thrown into dumpsters, obviously headed for the landfill. I don’t like waste of anything – food, time, money, energy, resources – and I kept thinking to myself, “I could build something with all that wood.” I don’t consider myself an expert woodworker but I enjoy it. I have three children; the second is a girl, Katie, who likes to build with me. Katie and I would drive up to construction sites and ask if we could take their scrap. Of course they never cared and happily gave it away. My wife, Amy, looked up simple furniture designs on line. Katie and I would build and Amy would paint or stain. It was all very small scale out of the garage at home and was really something to do during Covid. We always intended to donate the furniture and found a local nonprofit that was happy to take it. After we made a few items I started to wonder if we could scale this up and actually impact our community in a positive way. I wondered if we could save a significant amount of wood and help people who needed furniture but could not afford to buy it. With the support of my wife, I went part time at my teaching job and created Scrap2Home as a 501(c)3. In September of 2022 we started building with volunteers in a woodshop; this is what I consider the start of Scrap2Home. The whole thing just seemed logical to me: use something that was getting thrown away to help people in need. I didn’t know of anyone else doing something similar with wood. Lots of other materials get repurposed in some way and I didn’t see any reason we couldn’t do it with wood. To date, we have saved more than 30,000 pounds of wood from the landfill and built more than 1000 items. The concept seems to be working!

Nick, 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?

I am an educator by training and I’ve worked mainly at the high school level for nearly 30 years as a PE teacher, coach, high school principal, and director of a program called experiential learning. Starting Scrap2Home was something very different for me. I’m not sure I considered myself an entrepreneur in any way but this idea really got me excited. Our society feels so wasteful to me; there is so much trash and so many people in need, and I got motivated by the idea of trying to make a small impact. I also enjoy woodworking. One of the most gratifying parts of this whole venture has been the people who have helped – volunteers, donors, advisors, etc. They have shown me the good that exists in so many people. Also, it is quite exciting to see the numbers steadily increase over time. I did not really know if the whole thing would work but now I know it can. I guess that’s pretty exciting.

Any advice for managing a team?

I think it’s important to deliberately create a culture within your organization. You have to think about what really matters to you and make sure you work towards those values. The people who work/volunteer for you need to know that they are essential. When I started Scrap2Home, I knew volunteers would be crucial for our success, so I wanted to develop a community among this important group of people. To that end, we always sit down at the end of a building session and eat together. If it’s a morning build, I bring supplies for making a simple lunch. At the end of an afternoon build, we have tea and baked goods.(I am originally from England, so teatime is very appropriate and my wife is an excellent baker!) This time has become an integral part of what we do. It is hard to have a conversation in a noisy woodshop, so lunch/teatime has provided the opportunity for the volunteers to bond as a group. Also, I think it’s important to celebrate successes as they occur. I try to make a point of commenting on how good the items look and congratulating the volunteers for their work. Workers/Volunteers need to hear on a regular basis that their efforts are appreciated.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There have been various times in my life when I made a decision to pivot to do something quite different. In my mid-twenties I had already accepted a PE teaching job when I was offered an assistantship for graduate school in a new country. (This is what brought me from England to the U.S.) After talking with the school leadership, I decided to forgo the job and accept the place in graduate school. A year into our marriage, my wife and I quit our full-time jobs and travelled for about fourteen months to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and some Pacific islands. After seven years as a PE teacher at an independent high school, I was offered the position as the Principal. This would be a big step for any teacher, especially a PE teacher at an academically-focused school, but I decide to accept and was Principal for seven years. Seven years later I was developing a new program at the school in experiential learning. We needed a Director and I decided to put myself forward for the new role. I ran that program for eight years, finally leaving education to start the nonprofit I now run.
All these changes in direction were driven by my desire to do something that energized me. There was some risk involved in all of them, I guess, but I saw them as opportunities to do something that excited me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.scrap2home.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085369272891
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-francis-6847b050/