Andrew Klein started cleaning grills in the North Shore community as a side hustle.
Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead hired him regularly to scour grills when he was in high school — a job that paid alright, but ultimately not that much. In the meantime, his older brother Jackson was cleaning grills around St. John’s University in Queens, New York.
Worn out from scraping club grills, the younger Klein, a rising sophomore at Ohio State, decided to become his own boss. He is now CEO and President of his company, Barnyard Grill Cleaning, which serves Swampscott and Marblehead full-time in the summer.
When Klein talks, he projects masses of confidence. That sort of pragmatic facility comes as naturally to him as breathing without disturbing a thing. I guess you would expect the head of a well-wired business to stand firm on his own two feet. No shocker there.
“I wanted to be my own boss. You get more experience when you’re the one running it, you know? I’m not saying I’m Michael Jordan yet…” he said. You can practically hear the wheels grinding as he thinks — he is stacking ideas up in his mind like a new set of Kaplas.
He explained his process. “If something doesn’t work, how can I address it in a different way? What is the solution that’s worked in the past? There’s patterns to all of it.”
Klein chose finance as his major at Ohio State, with a minor in entrepreneurship — the kind of practical stuff he’s already been doing in his hometown.
But why Ohio after growing up on the North Shore?
“I’m a big Patriots fan and a big Boston sports fan. Obviously nothing’s like going to an Ohio State football game, where it’s all rowdy,” Klein pondered. “Great times.”
Sports references come easy to him as well. He has played lacrosse his whole life, and is surrounded by college athletes — up to the ranks of his company. The guys working with him play lacrosse in a range of schools, including Colby College, University of Michigan, Loyola University, and Kenyon College.
Now in its second year of business, Barnyard Grill Cleaning offers affordable outdoor cleaning services to residents along the North Shore.
“I was like, ‘Okay, let’s put down an affordable price,’ kind of tampered with sales last year, and that worked really well around the Fourth of July,” Klein explained.
So, what started out with just grill cleaning quickly became a full-time exterior cleaning business, with prices under market averages. And as news of the Republic Services trash workers strike began to spread at the beginning of July in the community, especially around the Fourth of July, Klein and his team identified the need for an alternative trash removal service.
“I’m a pretty patriotic person. July 4 is the most patriotic day in the United States. Who wants a big dirty Fourth of July along the shore? Nobody wants that, obviously,” he said.
So Barnyard Cleaning advertised on Facebook: “Looking for help regarding garbage during the strike in Marblehead / Swampscott?”
Commenters hailed Klein’s smarts and requested service ASAP in their homes. Klein started looking up how much people were pricing trash pickup services. Big companies were at $20 a barrel.
Andrew exploded: “$20 a barrel is criminal! That’s a normal load of trash. It is about $60. People can’t afford it.”
Barnyard Cleaning decided to charge $15 every two barrels — a price almost three times lower than competitors.
On the first day of the strike, they had about 30 barrels to pick up. The next day, it was 50. Klein got a call from one of his co-workers, out on the job, picking up barrels from residents having reserved a passage from the company.
“The town is overflowing,” he recalled his teammate telling him over the phone. In those times, Klein said he barely made any money. If he did, he’d rather award it to his teammates doing the dirty work.
“The guys who do the actual trash deserve an impeccable amount more praise,” Klein assured. Now, as demand piles up for Barnyard Cleaning services, the cost for two barrels starts at $23 — still under official market prices.
After last year’s smaller clientele, business is booming this summer. The team answers residents’ calls, boarding their cars and pickups to do the rounds, cleaning the community.
Klein is very vocal about his gratitude for having grown up in a well-off family. “Genuinely, I go around cleaning people’s patios,” Klein said. “I’m in a fraternity, do I deserve it?”
He said 10% of the summer’s proceeds will be donated to a veteran’s charity. At some point after college, he’d like to work in a field affiliated with the military.
“Giving back is definitely the biggest thing for me,” Klein said. “There are people who deserve it more than I do.”
