Customer stories

The Pest Control Company

Christian Carver, Owner

The Pest Control Company, located in Bellingham, WA, is run by Christian Carver, a talented salesman, entrepreneur, and problem-solver. After several years of job-hopping, Carver decided to start his own business with the help of his brother. The business has only been around for a little over a year and Carver is pleased with its success, despite the unexpected challenges he has encountered along the way.

A new business in need of cash

When Carver decided to start the business, he moved quickly. Soon after leaving his last sales position, he purchased a truck and recruited his brother as a technician. He began testing the waters in the fall with some success; however, by spring, he had hit a wall. He needed to make $10,000 a month to pay his employees and keep the company afloat.

“My weakest attribute as a business owner was financial,” Carver mentioned.

With his small business still in its infancy, Carver knew that traditional financial institutions weren’t going to give him the credit lifeline he needed, even though he never missed a payment. “We don’t have the cash flow…there is no loan that I was going to apply for that would give me a decent rate,” he explained.

Carver relied on his own lines of credit to meet the demands of his business, but it wasn’t enough. “My personal debt had reached its limits. I had to purchase six vehicles in the last year and the business isn’t old enough to get credit,” he recalled.

Good timing
It was then that Carver received an email about Worldpay Working Capital. “It came at a pretty opportune time. Worldpay was the only one able to give me the finance that was right for my business,” said Carver.

“It was easy. And, it was good timing,” he said, “I knew we were rolling into a period where it was going to be moneymaking season.” Carver needed to scale his business to meet demand and cover his financial obligations.

“I didn’t have enough money to pay everybody and do everything that we needed to do…I had a sales tax bill from the previous quarter,” he explained.

The right setup

Carver used most of his advance to pay off his sales tax bill. The remainder was used to help with cash flow and payroll, setting his business up for success before summer, his busiest season.

Working Capital made sense to Carver as a way to move forward. “The way it’s set up, I like the ease of it,” Carver mentioned.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold, Carver didn’t experience a dip in activity like other small businesses and his employees were able to work through the shutdowns.

“We’re slammed. We’re doing about $1,000 a day with each technician, and I need another one. I’m going to have to turn my marketing off,” Carver explained.

Big plans on the horizon
The funding from Working Capital helped Carver meet his business’s high demand and now he’s using his current success to propel him toward his bigger company goals.

“I’m getting our entire financial foundation in place,” he said, “I see us being profitable this year, likely by the end of the summer.”