An 11-year-old boy who once cried after hearing “no” while pitching his business to a stranger now has dozens of customers, a rapidly growing social media following and plans to turn his small trash-bin cleaning service into a year-round business.
Ashton Meyer launched YourBinCleaning in York Region, Ontario, in May, charging neighbors $10 to clean their grimy garbage bins. Within weeks, he had built a customer list of roughly 30 to 40 people, and his journey from nervous first-time entrepreneur to determined young businessman had attracted attention far beyond his neighborhood.
But the most remarkable part of Ashton's story isn't how quickly the business grew.
It's what happened before it did.
He had to learn how to hear “no” without letting it stop him.
It started with a simple idea
The business began with an ordinary neighborhood observation.
Ashton's father, Jonathan Meyer, had noticed older people on their street who might appreciate help with their garbage. What looked like an unpleasant chore to most people looked to him like a small opportunity for his son.
“My dad came up with this business plan because there’s older people on my street,” Ashton told CP24. “He said, ‘You should go bring their garbages from their garage to their curb.’”
Jonathan saw a second opportunity hidden inside the first.
“Plus, it’s a good way to just start putting yourself out there and trying to get some money and learn the value of your time,” he told CP24.
So Ashton began going door to door.
The service eventually became more than taking bins to the curb. He began offering to clean grimy garbage bins for a flat $10 fee, officially launching YourBinCleaning in May.
But the young entrepreneur quickly discovered that having a business idea was one thing.
Selling it to strangers was another.
His first lesson wasn't about business
Before Ashton had customers, he had doubts.
He wasn't sure how to begin. He worried he wouldn't be good at the work. And when he finally went out and faced his first rejection, the experience was painful enough that he cried.
“Then I’m like, ‘Oh, I should do it.’ It’s a good way to make money because … I did not have money,” Ashton told CP24.
The important part was what happened afterward.
Instead of deciding that rejection meant he wasn't capable, Ashton began changing the way he looked at each interaction.
“When I go door to door, I’m like, ‘I make money off this, these may be my new customers forever and ever,’” he said.
The same door that once represented the possibility of embarrassment could now represent the possibility of a customer.
That change in perspective began to matter.
The business grew one door at a time
Ashton now divides his week between finding customers and doing the work.
He spends about two days going door to door, with his father driving him, and another two days cleaning bins. The family tries to schedule cleaning after garbage collection so the bins are empty, and Ashton averages roughly two to three bins per hour.
By July, he had about 30 to 40 customers.
But then something happened that Ashton couldn't have planned for.
People started watching him.
His most powerful advertisement was an honest one
With help from his mother, who manages the business's social media, Ashton began documenting what it was actually like to build a business by knocking on strangers' doors.
One video showed his seventh day on the job.
(Courtesy of YourBinCleaning)
It wasn't polished into a story of effortless success.
Some people hired him.
Others politely said no.
That honesty struck a chord.
The video eventually surpassed 1 million likes, while the YourBinCleaning account accumulated about 85,000 followers after the family began posting in May. Viewers particularly praised Ashton for continuing despite rejection.
The attention soon reached beyond social media. Ashton and his father appeared on Fox Business, and people began following not just the service but the young entrepreneur behind it.
Jonathan said the family never expected the response.
“We did not expect it to blow up the way it did. We did not get the support that we’ve been getting,” he told CP24. “I mean, Ashton’s been honoured by what happened and people are also paying it forward.”
And some of that support created an opportunity Ashton could use for something beyond himself.
The business began giving back
Some supporters donated money to the business, allowing Ashton to begin offering free services to seniors and people with disabilities.
It is a striking turn in the story.
The boy who started out because he wanted to earn money was now being given the chance to use his growing business to help people in his community.
And the attention kept producing unexpected developments.
The family was maintaining a list of existing and prospective customers that had grown to about three pages. People were even asking about merchandise.
“People are asking to buy merch from Ashton, so apparently now I have to start packing up T-shirts while I’m driving around,” Jonathan joked.
But Ashton isn't planning to let the attention become the end goal.
He is already thinking about what comes next.
He is building a business for every season
Garbage-bin cleaning may have been the starting point, but Ashton wants the business to continue throughout the year.
“In fall, I’m going to do leaf raking and blowing, and then the winter, I’m gonna get a power broom — I’m gonna save up for one — and I’ll use that power broom and I’ll mow — shovel — the driveways,” Ashton explained. “Then in the spring I can do garden cleaning and lawn mowing.”
His father is already teaching him how to use a lawnmower safely so he'll be ready when the season arrives.
There is something telling about that plan.
Ashton isn't thinking only about what he can sell today.
He's thinking about what people will need tomorrow.
That's an entrepreneurial lesson many adults spend years learning.
His father sees something bigger than a business
For Jonathan, the most important outcome may have nothing to do with the number of customers Ashton has acquired.
He sees his son learning how to approach people, deal with rejection, manage his time and develop the kind of work ethic that could follow him into adulthood.
“It’s great. I know it’s going to set him for future success, especially dealing with people in his personal life and professional life,” Jonathan told CP24. “That’s going to go far, but generating that good work ethic early will lead to a lot of success.”
And perhaps that's the most valuable thing Ashton has earned.
Not the $10 payments.
Not the followers.
Not even the growing customer list.
It is the confidence that came after the fear.
The first door taught him that rejection hurts. The next doors taught him that rejection doesn't have to decide what happens next.
For a young entrepreneur, that may be one of the most valuable lessons he could learn: Success doesn't always begin when someone says yes. Sometimes it begins when you decide that one person's “no” isn't going to stop you from trying the next door.
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