Ashton Meyer is the owner of Your Bin Cleaning, a garbage bin cleaning service he started in York Region. (Courtesy: Alyssa Meyer)
What started off as doing chores to make extra money turned into a successful garbage bin cleaning business for an 11-year-old boy from York Region, Ashton Meyer, who also went viral for his go-getter mentality and hard work ethic.
When Meyer asked his father, Jonathan, what he could do to make some extra money, he was told to wheel the garbage bins from the garage to the curb.
After noticing how dirty the bins were, Ashton came up with the idea to start a neighborhood bin-cleaning business called Your Bin Cleaning. Supported by his parents, he began documenting his door-to-door sales pitch, capturing both the successful yeses and the rejections.
“We were happy, and I’m glad to see him work. I’m glad to see him learn how to run a business and how to learn how to do sales and how to interact with adults,” Jonathan Meyer told The Brandon Gonez Show.
Contrary to a lot of kids who might see this kind of work as “chores” or something they dislike, for Ashton it is quite the opposite.
“I like going door to door. I enjoy doing that. I like doing the job, like cleaning garbage bins, because I like seeing them clean,” Ashton shared. “I like pressure washing all the dirt and grime off. It’s very satisfying.”
Ashton has gained over 100,000 social media followers, and his most viral video gained over one million likes. The video shows him, bravely trying to get more clients and facing some rejection, but at such a young age, he takes it with a smile and doesn’t give up.
“It’s crazy. Like I never thought I’d make it this far. I never thought I’d get millions of views on a video. Never thought people would be so supportive of me on the internet,” said Ashton.
Jonathan shared that Ashton would practice his sales pitch at home and he would help him through it, giving him tips along the way.
Ashton Meyer (left) with his father Jonathan Meyer (right), who shares with The Brandon Gonez Show how proud he is of his son’s accomplishments, and is excited for his future. (Courtesy: Alyssa Meyer)
Ashton is motivating other children to launch their own business ventures; his father noting that a young boy from Hamilton contacted them to share that he has kicked off his very own garbage bin cleaning service.
“A lot of people have reached out from all over the world, saying how Ashton’s inspiring them to encourage their kids to get a job,” said Jonathan. “There’s lots of doors, and it’s not competition. And we kind of encourage kids to get out there and do it,” he added.
Ashton hopes to expand his business so that he can continue to make some money in the fall and winter months, and is planning to invest some of his earnings in buying equipment, and of course towards having fun.
“My plan with the money is to buy a PC because ours is ancient; it’s older than me, so it’s really, really old. And also, I’d like to invest into my company and buy like a power broom, leaf blower, so I could do snow shovelling and leaf raking and blowing. I did buy a new scooter, which is fun,” he said.
He is advising those that want to start their own business to not wait for the “perfect time”, but to trust in yourself, take the leap and to not give up when things are hard.
“When I wanted to start my own business, I was contemplating, and I was like, I’m gonna wait for the perfect time when everybody needs their bins to be taken out, and that never came. And I was contemplating and contemplating, the perfect time is never going to come. You just need to start the business, and the first no is always the hardest,” he shared.
At such a young age, his work ethic and outlook on life has made his father and his family proud and excited for his bright future.
“I am excited to see where he goes with it and take this experience. Especially the communication stuff, personally, professionally, and I think it’ll be a very big asset for him moving forward. And I can’t wait to see how he does it,” said his father.
